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Click the link above to see the whole album. There are tons of photos in here so it’s just for the die hard fans

On our way to China Heritage Camp in Tulsa we stopped in Pauls Valley, OK to take the girls to the Toy & Action Figure Museum. Mike had taken Nadia last year when I was in Pauls Valley for a World Vision meeting and Nadia wasn’t hooked on Batman yet so we thought it would be a great stop and fun surprise for her.  The back room is made up like a Bat Cave and they have every imaginable Batman thing ever created. We spent a lot of time in there just looking at all the items. I had a pocket full of quarters, but unfortunately the Batmobile wasn’t working so the girls just played like they were driving.

A really cool feature of the place is the Adult Collectors Bedroom Diorama. The attention to detail on this display was amazing. Mike got photos of almost everything and some of the toys were fun reminders of toys we had as kids.

The girls in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Jeep.

Amelie as a Transformer.

The place has a bunch of different displays and at the end there is a play area for the kids. They have costumes and all kinds of toys. All in all it’s a neat little place and the staff was very friendly.

Mike and the girls – my favorite photo of the day.

In between our road trips when we couldn’t get in our house due to no water, no A/C and the jet engine blowers we stayed at the Residence Inn down in the cultural district. We thought it was really nice and the staff was very helpful. One night they had a manager’s reception and the front desk girl said, “We will have a band and ravioli and salad with beverages.” I had cooked lunch in the room so that seemed like a fine idea to me. Here was the “band”.

Nadia really got a kick out of the guy and when he said he was done we asked for 1 more song. He asked what and I said Nadia would like to hear the Beatles “Come Together” I could tell that she was excited, but she really just watched him intently through the whole thing. I have heard about it many times since then, “Remember when that guy played me the Beatles song? That was cool.” My friend Kathy and her girls were in town for a doctors visit and at a hotel near us so we invited them over to the hotel to visit for a while.

Amelie trying to make her escape. The look on Nadia’s face is great.

While we were out of the room the maid cleaned up and even arranged Nadia’s toys which she got a kick out of. It reminded me of the staff at Disney.

Our last morning at the beach was really peaceful. Mike tried to teach Nadia to fly a kite, but she kept going the wrong direction and then wasn’t really into it. I think she liked the “idea” of flying a kite, but not the actually doing at her age. Amelie went back to her favorite thing; chasing the birds.

If you look closely you can see the kite up on the left.

The girls spent a good amount of time on the beach with their 2nd cousins and they found all kinds of cool critters like crabs, clams, jellyfish and even a tiny hermit crab.

Kim got some great photos of all the kids in the morning.

That night we went to eat at a place called “Sticky Fingers” and as you might guess they served some delicious ribs and other food. We got a kick out of the napkins being as big as dish towels and we our order of Banana Pudding was as big as Amelie’s head! It was a very nice last day and after dinner we headed home to start packing to prepare for our long drive back to Texas!

Fun photo, huh?

It was days like this that I wondered what we did before we had so much technology? Since I had my Blackberry attached to my hip we headed down to the beach so the girls could play and I could still coordinate all the people and teams going in and out of our house to deal with the flood.  What a blessing our friends and family were on this day so the girls could continue having beach fun!

Amelie would have chased the birds until she turned 3 if we let her. In that toddler mind she was just sure she could grab one!

Amelie and I collected shells while Nadia did a lot of digging. Amelie was proud of herself for finding shells, but she would scream sometimes if she accidentally picked up anything that looked like a bug.

Mike played with the settings on the camera while we wandered around.

Cute girls!

For dinner we decided to try a place we drove past constantly called “Kings Famous Pizza”

The place was PACKED OUT and the servers were running every direction taking care of their tables. It smelled awesome when we walked in and we loved the food. We split garlic bread, mozzarella sticks and a pizza – then we took our desserts to go. Here are the girls after dinner in their new Batman Shirts.