Just A Normal Weekend...

...running from tornadoes?

This was one of the weirdest weekends of our lives

& it's one we will probably never forget.

The storms started coming in strong so we made the decision to go south.

Luckily, we made that decision before everyone made that decision,

so we were ahead of the traffic slightly.

Thanks to our dear friends -- The Apple's --

we ended up at OU Norman in the art building basement

in an office with 6 adults, 5 dogs & 2 cats.

& Hank met his new pittie best friend, Oswin.

All of the animals were actually great together.

I guess that was a plus to the stress.

I can't say I've ever been that close to a tornado before.

Growing up, we never had any real threat on our side of town.

I used to be afraid of storms & tornadoes but as I've grown,

I've mellowed in all aspects so I guess that just bled into those fears as well.

Ryan & I did get to storm chase with a friend last year & got to see a tornado form.

Surprisingly, that actually calmed my fears even more.

We had a couple decent scares through the whole ordeal but we remained calm.

Calm is key, people. There is no room for panic in these situations.

For instance:

We didn't know where my step-dad was for several hours because
he went to drive south & forgot his cell phone.
I should also add that he doesn't have a radio in his car
so he had no way of knowing where the storm was either.
We were driving around Lake Draper when we were told that that was a danger area.
We did get stuck in Norman traffic right when the sirens started going off

& we did drive through some pretty legit flooding on the way home.

I am honestly surprised we made it through some of the areas.

We got home around midnight after it taking about 2 hours to get home

to find that we were without power with phones that were almost dead.

We got sick of waiting around for power Saturday

& totally let our hairdresser talk us in to going to Tulsa for the weekend.

We called our favorite hotel & hit the road with all 3 dogs!

"Peace Out OKC."

We are happy to know that they are all great little travelers.

They pretty much just cuddled the entire way...

until Ollie decided she'd rather sleep on the floor & Hank pouted about it.

I can't go on enough about how much I love aloft Hotels.

They accommodated all 3 of our dogs without a single extra charge.

SAY WHAT?!

Yes, you heard correctly. Pets under 40lbs are welcome.. for free.

They also provided dog beds that mine are really missing now that we're home.

We found a little strip of downtown Tulsa that impressed us

with a barbecue joint that also impressed us.

I'm actually ready to go back for another weekend trip & explore a little.

This getaway was exactly what we needed.

I was so in love with my husband, dogs & life during that little trip.

(not that I'm not all of the time anyway)

But times like this, it was just overwhelming.

You couldn't have paid me to wipe the smile off my face.

I'm so thankful for the ability to do these things together

& thankful that my husband has the same child-like, carefree & adventurous spirit I do.

There's nothing better than spur of the moment decisions

& a little open road to make your life better

& I think Ollie & Comet agree.