Ice Cream, More Ice Cream, and (Yep) Still More Ice Cream

Well, we all know that Weston likes ice cream. So, now the question remains: do Jean and Tim also like ice cream? I think that we can answer that question with an emphatic, crazed, eardrum-shattering "YES!!!!!!!!!"

So, when my Houston friend Lauren told me that one of the highlights of living in the South is Blue Bell ice cream, I not only became very excited (and very grateful for the inside tip), but I also started to try to figure out how I could out-Blue Bell her, being the great and appreciative friend that I am. And I feel confident in saying that I have succeeded. Here's why:

STEP ONE:

Eat some Blue Bell ice cream.

I guess you have to start somewhere, and for me that somewhere was the Walmart freezer case where I picked up a pint of Butter Crunch and a pint of Moo-llennium Crunch.
Alright, Lauren was right... it is pretty darn good ice cream.

STEP TWO:

Visit a Blue Bell factory.

Who'duh guessed it, but there's a Blue Bell factory right here in Tulsa!! (Well, technically it's in Broken Arrow, which is the next town over, but for a former L.A. girl, that's basically around the corner.)

The factory tour only cost $2.00 (Weston was free), and it included a free scoop of ice cream at the end. So, I made a reservation and got a little group together to head to the headquarters of creamy frozen deliciousness:

Here's our tour guide lady, along with Kira and Faith on the left. (Folks in Tulsa are going to learn very quickly, as my other friends have, that I like to put pictures of people on my blog all the time without asking their permission.):

Sorry!! No cameras allowed in the factory! But here's the scene in the Country Store afterwards, where we flocked for our ice cream:

Here are Kira and Faith again with their kiddos. Don't Oklahoma people just look so nice? Truth be told, they're more Utah people than Oklahoma people, but still... this area is not a tough place to make friends, because everyone's so darn friendly.

Even though I upped the ante by visiting an actual Blue Bell factory, I still decided to do one better with...

STEP THREE:

Attend a Blue Bell festival.

That's right... an ice cream festival!!! I've been to strawberry festivals, peach festivals, apple butter festivals, and even sorghum festivals, but never an ice cream festival. (I guess if you have enough money, you can host a festival for pretty much anything. Therefore, I'll just go ahead and announce right now that when I'm a billionaire, I'm going to have a Raisin Nut Bran festival.)

Moving right along... despite the hot, hot, hot weather, it was a fun festival. Admission was $10 for all three of us, and that included ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT ice cream:

... a big ol' kids' craft tent:

... shiny, snazzy cars (well, not for the taking, just for the looking):

... a fire truck (look how serious Weston looks... hahaha!):

... a big bouncy thing:

... and some more bouncy things:

... and even a giant-ice-cream-tub bouncy thing (where, sadly, several people froze to death in the ice cream before they shut it down):

Weston enjoyed his very first push pop! (FYI, parents, if your child's push pop starts to melt in the summer heat, don't bother trying to pour out the melted stuff and leave the frozen core. Because, incidentally, it just may happen that when you tilt the push pop, the entire contents spill out onto the ground, leaving you with muffled laughter, darting eyes, and a hurried "Okay, push pop is all gone!" announcement to your child.)

Ahh, here's my yummy cone. (However, if I could go back in time, I'd tell myself to skip the cone, because even though it was really good, it tasted like a regular Drumstick, and it took up precious stomach space that I could've saved for all the varieties of scoop ice cream.)

Aaaaand there's one of the scoop ice cream stations:

I tried the "banana pudding" ice cream. OOOOHHHHH!!!!! IT WAS GOOD!!!! It was smooth banana ice cream with whipped cream and vanilla wafers. Oh my yum. Sadly, I don't think they have that variety in pints, but fortunately, they have this one -- good old chocolate:

After some more wandering/chasing/shopping, with red faces, sweaty clothes, and full bellies, we said goodbye to the festival:

And finally, that brings us to the last step...

STEP FOUR:

Become the CEO of Blue Bell and use my gargantuan new income to build a house made out of ice cream, staffed by butlers and housekeepers also made out of ice cream, so that if I get hungry I can just call Cookie Dough to my office and then take a big bite out of his arm.

I'm still working on this one, but give me another few months, and it's in the bag.

(Thanks Lauren! Lovers of Blue Bell, unite!)

Lots of Places and Lots of Eats

Well, what was until recently a slow-going Tulsafication project is now up and running at full speed! Check out some of our recent places and eats, starting with the EATS of course:

**Pizza**

We went to Hideaway Pizza, which we'd heard from multiple sources is one of the best pizza restaurants in T-town. And it is!! Great ambiance and decor, great service, great food (including a wide variety of specialty pies).

Although Weston had been raving about pizza all day after we'd told him we were going to go, he changed his mind at the last minute and requested macaroni and cheese instead, and then gobbled down every last little macaroni:
Anyway, this is the Paradise Pie that Tim and I ordered (oh man, was it tasty):

**Bakery Cafe**

Although Merritt's is a popular bakery with several locations in Tulsa (including one fairly close to us), we got the inside scoop that Queenie's is where it's at. And look at all the scrumptiousness that is, indeed, AT it:

How does one even begin to decide what to get? We ultimately selected a variety of treats, and we loved my snickerdoodle and Tim's crazy-everything-bar (I don't know what it's actually called, haha!). Weston's not much in the way of a foodie (he eats anything with even a hint of sweetness), but he seemed to enjoy his chocolate chip cookie, too:

**Italian**

Tim and I had a date night at Ti Amo, which is supposedly one of the best Italian restaurants in Tulsa. (Have you noticed that I ask around a lot about food? Haha! I also read lots of reviews, although they can be mixed because everyone has different opinions. Even so, I try to do my research.)

You'd never guess from the exterior of the restaurant (in a little, non-descript strip mall) that inside is a very romantic setting with white linen tablecloths and even a roaming violin player. We were very pleasantly surprised, and we LOVED our pasta entrees and lobster bisque. We'll definitely go again for another date!

** Burgers**

Finally, we lunched at Brewburger after a great review by Tasha, the very popular local blog lady. This is a little, low-key restaurant that serves amazing burgers, we were happy to learn.

I didn't take any pictures of our meal, but you can see Tasha's post HERE (and we got the same homemade tortilla chips and queso as she did... oh my yum!!). We ordered big buffalo burgers on ciabatta rolls, and when we were about to ask for the check, the waitress (who could've easily asked, "Would you like any dessert?" to which we would've responded, "No thanks"), instead asked, "Would you like the last slice of our red velvet cake?" Well, of COURSE we would! DUH! Hahaha! Very clever. And by the way, it was some of the most moist, smooth, delicious red velvet cake that I've ever had. :-)

Next up.. the PLACES!!!

**Splash Pads**

There are lots of these around Tulsa, and we probably visit them two or three times a week. I used to call them "water play" or "water playgrounds" in Pasadena, but here, everyone seems to call them "splash pads." So, when in Rome! They're great because I get to sit in the shade while Weston gets to get soaked:

And soaked he gets (slowly but surely...):

Of course, snacktime is an integral part of our splash pad fun, like when it recently took the form of sweet cherries and "waffle snacks" (a.k.a. Honey Nut Chex):

**Farmer's Market**

Because this past Saturday was the first Saturday that Tim didn't have to work since our move, we finally made it to the Cherry Street Farmer's Market. It appears to offer a decent variety of produce, baked goods, crafts and other local products, and ready-to-eat food, although it certainly didn't match the massive scale of the Monrovia Farmer's Market in California.

Still, it was fun. We made a brief, sweaty-hot, but generally pleasant stroll along the two-block length, and I was delighted to see vendors like Downing Family Farm selling pastured meat, poultry, and eggs (thank you, Omnivore's Dilemma). Hopefully when I'm a millionaire, I'll be able to afford non-factory-farm foods, but for now, I'm just excited to see people in Oklahoma embracing the trend. Anyway, I hooked myself up with bags of red potatoes, green beans, cucumbers, and zucchini this time around.

**Utica Square**

We visited a lovely shopping village called Utica Square, which has stores like Pottery Barn Kids (playtime for Weston) and Williams-Sonoma (playtime for Mommy). There are these beautiful wooden statues along the avenues, which are carved from actual tree trunks:

**Aquarium**

This morning we went to the Oklahoma Aquarium (hooray for a day off from work!!!), which is probably one of the most talked-about tourist attractions in the area:

Tim and I didn't get to absorb very much information from the exhibits because Weston was constantly running from one thing to another. But he seemed to have a jolly good time, and that made us happy. Oh, and did you know that there are alligator snapping turtles in the Arkansas River (which runs right through Tulsa)? I did not. This fella was MASSIVE, about the size of a large sea turtle:

The highlight for Weston was the shark exhibit. There's a big glass tunnel that goes right through the middle of the tank, and he just went around and around and around in circles through that tunnel and back out again. This moment of inactivity was short-lived:

And of course we also saw the infamous Sea Raccoon (...??):

** Movies**

Wow... what can I say. This movie is one of the best that I've seen in a while. It is brilliant. In addition to making me laugh, it deeply, emotionally impacted me, and after I left, I thought about it all night and all the next day. I HIGHLY recommend it. If you haven't seen it yet, GO!!! And then come back home and hug your child's Woody and/or Buzz Lightyear toys. (I did. I'm not kidding.)

Guess This Recipe

Dig a big hole. Line it with concrete. Fill it with water. Add chlorine.

Get some tables, chairs, and a BBQ grill.

Add a cute baby or two, along with some happy-looking parents.

Add a large number of extremely loud and enthusiastic children, along with some bored and/or angry-looking parents.

Add an even larger number of extremely hot, overly tanned college-aged people. Dress them only in tiny bikinis (for the women) and much-too-low swim trunks (for the men). Make sure they frequently and brazenly flirt with one another.

Give the men a football. Ensure that they toss it dangerously close to other people.

Give them sunglasses and beer cans. Be sure to refill their hands with more beer cans as they run out.

If desired, give a cigar to one of them, and make sure that he smokes it in the water.

Add plenty of yelling and overly raucous laughter.

Have a couple of highly intoxicated girls fall into the water at some point.

Insert the delicious smell of grilling meat, combined with the occasional, nauseating smell of marijuana (but make sure that the source of marijuana is ambiguous).

Finalize by throwing a couple Band-Aids in the water.

**********

And that, my friends, is the recipe for an apartment complex pool.

(hahahahahaha)

The Surprise Spider

I searched "spider surprise" on Google Images, and this was one of the pictures that came up (don't ask me why). Hahahahaha... I think we should all read this book now.

Y'know what's even worse than a spider? A surprise spider. Today after my shower, I reached for my head towel, pulled it off the rack, and was just about to wrap it around my wet hair until I realized that there was a brown spider clinging to it.

AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Towel was instantly dropped to the floor; Jean did a little spastic shake; and then spider was quickly squished in a tissue. (Oh, by the way, even worse than a surprise spider is a surprise-spider-while-you're-naked-and-wet.)

There's just something about spiders that gives me the heebie-jeebies (and I know I'm speaking for Tim here, too). Maybe their long spindly legs? Maybe their eight eyeballs? Maybe their ability to magically and disturbingly appear ANYWHERE at ANY time? This morning's encounter reminded me of one time in Pasadena when I opened my closet door, reached up to pull the lightbulb string, and then saw a spider dangling right in front of me. Why do they do that?? WHY? It's like they're intentionally messing with us.

Anyway, after living in California where all manner of spiders (including black widows) are very common, I've gotten really good at squishing them. (A couple times, I squished spiders in my bare hands. Yeah... I'm hardcore.) But I still can't get over their creepiness. How do you deal with spiders? Have you ever had a "surprise spider" incident?? (Gaahhh!! I have to do another spastic shake, just thinking about it.) :-)

Weston Likes Ice Cream

This is what happens when we suggest going to Braum's:



P.S. Yes, the video starts with Weston sitting in the closet by himself. That's what I get for starting to tape during a game of hide-and-seek.

P.P.S. At the end of the video, you'll notice that Weston is putting on MY shoes for some reason.

This and That

Is it just me, or does life seem REALLY busy right now?

Our ongoing "Operation: Transition Tulsa" seems to be going veeeeery slowly, and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because Tim is at the office for 10 hours a day (and 5 hours on Saturdays), which postpones any opportunities to discover Tulsa's fun places as a family? Maybe because I'm still in the friend-making/town-mastering process myself? Maybe because our apartment has central A/C, so I really like to stay home? (Haha!) Maybe because all the work of finding doctors/dentists/babysitters/everything is exhausting me? Maybe because unpacking/decorating is taking forever? Maybe because our impending student loan repayments are causing significant stress? Maybe because I really like just going to Target, the library, the playground, and the pool over and over again with Weston, instead of anywhere else? (Luckily for me, he's all about the simple entertainment.)

I don't know. But I feel like it's taking a lot longer than usual to find our niche here and get busy having fun. And part of the problem is that we haven't been able to try very many restaurants yet. In general, the more fantastic restaurants I discover, the happier I am. So, that's something, I think, that Team Anderson can work on. :-)

Fortunately, we did have some fun family time recently, where we visited Tulsa's River Parks, which is a trail network along the Arkansas River:
I really likey the green here (even if the river is brown):

Weston got to bum a ride (literally) for part of the way:

Eventually he requested his sunglasses so that he could be smooth and chic like Tim:

Along the way, we passed this statue entitled, "Pheasant Eludes Bobcat," or as Weston liked to call it, "Kitty":

Thumbs up for River Parks!! We will be back for a picnic one of these days (hopefully before temperatures reach 115 degrees):

Afterwards, we were thrilled to try a much-hyped Mexican restaurant, El Tequila, mainly because we heard that it was a dirty, authentic greasy spoon. Haha! In fact, it's quite clean and pretty nice, at least compared to the questionable little taquerias that are all over L.A. Anyway, I took pictures to document our experience, but unfortunately, El Tequila did not cut the mustard for these L.A.-expats.

There were chips and salsa (pretty decent):

There were tacos in crunchy, Taco Bell-style shells (boo); burritos with spaghetti sauce on top (at least that's how it tasted - boo); and enchiladas filled with hamburger (boo numero tres):

Tim and I LOVE tamales, so we ordered them on the side, and they were actually pretty tasty (I think the pork was seasoned with cinnamon, among other spices). However, they apparently only make pork tamales, so when we ordered chicken tamales, they just took a pork tamale and topped it with chicken chunks (haha):

In a last-ditch effort, I persuaded Tim to let us get the churros for dessert, because you can never go wrong with churros, right? The answer is right, because they were good. But I think the dessert should have been called CRAZY Churro SUGAR Explosion!!!!!!!! instead of "churros" (alright, that picture doesn't look very crazy, but believe me, it was very big and very crazy before we tucked in):

Weston got to enjoy a lunch of bland French fries and a hot dog in a stale bun, but at least he got to top it off with some Crazy Churro Sugar Explosion:

Yep. I take pictures of everything you do, Weston.

We've also had some fun with friendlies over the past week. We went to a Memorial Day barbecue, where Weston spent 95% of the time standing in the kiddie pool with a little plastic water gun:

Fortunately he allowed enough time to devour a hamburginner (that's Westonese for ya):
I hosted a playdate at our apartment, which was attended by six children. And as you can see, it was a good playdate (that's Mr. Andy there):
And I did some babysitting for new pal Kira, which was more like "play/eat/watch Toy Story 2, repeat over and over again". That's Dawson, Katelyn, and Weston:
They had a good time:
So, there are SOME interesting things happening, and hopefully there will be more to come, once we feel like we're really here and really settled and organized (spatially and mentally). :-)