Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend, Labor Day weekend, we headed up to Southeastern Oklahoma to spend some time with family. We stayed at my sister's dad's house.. awkward right? Any who, her dad and step mom were really nice to us. We spent the first afternoon there driving around Wright City, where I used to live as a little girl. Surprisingly I remembered how to get to my grandma's house! The last time I was there, was when I was about 6, maybe 7 years old. The house is all run down, and the yard is completely grown over. The old red house that we were all terrified of as kids is still standing behind her house as well, it's barely visible.. if someone didn't know it was there, they would never see it. I have so many memories from my grandma's house, it was bittersweet being there.

We also drove into town, I didn't remember the street name I had lived in, but based off my memory I was able to get to the street. The house we lived in is gone. Supposedly torn down years ago. It is just an empty lot now, as is, my Auntie Norma's & my old friend Cheyenne's. All three houses that I spent many hours at, all gone. I am not sure what happened to Cheyenne's house, but my Aunt Norma's burned down.. The old school I went to was still there and looked just as I remembered, except that it was much smaller than I remembered! We drove by what used to be BJ's, I can remember that it was an old, place with a musty(?) smell. I can remember always getting gum there. Or maybe it was one glorious time that my mom let me get gum? Who knows, that was over 20 years ago! The sno cone shop is still there too! I had wanted to stop in, unfortunately they were already closed for the day though. ... We drove past a park, that I had forgotten was there at the entrance to the town, the creepy thing, is that park has been the setting of many of my dreams over the past several years, yet I have no memory of ever playing there! So weird!

After taking our trip down memory lane, we headed out to my where my sister lives. Spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with her and her nephews, catching up and playing cards, and wondering where on earth my brother was (because he was supposed to have been there hours ago & my SIL was not responding to texts... that's not nice by the way Lisa.)

Sunday Morning, we got dressed to take a few family pictures, I guess I chose the wrong time of the morning though, Kolton was unhappy, ready for a nap, it was hot & humid. I like the photos we got, but they could have been so much better had I planned ahead of time. After that we headed out to Broken Bow to meet up with my cousins, Leah and Christi! I was so excited to see them, and Leah gave me a ton of old photos to keep, some were of my mama when she was a little girl! We got so caught up in conversation, that I completely forgot to take some photos. Which I am still kicking myself over! We headed back to Stephanie's house and started the waiting game for my sister Teri to arrive and Chris and Lisa to arrive. Teri got there first, finally I was ready to give up waiting on my brother. I had really wanted to go out to the lake and if was getting late enough that we were not going to be able to go, we were all just about to head out the door, when they FINALLY arrived! So we all headed out to the lake, where my brother's 1/2 brother(no relation to me) was camping. It was pretty funny trying to explain the family dynamics, we can all thank my mama for that one. I forget that 4 of my siblings actually have other siblings. We spent the rest of the day at the lake and then headed back to Steph's house. By this point in the day, I was so tired, that I actually can barely remember the rest of the evening.

Monday morning, we all headed out to "The Falls" (that is what my sister called it, I have no idea if that is the real name to the place we went) We spent a short time there, playing in the water and taking photos. I really wish we could have spent more time there, because I absolutely loved that spot. But, we needed to get back on the road, we went back to the house, said our good bye's, stopped at the police station where my niece works to say bye to her. We also went out to see my grandma's grave. Kolton had been asleep, but he started smiling and woke up giggling.. I swear my grandma was there saying hello to her great grandson.  It was actually the first time I had ever been there.

Being in Oklahoma gave me a sense of "being home" which is odd, because I have never really lived any one place very long. My mama's roots run strong in those parts, so I guess I have roots there too. I actually can't wait to go back!! (& my mama probably just rolled in her grave haha)

xoxo

Jamie