Ward Family: Stanley Visits Oklahoma

Taya and Judd's Stanleys arrived in Owasso, Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago.

They were both really excited to get out of the envelope and stretch their legs.

They were surprised to be at the same place and seemed excited to see each other!

Owasso, Oklahoma is a suburb of Tulsa.

Tulsa is a large city with skyscrapers. There are many fun things to do there.

The Stanleys loved the tall buildings.

Most people in Oklahoma are either OU fans or OSU fans.

Our family loves OSU (Oklahoma State University), so we thought it would be fun to take the Stanleys to an OSU football game.

They were excited to cheer on the Cowboys. The stadium was amazing!

Taya's Stanley enjoyed watching the cheerleaders! He asked if he could try to lift me in a stunt, but I said, "With those little, noodle arms? No Way!" He didn't seem overly offended.

Judd's Stanley loved to see how high the players could kick the football. He wanted to go out and play with them, but I was afraid he would get flattened by those huge players. He quickly reminded me that he was already flat. I still didn't let him go on the field though.

Our favorite part was when half the stands yelled, "ORANGE" and the other half yelled, "POWER"! The Stanleys wanted you guys to try it too!

The guy behind us was getting really fired up. Oklahoma State didn't catch a pass and he yelled, "The lady next to me could have caught that!"

Taya's Stanley thought his comment was a little inappropriate, but also kind of funny.

Thanks to the loud cheering of the Stanleys, OSU beat K State! We were excited! It was a fun day.

The Stanleys were also here for LOVE 918 week. LOVE 918 is a time when we think of ways we can love others in the Tulsa area.

http://vimeo.com/63682734

The Stanleys went with me to the Laura Dester Shelter to love on the kids there!

The Laura Dester Shelter is a group home for children who have been taken out of their homes because of abuse or neglect. These innocent children did not choose to be in the shelter. They have done nothing wrong. It is a beautiful facility with nice people working there, but it's not the same as a home.

The goal is to have each child placed in a home in the first 24 hours. Unfortunately, most of the children have been there much longer. We even met one sweet boy who had been there for 3 years.

There are currently 83 children in the shelter, ages 3-17.

Many people from our church visited the shelter to throw a party for them. We had inflatables, hotdogs, face painting, and pumpkin painting. It was fun to hang out with the kids and love on them for a while. The children LOVED both Stanleys. They held them and ran around playing with them.

Our family also loved on our neighbors for LOVE 918 week. The Stanleys helped us make chocolate chip cookies.

I could tell Judd's Stanley only wanted to eat the cookie dough, but Hadley wouldn't let him.

Taya's Stanley thought that was funny!

They both waited for the cookies to bake.

We bagged up the cookies and delivered them to our neighbors.

Mrs. Husky, our 86 year old neighbor, was so excited to see us and thought the cookies looked delicious!

What are some ways you can show love to others? You can show love to your neighbors, those in need, or the people at your school. Let's think of some ways we can LOVE S.E.S!

The Owasso Ram Football Homecoming was also last week. On Friday the Stanleys visited Cole and Zoe's school, Stone Canyon Elementary.

All of a sudden we heard something loud and exciting! We went to hang out with Cole's PreK class to see what was going on!

Then we saw Cole and his buddies start to clap and so we looked down the hallway.

The high school band, cheerleaders, and football players started parading through the hallways while we were there!

It was so awesome! The Stanleys got really excited and started getting a little out of control. Taya's Stanley got mad when the cheerleaders would let him on the squad. Judd's Stanley tried to join the football team, but was told he wasn't strong enough. They both tried to prove their strength by tackling the quarterback in the middle of the hallway!

Unfortunately, that earned them a trip to the principal's office.

Mr. Holderman tried nicely to tell them that they couldn't tackle anyone at the school.

Both Stanleys just grinned the entire time. This seemed to irritate Mr. Holderman.

The Stanleys were asked to leave for the rest of the day, but were able to return to the school that evening for a tailgating party. Some of the 5th graders got their faces painted.

I thought they looked weird, but the Stanleys loved it.

They wanted their faces painted too!

We hung out and played and had a picnic dinner.

On Saturday Judd's Stanley went to horseback riding lessons with Cole and Zoe's cousin, Hayden. He loved the horse and thought he was a real cowboy!

Taya's Stanley went with Zoe to Petsmart.

Zoe volunteers there on Saturdays with an animal rescue group.

These dogs have been rescued from the street or bad situations.

Stanley liked this dog because their ears looked the same.

On Monday Cole and Zoe's Aunt Michelle took them to work with her at FOX 23 NEWS. She is the morning show anchor.

They sat on set and were amazed by the Teleprompter which shows all of the words to say.

They couldn't believe all of the rain indicated on Doppler radar.

They disagreed with the meteorologist, Michael Seger's, forecast. They didn't think, with rain developing so early in the day, that there was any way temperatures would reach the mid-60s. Michael tried convincing them, but they were right.