okc

i have been visiting oklahoma city for the several years since my sister has lived there and each time i go i love it a little bit more. besides loving it because anna lives there, this is a hip, fun city that has a great downtown, a fun music scene, and many beautiful neighborhoods with old, character-filled houses. this weekend, my parents and i met there to hang out with anna. we had breakfast at pop's restaurant, an gas station on route 66 that has hundreds of flavors of soda. this is us in front of the largest soda ever....i bet if it was filled with diet coke or ice cold beer, i could take it down.

we walked around the oklahoma city bombing memorial. the 16th anniversary of the bombing just passed on april 19th. amazing it has been that long.

this is one of the most beautiful memorials i have ever seen and each time i go i find out more touching info about the symbolism. the photo above is one of the 2 massive structures at each end of the reflecting pool. they are the "gates of time" that represent 9:01, the time of innocence before, and 9:03, the time when lives in okc were changed forever.

all lives lost by the tragedy are commemorated with a chair bearing the name of the person who's life was lost (168 total, 19 children). the chairs are positioned in rows according to to floor of the building that the person was one when the blast occurred.

this tree (which is way larger than my picture depicts) was across the street from the building and survived, thus the name "the survivor tree". the wall and engraving around the tree express a gratitude to those who responded and volunteered in the crisis.

mom, dad, anna, and i had a yummy easter brunch at the national cowboy and western heritage museum. amazing art and sculptures like the ones above and below.

i love this. it is amazingly massive and beautiful. it was rescued after being cut into pieces and discarded.randomly, my sister recently found the other half of my birthday gift from a couple of years ago that she forgot to give me. isn't this scarf beautiful?!

lastly and most important though....my dad and i left with a lead in the year long 42 tournament that we compete in against mom and anna. we left okc with a 5-4 lead for 2011. this is our third year and dad and i have yet to set the domino trophies on our mantels. maybe this is our year!