Saturday, July 17, 2010

Vacation: The Reprise

I suppose I should be a good girl and post about our vacation before I forget all the details. I've been dreading it, but not because we didn't have a great time or I don't have any pictures. It's because we had too much fun, and there's too much I want to say, and we have too many pictures!

I'll try to be kind to my reading public, all three of you.

Today will just be a basic overview of what we did and where we went. Maybe I'll have the mental and emotional fortitude to go into more detail or funny stories as the week progresses.

The first day, we went to see the Alabaster Caverns. They weren't as great as I remember from my own childhood, but the kids seemed suitably impressed. They were disappointed that we didn't see any bats. Here they are when hope was still alive.



We headed to the Great Salt Plains Lake, and checked into our cute little cabin. Air conditioning, and clean bathroom with shower, and a kitchen with refrigerator, stove and microwave are my idea of camping.




We all swam and made sandcastles and hunted for fossils up on the dam. Great fun! (The water was warm and perfect that first day, but by the next it was quite a bit colder and had risen a good deal because of flooding in the region.)



This lake is very shallow. Art went all the way out to the limit of the swimming area, and it was only up to his chest. It's supposed to be that way through most all of the lake.



The next morning we dug for selenite crystals at the nearby Salt Plains. Here's Art with his excavation. Because of the heavy rains the week before, we were able to find most of our crystals in the washed out piles left by previous diggers. The kids did a good deal of scavenging.





We played board games in our cabin each evening. The kids were also introduced to the American traditions of Battleship and Uno.






On Thursday we went to Leonardo's Discovery Warehouse in Enid. They loved the huge treehouse/play area, but were stung by wasps from the firehouse in the background of this picture. They had completely recovered by the time we went back inside. It was a wonderful little place for kids.







We went to eat at IHOP, a first for the kids, and a lady who was passing our table on her way back from the bathroom offered to take our picture.



Then we went to the mall in Enid, which is a sort of sad and pathetic shell of what it used to be. Or so we heard. The most impressive thing we found was the three pound lollipop at Candyopolis. The lady had us take it out so the kids could get a picture with it. I think she was just so excited to have a customer she didn't know what to do with herself. She was offering the kids free candy and helping us with our picture and telling us that we looked like a military family. (Yeah, I was confused too.) I love living in Oklahoma. The people are great! (OK, most of them)




Anyway, that evening we went on a (ostensibly) four mile hike. The map was wrong, and we did a good deal of circling, so I think it must been more than that.



There are all sorts of funny little things that happened, but that's your basic overview. Here we all are standing by the spillway, saying howdy to our families back home.

8 comments:

Lilibeth said...

I know that's a lot of work weaving the words into the pictures...especially since you have to work backwards, but it made a great story to read and summary of your vacation. Board games? Is that sort of like pen and paper rpg's? My favorite of the pictures are the fossil digging ones. Hey, I didn't see you in there all covered with mud?

Lisa said...

Saying you look like a military family in Enid is like saying you look like a farm family here. It's a pretty safe guess. Enid's biggest employer is Vance Air Force Base.

Johanna said...

What a wonderful vacation! :)

aftergrace said...

How fun! It sounds like you had a wonderful time. It looks like a beautiful place, not too very far from home. (which is helpful when you have little ones).

I love the "bunny ears" Art is producing over Zaya's head. Boys will be boys.

Lainey-Paney said...

Looks like a ton of fun was had by all!

Chandelle said...

More than three are following - :) Looks like a fabulous family time. I'm so ready for some time together with my little family of four.

Kim said...

I had to laugh at your kids' disappointment at not seeing bats! I've never been able to get out of my head the image of this dead bat that someone (my dad, maybe?) picked up and laid on the dash of our car. I stared and stared at the bat for what seemed like hours, terrified that it might come back to life and start flapping around inside the cab.

SunnyBrook said...

Looks like you had a lot of fun. I love the pic at the bottom. Ya'll are too cute!