..........Where the buffalo roam

         There are plenty of little "dears" but not many antelope playing around here.  Wyatt, my little animal lover, desperately wants a donkey because, well, because he is Wyatt.  Kayli would absolutely do ANYTHING if a horse would show up here for her birthday. When we pass the John Deere, New Holland, or Kubota store Dawson drools, but I suppose tractors are another subject( I do tend to ramble, those familiar with my daddy will realize I come by that honestly).  Anyway,the first night Carter came home from the hospital and we were all sitting around just watching him sleep, he smiled one of those cute little baby, gassy, smiles and Wyatt whispered, "Look guys! He is smiling- must have been dreamin' of the Zebra's."   A completely random remark and the rest of us snickered, but as a baby really enjoys looking at the black/ white contrast and  we all joke about his love of the zebra, but it does seem he really continues to enjoy looking at pictures of zebras and his tiny stuffed one that goes clickety clack, it's ever so cute, and don't look now but I'm rambling again!   I DO have a point and I have said all this to say WE all enjoy animals.  We have a membership to the Tulsa Zoo, go annually to the Independence zoo, have visited a few other zoos in other states and have toured a Safari zoo- BUT, we have never done what we did this week on Spring Break!! 
       We told the kids nothing, to keep our adventure a surprise, grabbed some bottles of water, a camera and a map and set out on a BUFFALO HUNT!  This is something I had wanted to do for about a year now!  Although there are over 4,000  head of buffalo  between the Woolaroc and the Tallgrass Wildlife preserves, that is not where we headed.  It was a bit of a Scavenger hunt for Buffalo Statues all around town.  When I say "Town" I mean Bartlesville, the nearest city to our small but sweet spot in the road of a town.  Just  like the Ingall's, we also have to go into "town" to pick up our list of necessities, only we drive a minivan instead of a covered wagon.   Okay and so back to my story-my map included the addresses of 15 of these statues but along our way we found a few more.
           A girl scouts troop came up with the idea of these statues and could be purchased by businesses around to be painted by local artists and all proceeds would go to the Mary Martha Outreach Center downtown. Way to go girl scouts!   Each buffalo is beautiful and unique and I enjoyed getting up close and personal to check them out,  can't really say that for the real things because  momma here likes to enjoy animals from afar :)  There are 3 more we have yet to visit-2 being indoors and 1 at Woolaroc which we plan to visit again soon.  There is also at least one more that we know of in the process of being painted by the art teacher at the kids' school and it will be placed at the B'Ville Kiddie Park.  We are very anxious to see that one, for each little hand of the children at their school will take part in it's design. 

This first one makes its home at the D.C., a.k.a Daddy's work. Lee's friend, Jeff Prescott painted this one        

This one is at the 66 Federal credit union, and if you look closely you will see it is covered in Buffalo head nickels- cute idea I thought:) Yes, Dawson is picking it's nose!

Carter was enjoying being able to continue to get out of the carseat every few minutes, he only likes that carseat if he is sleeping!

This one is Wyatt's favorite!

Bartlesville Bruins!

We LOVE The 'Ville!  This is one Kayli's favorite!

( When checking this one out, look closely at the strategically placed flashy disco balls...don't let the pink confuse you-it's not female!)

Nice.........

Dawson's fave!

Momma's favorite!

Carter is still a smiling:)

interesting......

You can see the shadowed image of the Bartlesville Community Center, a must see if you enjoy architecture!

This one was in a downtown building window- not sure if it has been purchased yet or not- it's yet to be painted.

This just seemed like the obvious choice for dinner after the hunt!

             We did not go on any cool trip or vacation on our Spring Break this year, however, we did try to do one fun activity each day around here.  This one was hands down the favorite day- I think they will remember it forever and so will I!  It was a simple idea but interesting, educational, and only cost us the gas-  AND dinner after of course, we worked up quite an appetite looking for these guys!