Creating Memories

We made a quick trip to Oklahoma to visit Ryan and Natalie this past week. We had a great time and packed a lot into three days.

Natalie ran the Half Marathon in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon on Sunday morning. She did an awesome job and ran a 2.04.09! Great job Natalie! You can see a short slide show of Natalie running the marathon here. She was the cutest runner on the course! I'm sure you would agree!

The marathon ended near the Oklahoma City National Memorial. This was my first visit to the Memorial and it was a powerful experience. 168 children and adults lost their lives on April 19, 1995 when the Alfred P. Murrah building was bombed. You can see a short slide show of the Memorial here. I encourage you to view the virtual tour here even if you have seen the Memorial. Hans and Torrey Butzer, the Memorial designers, explain the symbolism and meaning of the Memorial. Very powerful.

On Thursday we toured and explored Bricktown, the older section of Oklahoma City. The stream running through the area, outside shops, benches, public spaces and recreational venues make this a fun place to explore. We can only hope that Cedar Rapids is able to do something similar along the Cedar River in the future. You can see a slide show of Bricktown here.

And no trip would be complete with a baseball game! We got to see the Oklahoma City RedHawks play the Omaha Royals. The game was so-so, but we had a lot of fun. Will and Ginny Davis, Natalie's parents, joined us for the game and we enjoyed a good cup of Starbucks and dish of Cold Stone ice cream after the game.

It was quite a trip! We put some miles on the van, walked a ton, and laughed a lot! All part of creating memories!