Broken Bow, Oklahoma

We'd wanted to go on a short weekend trip for Labor Day weekend, but never got around to planning it (and good thing, because it rained heavy all day Labor Day around here). So for Columbus Day weekend we decided to do something. We have heard for years that Broken Bow, Oklahoma is a really great place to go, with a couple of nice state parks with lakes and hiking and other fun outdoorsy things. So we booked a cabin with Airbnb and headed up there. We had a great time, except that I was really disappointed that I didn't plan well enough and several of the things I'd wanted to do weren't open on Monday when we wanted to go. It was tricky also since it was General Conference weekend, so it was hard to balance watching Conference while also being in a tiny cabin where our kids were pretty much being awful (so pretty much all of Sunday). But the time that we spent outside was fun, and that made it worth the trip. 

Beautiful scenery on the drive from Dallas to Oklahoma!

Our cabin had a fire pit, which was one of the main requirements I had for it. We roasted s'mores every night and the kids were in heaven. So was I... having a campfire is one of my favorite things about camping. 

The boys were very serious about roasting their hot dogs. 

Lucy was trying to blow out the fire. She's so smart. 

Lucy was so happy to be staying somewhere that didn't have a high chair for her to sit in! More excuse not to eat anything at all!

We went on several great hikes on Saturday morning. The kids were troopers--not that they were hard, but we did get kind of lost on our first one and were walking for a while. 

Dane got a "nature explorer kit" for his birthday and was so excited to use all of the pieces of his kit while on our hikes. 

Excuse me. This is possibly my favorite picture of the whole trip. SO CUTE. 

Oh, but I forgot. Lucy on a pony was definitely my favorite moment of the whole trip. Even if nothing else had been fun, Lucy's reaction to getting to ride on this pony for 3 minutes would have made the whole trip worth it. She kept laughing and laughing and yelling, "Wheeeeee!!!" at the top of her lungs--I have never seen her so happy!

Dane and Graham loved it too--but Lucy stole the show. 

She was not thrilled about taking a family picture... 

... but she will definitely do a selfie with Daddy any day.

Everyone was excited to ride on the little train through the woods in the state park. 

And then we got ice cream afterwards. I love Lucy's little face watching the boys with their ice cream. Where is mine??

Don't worry, she got some. 

Doing some paddleboats...

And then we played on the beach at the river for like 3 hours. The kids could seriously play in the sand at a beach all day long. If only it didn't require constant diligence from us to make sure Lucy doesn't drown herself, then it would actually be fun for all of us. 

We finished up the day by heading back to the cabin and watching the last hour of General Conference in the hot tub while Lucy slept in the car. Best hour of the day!

We started off Sunday with a nice little nature walk. 

With some gorgeous views!

Daddy with his ducks in a row, haha. 

We tried watching Conference with the kids. We really did. But by the middle of the afternoon session all of my great ideas had failed and everyone was mad at everyone. I was so frustrated because I spent a lot of time and energy packing things and activities and snacks to keep them happy while we watched Conference in a different place. But it just didn't work very well. So Tommy just took the kids to a different beach close to the house and let them play for the last while while I watched it at home and got dinner ready. Oh, well. Next time we are ever traveling over Conference weekend, we'll know to do something differently. 

The kids love the Foosball table in the cabin we were staying at. 

Everyone was a big fan of the hot tub!!!

The last thing we did there on Columbus Day was going to this very weird animal rescue petting zoo. It wasn't just a normal petting zoo with goats and chickens--they also had deer and snakes and skunks and all sorts of wild animals that had been rescued. I got SUCH a kick out of watching the kids feeding these wild deer. I've never seen such a thing before!

Graham surrounded by deer, haha. 

I love this of Lucy feeding a deer just her size, ha!

Dane even got to feed a baby deer its bottle... but this bigger deer kept stealing it. 

Tommy and I held a de-skunked skunk. Apparently there are skunk breeders who breed skunks like this for pets. Why would you get a skunk when you could get a cat? I don't know. 

It was a fun weekend, but also a long one. I think Broken Bow would be a really fun place for us to visit again, especially once our kids are a little older. There were lots of things we hadn't done, like canoe and kayak rentals--I could see that being really fun for Tommy and the boys in a few years. I'm glad we went, and we've learned some more things about traveling with kids!