Weekend at HSP

We spent a really fun weekend camping with The Corleys at Huntsville State Park.  The men and boys went up early on Friday and set up camp, and the dads chose the perfect camping spots that were a bit removed from the madness of the main camping area so they were a bit more secluded. The best part was that they were on a little loop so the boys could do lots and lots of bike riding.

Kyle had to go in to work Friday afternoon. I bet he liked the ten minute commute!

Guess who learned to FINALLY ride a bike without his training wheels? 

Yep, Garrett!! He was the only kid with training wheels. After watching him go around the loop several times, the Amie, Patrick and I pointed out to him that he wasn't really using his training wheels--they hardly ever hit the ground. So, I made him get on Tyler's bike and try it. I ran alongside him for a few steps, and by the time we reached the end of the road--not very far--he declared, "well, this is easy!"  

I yelled back for Patrick to take the training wheels off, and by the time Garrett and I were back to his bike, his training wheels were long gone. 

So proud!! 

Amie has an awesome hammock, and we all relaxed in it. A nice thing about HSP is the abundance of pine trees, which means it is almost always shady.  Even though the thermostat hit the upper 90s, I never was hot. 

We, along with dozens of other campers, went down to the fishing pier as the sun was setting, and we saw two alligators. Both of our families are really big fans of Swamp People, so this was especially exciting for our boys (and, I'll admit, for me).  

On Saturday morning, I got up early to run 10 miles on the trails. The plan was to run 7 and then pick up Parker to run my last three.  Parker's eight, and LOVES running. My trip around the lake ended up being 7.5, so I did a total of 10.5.  It was a beautiful run. I might blog about it on my other blog.  I had a good time running with Parker--we held about an 11 minute per mile pace, talked the entire time, and only took two or three very quick breaks.  He's a born runner! 

After a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, we all got dressed and headed into Huntsville to visit the Sam Houston Memorial Museum.  This is located across the street from Kyle's office, but in five years of working at SHSU, he'd never been there. We didn't actually go to the museum part, but walked around the grounds looking at all of the historical buildings, like this blacksmith shop. 

I love this picture of Tyler! 

Is this a good-looking group of boys, or what??

After museum fun, we ate a very slow, but pretty good, late lunch at Zach's, then returned to the park to swim. 

This picture is not from Saturday. This picture is from last July when we were there. 

I didn't take a picture of the swimming area on Saturday or on Sunday.  That's a shame, too, because I'm not sure I can eloquently describe the mass of humanity that was gathered in the water, on the swim platform, on the beach, and under the trees. I'd guess at least a thousand people.  

Nevertheless, we all had a great time swimming.  Braden went off the swim platform over and over and over again. Last July, he cried hysterically when we tried to make him, so this weekend's bravery was quite an improvement. 

Garrett made me take this picture. I think he thinks he looks like a very cool surfer. 

We were sad to leave on Sunday afternoon. By the time we pulled out of the park, about 3:30, the camping area was pretty empty, just the Corleys and two or three other families. 

And now, it's back to reality tomorrow: teaching summer school for Kyle and me and summer day camp for the boys. Oh, and dentist appointments for the boys--wish me luck. 

If I ever get back to Oklahoma...

As a popular Jason Boland song goes, "If I ever get back to Oklahoma, I'm gonna nail my feet to the ground."  

What a weekend! The boys had a fantastic time exploring our 2nd favorite state this past weekend.  We originally went up there for the Big 12 Baseball tournament.  The Aggies were poised to make a run for the championship, and since this is our last year in the Big 12, it would be our last chance to go to a tourney at Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City.  

We skipped school and work on Friday and made the 7 hour trip to Ok City with a few stops along the way.  We got there just before the baseball game. 

Garrett was making silly faces at me while I tried to take his picture. 

Look who lost a tooth during the game! Braden really wanted to go play on the playground, so I told him that he could IF he let me pull his very loose tooth. Instead, he pulled it himself (but I let him go play anyway). 

The Ags took an early lead, but then Kansas came back to tie it and then pulled ahead, 5 to 3. Still, it look like there was a chance: 

Alas, we lost, and our weekend plans became less about baseball and more about exploring Oklahoma. 

On Saturday morning I ran in the Big 12 Baseball 5K run. I'll blog about it on my other blog. 

After a post-run breakfast at IHOP, we checked out Bass Pro Shop. The boys thought it was A-W-E-S-O-M-E (and I bought some much needed shorts, summer shirts, and a cute dress that I've worn three times in the week since). 

The afternoon plan was to drive up to Stillwater, but we decided to take the long way and go up Route 66 to go to Pops in Arcadia. It's kinda a tourist trap, but talk about little boy heaven! 

They have over 600 different kinds of soda! Wow! We let each boy choose two sodas. Talk about a tough decision! 

Garrett chose his based on the label: if it had a pirate or skeleton, he wanted it.  Braden chose based on flavor: a strawberry cream soda and a sour apple soda. Kyle picked a birch beer and a sarsaparilla soda.  We all cracked into the sarsaparilla soda almost immediately and passed it around:  

Then, we drove just up Rt. 66 to the town of Arcadia proper to take in the Round Barn of Arcadia. 

But first...more cheesy tourist pics. The boys were not interested...

...but Kyle cooperated with my picture taking! (and here's my cute Bass Pro Shop dress)

Once we checked out the barn, the boys were more agreeable to pictures. Both actually posed for the pictures below and asked me to take the picture.

Upon leaving Arcadia, we took the back way up through Perkins and past the Iowa tribe pow-wow grounds. I wish my boys had been awake! They kept looking for signs of Indians, and we drove right past some, but they were snoozing.

We spent a lovely afternoon in Stillwater with lunch at The Hideway (just the same as I remembered! Delicious!).  We walked around campus.

This bench is exactly 100 years old, thus, the picture. 

Oklahoma State University is SUCH a beautiful campus, and we had it pretty much to ourselves on this day.

Kyle and I took our engagement pictures in this same spot more than 12 years ago. 

Because we are really great parents, we took our boys for a walk down The Strip past the bars. Things have changed since 2001: The Wormy Dog, one of our favorites, has moved to Oklahoma City. We had some really great times there, and even though I knew it wasn't in Stillwater anymore, it made me sad to see that it was really gone. 

We didn't actually take our children INTO the bars. Apparently they frown on that sort of thing in Stillwater. 

We returned to Oklahoma City for the night.  The next morning, after checking out of the hotel, we went to church at First Church in downtown Oklahoma City.

It was a very powerful service in a beautiful sanctuary.  The praise band was great, the sermon on the Pentecost was good.  The people were beyond friendly to us. They clearly recognized us as visitors (Garrett's Aggie shirt and my camera might have been the give away). Most memorable, however, was that the man in the pew behind us, who I think was homeless, had a seizure during the sermon. It was really scary. During the final hymn, the EMTs came in, gave him oxygen, and took him out on a gurney. Given the context of the sermon, it was a really bizarre morning, and my emotions were on overload. I was incredibly thankful my children handled it so well and that Kyle was there with me. 

We left the church and walked across the street to the bombing memorial.  Talk about hard to explain to kids...why on earth would someone want to blow up a building with people--especially children--in it. I've seen it before, and I was again I was amazed by how well designed the memorial is. It is simply incredible, and absolutely worth a trip to Oklahoma to see.  

I love this picture of the boys trying to make sense of the memorial. They sat under the  Survivor Tree and read through the pamphlet and talked to each other for quite a while. 

The boys really liked the children's area. I appreciated that chalk was available for kids to draw with...to process through what they had seen and to contribute in some way.  

My boys immediately found a blank space and went to work.  Garrett wrote "Thank you God" and Braden drew the peace sign, the ribbon, and the heart, then signed his name. 

I took this picture because I loved the riotous color and combination of plants in the border around the memorial. I sure miss gardening in Oklahoma! 

For two days, the boys had begged us to go to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. They learned of it from some pamphlets we picked up at the visitor's center just over the border, and they recognized the Chihuly art since the 4th graders at their school had studied Chihuly. 

Both kids say seeing the Chihuly exhibit was their favorite part of the trip. Who would have thunk it? I gotta admit, it was pretty awesome. 

Braden really enjoying taking pictures, where allowed, throughout the rest of the museum. 

He also, strangely, got stung by a wasp when he put his hand on a handrail while walking down some steps. A museum docent treated him and we had to complete an incident report. He shed a few tears, but was fine about five minutes later. 


We ended our time in Oklahoma City by going back to Bricktown to check out the canal. It's come a long way since 1999 when it was first built. Kyle and I have always laughed about the night that we very first moved to Stillwater when the top story on the news was that there was a --get this-- frog in the canal.  The people of Oklahoma City have worked hard to make the city a tourist destination, and they've done a fantasic job.  It's a great city to visit.  I read somewhere that something like $20 billion of private and public money has been spent in the last twenty years improving Oklahoma roads, destinations, etc.  It shows. I'd totally recommend Oklahoma City for a long weekend with or without kids. 

We planned on spending the night in Ardmore, and on our drive back down I-35, we swung off to show the boys Turner Falls.  I remember the first time I saw a picture of the falls--no way was that in Oklahoma, I thought.  Sure enough! It's a beautiful spot in the Arbuckle Mountains. The park is open for swimming, camping, etc. We just viewed it from the overlook area, but lots of people were enjoying it on this Memorial Day weekend.  

This is Garrett's best serious explorer face. 

Then, we drove to downtown Ardmore, and had a lovely few hours walking around the mostly deserted downtown.

This is the church where G was baptized. We loved this church!

We all played around taking pictures.

When we lived in Ardmore, Braden was a toddler and LOVED the train station. I would sometimes take him to the train station just to sit and watch the trains. He would do this for hours and hours, if I would have let him.

There are lots of cool old buildings in the downtown area, and I thought of my friend Kelly who would LOVE to take pictures down there. 

aren't we cute? See...we are still in love! Nothing like kissing to gross out the children. 

Is it weird that I made him take his shirt off for this picture? The red of the shirt was really distracting from the blue of his eyes that I was trying to capture. 

This sculpture is in front of the Farmer's Market--a new addition to Ardmore since we moved 5 years ago.  Our whole family loved it--the movement, the glass, the metal.  It really seemed to me to encapsulate the renaissance that Oklahoma is experiencing.

The next morning, we drove out to Dickson to see the school where I taught and where Braden went to "Dickson Comet Football Daycare" (his name for it).  We then let the boys play at Ardmore Regional Park while we waited for a reasonable time to go eat lunch at Two Frogs. Kyle really loves the Filet Orleans, a beef tenderloin filet topped with a crawfish tail sauce.  We split it, but then each got our own desserts. It was a perfect end to our vacation!