Weekend in OKC

Retreat weekends away from the business of life are just so good. I planned Marc's birthday weekend in Oklahoma City this year and we had the best time. It was planned as a surprise, but I was pretty sure as the days were approaching that Marc knew where we were going and what we were going to do there.

So, when we hopped in the car on Saturday I asked Marc where he thought we were going. He of course said Oklahoma City and that he thought we were going to see the Thunder play (he had told me a few months ago that this was something he wanted to do, but I still thought I could surprise him). Since I was expecting that to be his response I had set the TomTom for Tulsa, OK (because that was the direction we needed to head anyways) and then showed Marc. He looked a little shocked at first but said he didn't care where we went or what we did, he just was excited to spend some time with me (good answer!). Once we were half-way I let him open my parents' card to him and the tickets to the Thunder/Lakers game were inside. Surprise! So, we just continued to head down I-35 to Oklahoma City. :)

We stayed in the Bricktown area which was so much fun. I had never been to Oklahoma City before but there was a lot to see and do. We went to Toby Keith's "I love this Bar and Grill" on Saturday night and enjoyed some cheesy fries and burgers. Mmmm.

We were going to hit up the Melting Pot after dinner for some fondue dessert but were so stuffed that we decided to get some Starbuck's hot chocolate instead. Then, we went to see The King's Speech. Have you seen it yet? It was really great. I thought the acting was so well done by everyone involved.

Our past few weeks of sleep ever since Eli was sick have been quite rough. Hailey went from sleeping through the night to waking every 3-4 hours and either needing her pacifier or wanting to eat, and Marc's pager has been going off all through the night. So, even though this weekend was full of fun events we were also hoping to get in some much needed R & R. After the movie we headed back to the hotel around 11 pm to get what we thought would be a fabulous and restful night of sleep. However, at 2 am I was awakened by a noisy crowd in the hall. After listening to these high school and college kids conversing at full volume for well over half an hour, I called the front desk to see if someone could kindly escort them back to their room.  We were then awakened at 5 am by the fire alarm going off (probably triggered by the people mentioned above) and the fire department had to come and reset the system. It unfortunately took them an hour to come and reset the alarm. :) By 5:30 am I was just laying in bed laughing to myself at how we couldn't get a good night of sleep no matter what city we were in. And then I just suddenly became so thankful for our kids. God reminded me of what a blessing those little ones are to us... even when they make us lose a little sleep.

Sunday we met up for church with a medical student friend who we have a feeling is going to "match" with our program next month. It was great to see him and also fun to visit someone else's church. After church we made a quick stop by Wal-Mart to get some Thunder t-shirts and then we headed to the game.

This was the second NBA game that Marc and I have been to and they are so much fun. It was incredibly loud and there was tons of energy from the fans since this was such a big game. We had a great time and the game really went down to the last second!

It was wonderful coming home to see our kids again after a night away. I know they had a great time with their Nana and Papa and my mom somehow even managed to cook us our meals for the week which was a GREAT surprise for me. Thanks mom and dad for all your help! Marc had a great birthday weekend.