You're doin' fine Oklahoma, OK!

When I knew that Jake and BrieAnn were going to move back to Oklahoma while I was still going to be in Austin, I had a secret wish that we would find some reason to get to go and visit them before I left, but I didn't want to say anything until Mhari brought it up first! As soon as she suggested the plan I informed her that I would love to do it and I really wanted to! Not only do I love Jake and BrieAnn and Cora, they also had a brand new baby that I had yet to meet and I couldn't wait to get to meet her especially since I don't know when I will get to see them again since Oklahoma isn't exactly close to Utah, nor do I have money to get over there to see them...So needless to say I was very supportive of the plan to go to visit! We left Friday morning and got there early that evening and had a lovely dinner and visit with the Johnsons! Saturday we hung out for a while then we went and checked out a cool antique store...basically it was huge and I could have spend hours and hours looking through all of the stuff there! After that we got some lunch and then we went over to OCU where Jake gave us a tour of the music school (including pointing out a picture of Kristin Chenoweth and sharing some other exciting facts) Then after showing us where he would be teaching and where he would be playing we just happened to walk by Florence Birdwell's new studio (she was Kristin Chenoweth's voice teacher when she attended OCU) and she just happened to be there!! So Jake kindly introduced us, luckily not as an adoring fan of one of her greatest if not her greatest students, but just as his cousin! It was amazing, I think the only thing that could have made that tour better is if Kristin herself had shown up!!

Later that afternoon/evening, we headed to Bricktown for some delicious Mexican food, followed by a trip to the Oklahoma City Memorial. The Memorial was incredibly inspiring (and sad) and I'm so glad that we got to go see it.

We followed the Memorial with a trip to Braum's for some ice cream which was delicious!! I was so excited to get to try it because I've heard so much about how good it is...and it was quite worth it!!

After Braum's we went back to Jake and BrieAnn's, Cora was very insistent that she and baby Andrew had to take a bath together so we gave them a bath and got them in to bed and then we sat and talked, watched Youtube videos of amazing musical performances, talked some more, and then headed to bed.

One of the best things about the whole trip was getting to meet this little one! I was so happy to get to sit and hold her for as long as anyone would let me!

Another fun part of this trip was getting to see Cora and Andrew interact. BrieAnn has always been like a fifth big sister to me so I kind of think of her girls as my nieces so it was fun to see these two cousins already so excited to be together and having so much fun together! And they did have so much fun together!! Cora was so excited for baby Andrew to come (she got to meet him before I did) and she just loved having him there, and even though he can't talk like she can, I'm pretty sure he loved his cousin too! (well both of them because I'm sure he loved baby Maggie too)