to the moon and back: FALL....my favorite!!!

I LOVE Thanksgiving! I just love the fall weather and season as a whole, so Thanksgiving just has a special place in my heart! We ventured to Illinois this year (we alternate years between our families), and we had quite an adventure! We drove through St. Louis so that we could take a break about half-way through our trip and visit the AMAZING St. Louis zoo. This has got to be the most beautiful zoo we've ever seen! The exhibits were spectacular and the animals were up close and right up in your face! We could have reached out and touched a giraffe at one point! There were tons of animals in each area too. We are used to the Tulsa zoo where you can spot A bear, one, if you are lucky and are there at just the right time...feeding time. The exhibits were beautiful with giant waterfalls, huge rocks and awesome foliage!!! The grounds there are vast with lots of land. It seems like we walked a lot for the portion of the zoo we saw, but the views were spectacular...lakes, pretty leaves, cool old buildings, bridges and statues. It reminded me of the Philbrook Museum and grounds, if you are familiar. Jude and Rhett had a blast and were thankful to be able to stretch their legs and run around a bit. Rhett would spot an animal and just point and jibber jabber emphatically...so cute! We also all took a spin on the carousel where I may or may not have gotten in trouble for riding the wrong way:). The best part about this zoo is that it's FREE!!! 100% free admission all the time. The carousel and train are even free for the first few hours in the morning. What a great deal! It was a fantastic stopping point and experience for the whole family!

When we finally made it to IL we had a great time with family. It was wonderful to see my grandparents, and I always love for them to be able to experience my boys! Unfortunately I got ill our second night there and it was just a domino effect after that...me, then Dallas, then Rhett and Jude in the car on the way back to Tulsa. Throwing up and the whole deal! My dad, sister and niece also caught the bug! Sorry everyone!

Turkey Mountain...

We LOVE to hike Turkey mountain here in Tulsa. We've made it a Martin tradition to hike it in the fall when the trees are pretty! We tried to go on what I considered the peak of prettiness a few Fridays ago, but we were interrupted by pesky rain showers that ended up taking down a lot of the colorful leaves I was pining after pictures of! So, we made the best of it and drove around and looked at all the color instead...it sure was gorgeous for Tulsa this year! We hiked the next day and had a blast. Jude is a such a fun age for hiking and climbing...such a boy! Don't you just love a good tradition!

In other news...

Jude tied for the first time the other day...woohoo!

Rhett got is first haircut a few weeks ago and is looking pretty handsome with his big boy haircut! Thank goodness the mullet is outta here!

Rhett is super lovey these days...he loves to snuggle and give lots of hugs unprompted. He will just run up to us and hug as tight as he can. When he was younger I would be holding him and he would swing his body around and look at my face and get the biggest smile. He just wanted to look us in the eye and let us know he loves us! He's my lovey boy!

Rhett has almost 4 teeth now, two on bottom and two on top!!! The 4th (upper) is just poking through, so we should have a full tooth in a few weeks, folks!

Rhett weighed 20 lbs at his last dr. visit and was in the 10-11th % for his weight and the 87th for his height. Tall and thin...that's how we make em!