Well, as you may have notated from my last blog posts, we recently went on a little mini-vacation to Oklahoma. Before Novella was born we went on a baby-moon, since this one included Novella on the trip, we are calling it our little “family-moon”, one last vacation as a family of three! In November we went on a trip to SC and NC to see Ryans family, and I really wanted to make a trip to see my family as well if time and pregnancy, ohhh and the Coast Guard 😉 permitted…well as it turns out everything fell into place and we were able to go in February to see my parents, and other extended family as well. It was such a special trip, as is any trip to see family.

The three of us drove to Oklahoma, it is about a 15 hour drive, so we split it up over a day and a half and stayed overnight in a motel. We took Aila with us as well. Both the dog and Novella did great in the car! We arrived on Saturday, February 13th. It was pretty much non-stop fun things going on. From going into the town of Ada for lunch, and outings a couple of days. Seeing family members, playing games, hiking around outside on some of the 200+ acres they currently reside on, picking up pecans, playing games, watching movies, watching the land keeper till a garden space for my parents, going on a date, getting some time without Novella, enjoying capri pants and tshirts! All in all it was an absolutely wonderful time. The best part of it was getting to watch Novella enjoy her time with her Gran Jan, Opa and her Great Grandmother. The bond that was built over the week we were there was something irreplaceable.

In the mornings Novella would wake up, get out of bed without us, and then proceed to go out and find her GranJan to sit and have hot tea with before momma woke up. She got her own special cup, with hot tea, sugar and almond milk. Ryan took Novella on little outings around the land to sit by the pond and “talk”, pick pecans and just bond together, so I could get a break. She showed off her skills of doing her puzzles, dancing, caring for her baby dolls, and I seriously think she learned another 100 words over the week. Ryan and my dad got to go out and shoot several of my dads guns, which of course Ryan thoroughly enjoyed, and my dad enjoyed having someone to share that time with. When Novella gets a little bigger my dad plans to take her fishing!

We decided to stay an extra day, and then we ended up doing the drive home in one day. It was a long day, but we made it home safe, and had some time to rest the next day before Ryan had to go back to work. I could probably write a much longer blog detailing all of our trip, but there is ultimately just TOO much to share. So we will let the photos paint a picture for you! 🙂