Almost three weeks ago now (WOW, time has flown by) Blaine and I welcomed our first visitors! My cousin Kari and her husband Ben drove down from Nebraska. When Blaine and I went to his Creighton interview last year, we stayed at their house as their first visitors, so it was fun to have them come stay with us this time!
When we were growing up, Kari would come and visit me in Miami or we'd go to Salt Lake for the summer or Christmas and we would always love playing together. We also had a lot of matching clothes, including a burnt yellow floral button-down shirt that I vaguely remember. We would steal our aunt's guitar, try to play it while wearing our country shirts and call ourselves "country cousins."And now we both really do live in the country!
It's about a 7 hour drive from Columbus, Nebraska to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, so they left first thing Friday morning and arrived that afternoon as soon as I got home from school. We had some nice fall chicken chili and drove out to McLoud for the football game. It was a close game, but we won, which was a big victory. My pom squad also did a special "Thriller" halftime performance with the band, even though it was technically November 1. (Meanwhile, Blaine was driving an hour and a half in the opposite direction to pick up Jake for the first time!)
As soon as we got home, we played with Jake and it was weird and funny how giddy I was. Kari is not a lover of dogs (just like I was), but let me tell you, Jake was growing on her pretty early on. Me and her made my favorite caramel brownies while the boys ran to Taco Bell and Walmart. Actually, I made the brownies while Jake played with Kari's feet until she finally gave in and let him sleep on her lap.
Saturday was our only full day, so we packed as much fun into it as possible. First we woke up early and went to the temple. It was the biggest session I had been to since we moved here, and Kari and Ben even ran into some people that they know from Nebraska. Small world, huh.
On the way home, we ran a couple of quick errands to places that they don't have in their small town of Columbus. For example, Kari turned me on to Hobby Lobby. New favorite store. Then we went home, had some lunch, changed our clothes, and went to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Blaine and I had been looking forward to this museum ever since we moved here. We all really enjoyed it, but I'll let the pictures do the talking.
(thats where Blaine's tribe is from!)
(those things that look like shells are elk teeth)
Saturday night we went downtown to Bricktown and walked around a little and got some BBQ. We were sitting at a table in the corner with glass walls around us. All of a sudden, I felt like someone was watching me, so I turned to the right and saw someone in a halloween mask staring at me, so I kind of screamed a little, but laughed and moved on. Then a couple minutes later, the exact same thing happened to Kari and she screamed even louder! It was a fun night.
After dinner we went over to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial Site. We had been there once during the day, but at night it was a really cool experience as well. There are big and little chairs representing the adults and children that were killed and what floor they were on, and at night time they are all lit up. There is also the Survivor Tree, which lived through the blast.
Unfortunately, they had to leave Sunday morning. Family visits are never long enough! We were SO happy that they came and we're hoping to take our turn to make the drive to them in January.
I'd have to say that one of the funniest memories of the trip, though, was when I took this picture and jokingly added the caption: "100 likes and the Spicers get a dog!" In only a matter of hours, the Spicers had many more than 100 likes on facebook and instagram. Ben's family even called because they were so excited to meet their new puppy!!! HAHAHAHAHA. Maybe one day. Jake has definitely nestled his way into Kari's heart.
