Helms Family Blog: The Travels of Oliver K. Woodman

Our niece's son, Klayton, lives in Windsor, Missouri. His class is doing a project based on the book "The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman." In the book, Oliver travels across the country.

We received Klayton's Oliver in the mail and took him around Texas and to Paris, France.

Below is the letter we got with Oliver from Klayton.

We wrote the following letter back to Klayton and sent the following pictures:

Hi Klayton,

Thank you so much for sending Oliver to visit us here in Texas! We have had a wonderful time showing him where we live. He probably needs some time to rest after all our crazy activities!

We live in Heath, Texas. Our population is 7,633 according to the 2012 report. We are a lakeside community in Rockwall County, Texas. Rockwall County was formed in 1873. It is located in the northeast Texas, about 25 miles outside of Dallas, Texas. It is the smallest county in the state of Texas with about 127 square miles of land and 21.5 square miles of water. Heath is connected to another town in our county, named Rockwall. Rockwall’s population in 2012 is 39,957. Most of our daily activities are in Heath or Rockwall.

Our family didn’t know Oliver’s story. Therefore, we had to go to our library and check out the book to read. We love our Rockwall County library and have participated in many different activities there like the summer reading program.

Brittany is a senior and Shawn is a sophomore at Rockwall Heath High School. Noelle is in 8th grade at Maurine Cain Middle School. Oliver visited our football stadium where both high schools in Rockwall County play their football games. We know you really like football. They are redoing the track so we couldn’t get inside.

We attend Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall, TX. It is a large church with about 5000 people attending on the weekends. We do many activities here, including playing sports. Oliver was able to attend our Awana Awards Ceremony with us and watch Josh play t-ball and Skylin play soccer.

As the ending celebration of our spring season at Lake Pointe Sports, we got to go to Hawaiian Falls, in Garland, Texas. It was so much fun but Oliver obeyed and didn’t get wet!

Skylin takes ballet and tech/jazz dance at Royalty Dance. It is located at the RISE, in Rockwall, Texas. While Oliver was visiting, she performed in a dance recital at Rockwall Heath High School. Oliver liked hanging out backstage with the girls.

Triniti plays basketball at the RISE for Team Rise.

On the way to piano lessons in Rockwall, we got to see llamas and horses. One horse wanted to eat Oliver!

The Harbor, in Rockwall, Texas, is a fun place to go. It has a movie theatre, restaurants and shops along Lake Ray Hubbard. We ate and watched the movie, Heaven is for Real on Mother’s Day. We also enjoyed watching a mother duck with her ducklings, turtles and snakes along the shore.

Another fun place we like to visit is Harry Myer’s Park in Rockwall. There is a large playground, spray park, pond, walking trails, and Frisbee golf. We took Triniti to a birthday party there. Here is a picture of Skylin at the entrance.

Old town Rockwall is a square with a courthouse in the middle and reminds me a lot of the square in Clinton, Missouri, except it is smaller. Our square has shops, restaurants and businesses. On Saturday morning, there is a farmer’s market. Here is Skylin and Oliver sitting on the steps of Rockwall’s historic courthouse, built in 1941 and is only one of seven Art Deco courthouses in Texas today.

One afternoon, we took a road trip north to Denison, Texas. It is the birthplace of our 34th President of the United States , Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was born here on October 14th, 1890. He was the first US President to be born in Texas. His family moved to Kansas though when he was only two.

Since we were so close, we decided to drive over the Red River, which is the northern boundary between Texas and Oklahoma. There is a picture of Oliver at a welcome to Oklahoma sign with Triniti, Skylin and Joshua.

Coming back into Texas, we stopped at the Texas Welome Center. We have included a map of Texas and a visitors guide to the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Although Uncle Shawn drives into Dallas everyday, we only go occasionally for fieldtrips. This year however, we did take science classes at the Perot Museum of Science and Nature so we were there more often. We included some pictures of our drive into Dallas so you could see the tall building and one of the outside of the Perot Museum. There is a picture of a Ferris Wheel at the Texas State Fair Grounds. Our state Fair is in October. You can also see a little of the Cotton Bowl Stadium. Oliver only got to drive by there.

Uncle Shawn traveled to Omaha, Nebraska. Although we forgot to pack Oliver with him, he still took some great pictures to share with Oliver. This is a building in Omaha with the name Woodmen on it.

Creighton University is also located in Omaha.

The College Baseball World Series is played in Omaha at Ameritrade Park.

One of the richest men in the world lives in Omaha. His name is Warren Buffett. His advice to young people: “Invest in yourself.”

We are so sorry that Oliver is late getting to you. Uncle Shawn also traveled to Paris, France. Oliver really wanted to fly in an airplane and see the Eiffel Tower.