Getting ready for Trick-or-Treating, so Charlie is in the living room bossing his dad around. I'm taking advantage of this little down time to post some hauntingly precious images of the spooky little dinosaur. Happy Halloween, y'all!

Pretty scary sounds from the young man in a low-cut dinosaur suit.

Whipped cream? Me? Absolutely not. Why? Are you missing some?

En route to a SE Oklahoma tent revival. (Or so we promised. Sucker!) I'd never considered the similarities between gospel music and that of Van Morrison until this video was taken. Leave it to Reverend Charles to show us the light. Amen!

And more Van Morrison. This time, we're waiting for the beat to drop...aaand.....shoulders!

OK - enough with the videos for now. Here are a few silly stills and then I'm outta here. I'll post some trick-or-treat pics/vids tomorrow. As I understand it, there are some neighborhood poodles serving up some chili...and Andy had chili for lunch today. Two servings of chili in one day? That's super scary.

By the way, this last shot is included only for it's weirdness. First person to guess where or in what context it was taken gets a blog entry dedicated solely to their awesomeness.

Happy Halloween

Tomorrow is Halloween. Not having been much of a Halloween family until Charlie, we actually had to do some digging to find out what day Trick-or-Treating takes place around here. Turns out it's tomorrow. On Halloween. But look what else we dug up in the process: a big green and red, guitar-pickin' dinosaur!

I've really gotta figure out how to upload video. I can already sense another request coming from Susie B. Have a happy and safe weekend, everyone!

Welcome to The Okie Toddler

I've been writing lately - actually getting paid to do it. One problem I kept running into was that every time I'd turn on my computer to try to get some work done, I'd soon be lured like a moth toward the always-burning porch light of Facebook. So recently I made the decision to cancel my account. What was the response? Well, it wasn't, "We miss you, Tracey." No, it seems that I wasn't the reason for my Facebook friendships after all.

*Sigh*.

Anyway, you asked for it, you got it: more Charlie. Welcome to the Okie Toddler. We'll see how well I keep this little blogging venture going. It's no virtual cocktail party like Facebook, but it'll definitely be at least a DWI's worth of intoxicating cuteness.

To kick it off, here are some pics from a last-minute weekend trip with friends+kids to southeastern Oklahoma. Surprisingly awesome. It included a couple nights in LBJ's room at the Kerr country home, a fall foliage drive on the Talimena Trail, totally fake "viking runes", a possibly-fake outlaw hideout, and a prison town that served up a white pizza so good, it should be illegal.

So there you go. Enjoy the pics. Some links to the places I mentioned follow the photos, if you're interested!

Charlie, Cole & Lena - probably sometime after 10pm.

Mommy & Charlie outside the resort, trying not

to be lanced by the world's sharpest succulent.

Charlie doing what he does best.

Showing daddy the unique structure of the stone.

Sunset was amazing.

And here are some links to keep things lively:

Kerr Home.

If you go, ask to stay in the Bush room or one of the "play rooms". They've been remodeled. Ours was pretty much "as is" since LBJ's last visit. In fact, I think the old band-aid we found on the floor was from his index finger. They have free breakfast, an enormous yard, and a pool for summer fun. Beautiful views of the valley from pretty much every room. (It seems the oil business has always been lucrative.) The hotel manager warned that breakfast wasn't much, but we found it to be more than enough.

http://www.carlalbert.edu/kerr_center/

Talimena Scenic Drive.

Nice, sleepy, winding drive (just ask Andy - he nodded off while in the pilot's seat) through the trees and hills with such pretty vistas that make one think a trip to Tuscany takes three hours by car heading east on I-40. Bring a picnic unless hot dogs and ice cream can sustain you. Yet another reminder that this is, in fact, Oklahoma.

http://www.talimenascenicdrive.com/

Heavener Rune Stone.

OK, I had a hard time buying the story that Vikings were traipsing through Oklahoma. But I'm no expert. Which is why I am comfortable citing Wikipedia in this instance. But it's easy to get to, and makes for a pretty little nature walk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavener_Runestone

Robbers Cave

This story was more plausible than the Vikings. I mean, criminals had to hide out somewhere, right? It's another pretty hike with more potential - I'd love to go back in the summer.

http://www.touroklahoma.com/detail.asp?id=1+5U+3607

Napoli's

Pizza bianco, ottimo.

Somewhere in McAlester, across the highway from Pete's Place.