Annual Visits to the Dust Bowl

Pictures:

Top Left: Grammie (my mom) with McKenna

Top Right: Jenna (my oldest niece) with Christie (my sister)

Bottom Left: Papaw (my dad) with Kendyll (my youngest niece)

Bottom Right: Kendyll, Jenna, and McKenna building a tent in the livingroom.

With the exception of last summer, it has become an annual tradition for my sister, her kids, and my mom and dad to visit us here in Oklahoma. School is out, work schedules are a bit more relaxed, and the river acts as a great way to cool down. I'm not sure that I would get these annual visitors if I were living in Missouri or in Illinois. There's just something a little daring, a little adventurous about driving through the rolling hills of Rolla and down the curvy roads of highway 10. Seven hours later (or eleven for my sister's family) they arrive road-weary in our driveway . . . with anxious hosts to meet them. They have arrived to podunk, Oklahoma, a place where the tumbleweeds do occassionally roll and where you can occassionally find a cowboy who clanks his spurs as he walks. We are always glad to have them! (my family, not the cowboys).