The HENDRICKSON Family: My BIG Birthday Weekend

I had a BIG Birthday a couple weeks ago. I turned 40! Eric took our family on a BIG Birthday get away for the weekend. But, before we left town the kids and I got our teeth cleaned and checked at our 6 month dentist appointments (NO cavities for any of us! Hooray!) and I opened my gifts and cards from them.

They gave me the latest issue of the Pioneer Woman magazine,

and the Anne of Green Gables DVD set. Eric also got me a little box of chocolate covered cherries because he knows I love them.

40! Let's all do it... 40!!!!

Our first stop on the BIG Birthday weekend was in Pawhuska, Oklahoma at the Mercantile. A great little restaurant, bakery, coffee shop, and gift shop all in one, owned and run by the Pioneer Woman and her husband, Ladd. If you would like to read more about
The Mercantile, CLICK HERE and you can check out the website.

We arrived at the Mercantile about 2:30 on Friday afternoon. It was a hot day and there was a smallish line to get into the restaurant. We got right in line. While we waited we were offered umbrellas (for shade), fudge to snack on, water bottles, and Bomb Pops. The line moved pretty fast and we were seated about 30 minutes after arriving at the Mercantile. (Later on, while eating our food, we noticed that there was NO LINE/NO WAIT anymore for the restaurant. We decided that 3pm on a Friday must be a good time to arrive if you want a late lunch/early dinner on a Friday at the Mercantile.)

Drinks were served in glass jars and regular glass soda bottles for a vintage look.

Sarah had the Quesadillas off the appetizer section of the menu. (I tried a bite of everyone's meal.) They were delicious! I would recommend them.

Eric had the Pork Chops. Also delicious!

Phoebe had Chicken Strips... Great texture and breading. Silas had the Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Dippers. The Soup was thick and tasty. I may have eaten at least half of it....

I ordered the Chicken Fried Steak and Mashed Potatoes. It was great, especially the Mashed Potatoes and Gravy.

After eating we looked around the store downstairs then went upstairs to look around. Upstairs was the bakery and coffee shop, lots more seating, a t.v., and a small kids kitchen where Silas and Phoebe pretended to cook a meal. Sarah sat and read one of the Pioneer Woman "Charlie" books.

After leaving the Mercantile we did a little antique shopping in Pawhuska, where Eric found me four new pieces of Torquay Pottery for my pottery collection. Yay! Happy BIG Birthday to me! On our drive from Pawhuska to Tulsa, as we drove past a park, I spotted a small pack of Wild Pigs! We turned around and pulled in to get a closer look at them.

None of them were huge. The dark colored one pictured below was the biggest one in the pack.

There were also three dogs at the park, with no owner, who took an interest in the pigs. Two of the dogs kept harassing the pigs. We thought we might get to see a pig vs. dog fight, but it was more like a lot of barking, chasing, and running in circles.

In Tulsa, Eric had reserved a room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Tulsa for our family. It was super nice. We were all excited to check in and look around. Sarah couldn't believe how big the chandelier was hanging above the escalator in the entryway..... "It is bigger than a car!" She kept exclaiming.

Since it was my BIG Birthday, I decided a little jumping on the beds was in order....

After walking around inside and outside our hotel we headed for the elevator to go back to our room and change for swimming.... While we were waiting for the elevator back to our floor, Phoebe turned and said to me quietly, "Is this the best motel you've ever stayed at?" I said, "Maybe not the the best, but IT IS great!" Phoebe, wearing a little smile and looking around, "This is the BEST motel I've EVER been too."

The indoor/outdoor pool on the roof of the hotel was really cool! All of us were pretty excited about this hotel feature.

Great job picking out a fantastic place for our family to stay for my BIG Birthday weekend, Eric!

We swam till a little past dark. Then we changed clothes and walked to Hurts Donuts near our hotel for some BIG Birthday dessert.

We ordered the "Dirty Dozen". There were so many different kinds of donuts to pick from it was hard for some of us to decide what to get....

We ended up we LOTS of great donuts. My favorites were the German Chocolate and the Cherry Pie donuts.

Happy BIG Birthday to me! * Note * We did NOT eat all of those donuts that night. We each ate one and then we each had one the next morning for breakfast, leaving two more for a snack later in the day. Yum!

The next morning we got up and headed for the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks, Oklahoma, just south of Tulsa.

There were several hands-on exhibits. Below, Eric and the kids were touching Horseshoe Crabs. There was also another tank where people could feed, touch, and hold live Shrimp. Sarah said that was one of her favorites, and that the Shrimp tickled her hand with their feet when they crawled into her hand.

Silas especially liked the huge water tank pictured below. There were tunnels to crawl through and places that they could look directly into the tank and stand up in throughout the tunnels. At one point he came face to face with a large catfish, that he told us "would not stop staring at him".

We were all amazed by the HUGE Alligator Snapping Turtle. It weighs 122 pounds!

There were also two tanks full of Stingrays and small Sharks that people could touch. Below, are some pictures of the kids and Eric reaching into the tanks to see what they felt like.

One of Phoebe's favorite exhibits was the Sharks. She especially liked walking through the Shark tank and having Sharks swim over and all around us up close.

The Aquarium was filled with Fish, Octopus, Jellyfish, Turtles, Otters, Beavers, Sharks, and all sorts of water life.

Another one of all our favorites was the giant Sea Turtle. We didn't spot him at first, then an employee pointed him out to us. He was resting at the bottom of his large tank. We waited about 10 minutes and he started to swim around, back and forth past the kids over and over again.

Here he comes... Swimming past.... Keep smiling kids....

The Oklahoma Aquarium was super cool. We spent a little over three hours there. We all liked it and were very glad that we went there. We would recommend this vacation spot to anyone traveling in or through the Tulsa, Oklahoma area.

To find out more about the Oklahoma Aquarium CLICK HERE.

I let the kids each pick a postcard and a small stuffed animal as a souvenir from the Aquarium. Sarah and Silas each picked a stuffed Sea Turtle and Phoebe picked a stuffed Shark.

Next we went to about 5 antique stores in Jenks. The kids loved it. Just kidding. They tolerated it for me. Then we headed for Bartlesville, Oklahoma where we ate dinner at a Buffalo Wild Wings and watched/cheered for the Oklahoma Sooners.

We stayed at a hotel with a pool that night in Bartlesville. The kids LOVE to swim and this was a special treat for them and me as the BIG Birthday weekend continued. We laughed and joked a lot about this hotel not being quite as nice as the hotel we had stayed in the night before, but it had a pool (with cloudy water) and free breakfast.

On Sunday, after our free breakfast we headed to Tallgrass Prairie Preserve just Northwest of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. I wanted to see some herds of wild Buffalo in their natural environment. We were not disappointed. As we drove through the Preserve we saw hundreds of Buffalo of all sizes grazing, swimming in a pond, and resting.