Mid-West Driving Tour Kick-off

Greetings friends and family,

The 4 Webbs arrived home from Disneyland for 48 hours to rest and repack.  During our short stay at the Casa de Webb we slept comfortably in our own beds, swam, and allowed a band who performed at our church to stay the night with us.  they needed a place to crash and our house is close to the church so it made sense to have them stop by for a long nap between arriving in town and performing the next morning.  We are happy to host and be useful.  Repacked and ready for a whirlwind tour, we headed to the airport the beginning on our next adventure.

Kendra bought a travel game of magnetic checkers.  The twins are old enough to start learning some basic games of skill.  I laid on the airport floor with Easton on one side and Layla on the other.  I explained the rules and we started to play.  They captured a few of the opponent's checkers and all was well until Easton went up by two.  Layla couldn't handle being behind even though there was a lot to go in the game.  She just quit and walked away!

That may have been a teachable moment, but Layla was in no way teachable.  I jumped in and finished the game with Easton.  He caught on quickly and won the game with a little help from my convenient positioning of pieces.

In the three-seat configuration I sat with the twins and Kendra sat in front of us.  The flight was only a couple of hours so it wasn't overwhelming for them.  The tornado that destroyed parts of Moore Oklahoma did its destruction while we were in the air flying towards it!  Fortunately by the time our plane touched down in OKC the weather was already calm and partly cloudy.  We hit a little turbulence on approach.  Easton recognized the plane was descending.  He excitedly screamed, "We're going down! we're going down!"  The rear third of the plane heard him and many giggled at his untimely comments.  His excitement for flying was enjoyable to experience.  Layla was in good spirits, but just wanted to get there... quickly.

My aunt's house was blown apart by a tornado two years ago.  The damage led to an entire remodel of the house, but the structure survived.  Anyway, as we were flying to visit her she stood in this location on her porch and watched the deadly Moore tornado form over her head.  It touched down in the tree line on the horizon behind us.

None of us were scared, but watching the local, live coverage was disheartening because of the damage done.  The highways were closed due to the cars strewn across the tornado path so he took side streets to her house.  That's a little too close for comfort, but we managed.

The Oklahoma weather did what it always does:  it changed.  Within a few hours we were taking walks through Aunt Mary's neighborhood and enjoying the day.

She gave the twins a bag of gifts when we arrived.  Among the treasures for Easton was two bags of army men.  Like the ones in Toy Story.  I taught Easton how to play one on one with the army men and a couple of marbles.  He loved playing this new game.  He figured out after the first game that setting his men up in a single file line made it more difficult to knock them down.  In an attempt to help me out, he explained how setting up the army men the way he did makes it harder to knock them down.  He's a smart boy, for sure.

Aunt Mary also gave them dinosaur hats.  They wore them around the house and outside as we went for a walk to Sonic for a cherry limeade.

The twins found a June bug struggling on his back so we had a little scientific research moment where I explained what these little flying beetles are.  Hearing the two of them jointly deciding the fate of this little guy was humorous.  does he live? die under a shoe? get flight lessons from a sling? They decided to let him live.  Long live Easton and Layla the Merciful!

The twins soaked up few hours of cousin time.  Abby, Lauren, and John were welcoming to the twins as we took over their granny's house.  They played well together and earned an hour of swim time in the hot tub.

From Aunt Mary's house we began our driving tour of the mid-west.  We left her house and ten minutes down the road we passed the path of the recent Shawnee tornado.  This was one of the most visible affected areas from the highway.  along the path we could see buildings still on fire, forest area blown down like a stack of toothpicks, and debris scattered for miles.  

We crossed over the Missouri border with very little fanfare.  We stopped at the year-around fireworks store and bought two bags of real fireworks, unlike the sparklers and fountains they sell in California. I can't wait to set these off and see some real explosions.

The short drive to Ma and Pa's house was uneventful.  The timing of our trip is no coincidence.  I hoped for some days of thunderstorms and some of perfect, sunny days.  so far so good!  Their backyard is a kid paradise with swing set, treehouse, and grass to play.  Sure is nice to send the kids out back and not worry about what trouble they might get into.

Easton and Layla expressed how much they missed Nana and Papa.  They quickly acclimated to being with them, considering it's been over a year since we've seen them.  The twins jumped right into the grandchildren role receiving special treats, extra hugs, and reading time of new books.

As we approach Memorial Day weekend we're planning loads of family time and a chance to relax. After a trip to Branson...  Oh boy, do I have some stories!

See you soon!