The Roby Family

For several weeks the boys have given us hints about what they want to “be” for halloween.  We have heard everything from alligators & crocodiles to robots & Spiderman.  We traveled to several stores earlier this week and after much discussion finally selected a cowboy costume for Jacob and a Thomas the Tank Engine costume for Jefferson.  Tonight we dressed them up and headed down to the Oklahoma Aquarium for their annual HallowMarine event.  The event attracts hundreds from across the area and has carnival games, inflatables and candy booths.  The boys had a wonderful time and were adorable in their costumes.

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This weekend we spent the weekend without the boys. They spent the weekend with Mimi & Poppy. We spent Friday evening with friends and had dinner with our friend Jake Sullivan at Lola’s at the Bowery. We received a great surprise when we found out that Aranda was playing at Cain’s Ballroom Friday night. After wrapping up a great dinner we walked up to Cain’s and had a great time seeing Aranda. They were awesome and we loved seeing them in such a great venue. If you have never seen Aranda here is a taste:

Saturday we pretty much relaxed. I jumped back on my bike for the first time since breaking my arm in August ’07 and rode a leisurely ten miles with no broken bones. Saturday night we went to the Mardi Gras event at the Oklahoma Aquarium.

Sunday was even more relaxed. We went to breakfast at BBD and stuffed our bellies. Guess who had what…

Following breakfast we went to the late, late service at church. Not sure exactly what to do with ourselves on a Sunday afternoon without kiddos we decided to visit the Gilcrease Museum. We received a membership to the museum last year but had never used it! We were a few weeks late to see the Ansel Adams exhibit but the American Impressionism exhibit was really cool.

I convinced Jenny to take a few snapshots at the Gilcrease. She loves those self-portraits I just can’t resist taking.

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I am lucky to serve as the Vice President of the Oklahoma Aquarium Foundation’s Board of Directors.  This weekend the Foundation hosted our largest fundraiser, Mardi Gras at the Oklahoma Aquarium.  MidFirst is kind enough to serve as a sponsor of the event in honor of my service to the Foundation.  The sponsorship allows Jenny & I to attend along with a group of guests.  This year we attended with a prospective client, his spouse, a business acquaintance of mine, his spouse and my colleague Chris Cardoni & his wife Meg (check our their family blog here).  Our guests left early so it provided us bank employees time to let it loose in the casino.  By bank employees I mean Jenny & Meg.

Chris & I donated our chips for the ladies use and they won all kinds of stuffed animals for their boys.  We didn’t get a lot of pics during the evening, but here are a few.  You get the idea.

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After church, lunch and naps we headed on a little trip to the Maple Ridge neighborhood and their wonderful Maple Park. Our friends the White’s are in the middle of remodeling a home in the neighborhood so we stopped by to see the progress.

After getting a tour of the project we drove over to Maple Park and had a great time climbing, sliding & swinging. We also practiced for our upcoming photo shoot with Bryce. I took 116 flicks and about five to ten came out pretty well. A few are below:

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If you want prints let me know and I will arrange.

This year we took a laid back approach to Halloween. I carved a pumpkin with the boys on Thursday night. Then Friday night we visited HallowMarine at the Oklahoma Aquarium. Jacob dressed up as an elephant and Jefferson was a monkey. We had a hard time getting good pictures, but here is the best we could get:

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We made our monthly (it seems like it anyway) trip to Jenks to visit the Aquarium today.  I really don’t know how Jacob remembers the names of all the fish and where their tanks are.  I can’t tell you much of anything about any of the fish so he obviously gets it from Jenny.  Divers were in the coral reef tank today cleaning, Jacob was scared at first but then wanted to go clean the tank with the divers.  I guess I need to start saving for his graduate degree in Aquatic Habitat Engineering & Janitorial Servicing.

Of course the Aquarium was a great time and the boys didn’t want to leave.  

Unfortunately the Aquarium is a tough place to take pictures so the flicks are a little rough (as usual).  Compounding the lack of light was the fact the lens had a big smudge on it which I didn’t discover until I uploaded the pictures to the MacBook.

 

Enjoy!

Papa Roby took advantage of the long weekend and visited us this weekend. We met at Life Church and heard a great sermon from our campus pastor Chris Johnson.

After church papa took us to lunch at Los Cabos at Riverwalk. Luckily, we went to the early service at church and were leaving just as the big crowds were filing in.

After stuffing ourselves with chips and salsa we hopped over to the Oklahoma Aquarium and had a great time. It was packed with people from all over the region, but that actually made it kind of fun. Jacob loved showing papa all the fish (especially the jellies) and the new Ozark stream exhibit. Jeffer enjoyed sitting in the stroller half asleep and pulling his shoes off.

Here are some pictures from our visit:

By the way, the lighting in the aquarium is horrible for picture taking. But, as Jenny so eloquently reminded me the lighting is for the fish not my camera.