Broken Bow or Bust

A few weeks ago, we took a little road trip!   We left Maggie with my mom (hooray!) and brought the three boys to Broken Bow, OK.  We rented an awesome cabin with two other couples, the Speckmans and the Blanchers.   Six "grown ups" and six kids.

It was only a 3 hour drive, and we were the first to arrive.

We got dinner going, and Charlie helped clean the spatula with icing on it.

The cabin was called "Oz" and three floors high.   Four bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, plus a loft with pull out "log" murphy beds for the 5 big boys.

No wifi, and no cell service.  It was kinda amazing.

The rest of the troops arrived soon, and we had a great time catching up.

Enjoyed "What's the fox say?" a few dozen times.

The next morning we went to the state park for a train ride. 

It was a little colder than we expected : )

 

Sweet Evan!

He kept us laughing the entire trip.

And super Cooper

Loading up on the train.

It seemed to take them a while to get things going.

We all enjoyed some AMAZING hot chocolate while we waited.  

Thomas - ready to go!

Here was the crew in the front row.  We thought they would be the coldest, but come to find out the engine heat kept them the warmest!

After the train ride, the plan was to ride horses.  I wore my boots and hat - was a little over excited.
But, after it took so long for the train to get ready, we were afraid the wait for the horses to be saddled would take forever ... so we went up the road to the visitors center.

We checked out the gift shop and then took a little nature hike.   It was great!  Except that even the brochure said, "do not wear slick-soled cowboy boots."    Turns out its almost impossible to navigate down a hill of rocks with boots.   I was sliding all over the place and grabbing onto whoever was close enough to take down with me save me.

Adam found the biggest walking stick.

So very fun to have all these boys together.  

They played really well.

Checking out the creek

We ate snacks, sang a little more of "What's the fox say?", and had a grand ol' time. 

Me and a very tired Charlie.  

Fell asleep on Colin : )

We let him skip naps every day we were there, but he still needs one so badly. 

Don't know what I did, but all of these pictures are over-exposed.

Anyway, here are the biggest boys in this really cool tree trunk.

brothers : )

Cooper got a free ride with Tyler

Went home and roasted hotdogs over the fire. 

Was hoping I could get a foot rub, but no luck. 

  Adam made us some "hot dog cookers" out of sticks.

All the boys (old and young) loved building and maintaining the fire.   

We kept it going for the rest of the day - until late that night.

 Lots of dancing.   

Lots of playing with sticks, and just hanging out.

 Playing with a random dog, Smith.   

Hot tub time!

 More dancing!

 

And smores!

 

 We bought giant marshmallows : )

 Kristen showed us some yoga positions...

 We all took turns with dinners, lunches, and breakfasts.  So yum.  We ate, and ate, and ate.

And I drank like I was in college again.  

Turns out I'm not that young anymore  : )

We went canoeing down the river.  So fun!! It was cold and drizzly, and we made it back just before it poured.   A huge success  -  no one fell in the water. 

We just hung out on the back porch and also watching movies inside for the rest of the day.

Oh, and eating.  We kept eating.

That evening we did a little scavenger hunt for the kids. 

 They found a box full of silly string, stickers, and glow sticks.  

 

 

 Oh silly string ... so much fun! I should have bought enough for the grown-ups too. 

After the silly string, we had a major dance party, aka rave.

 Oh, so fun.

I will forever associate the "running man" with this trip.

After the kids went to bed, we stayed up and played games. 

So fun.

 Awwww... couple shot.

Speckmans

 

 Blanchers, with baby #3 on the way!

 Cooper just told me this morning he wishes we could have stayed at the cabin forever.  Jackson agreed.

They were curled up on the couch under a blanket before school.

Went to take a group shot at a "scenic overlook"

Turns out it wasn't  very scenic.

We tried a second spot, which was beautiful ...

we just had to hold the kids against the rail because it was on the side of a road.

 Checked out the barbed wire?!?!

Went to this cool little place for pizza before we all headed home.

Kids had fun playing in the mud while we waited.

We had such a great time.   And I have to say, life is easier with three kids than four : ) No diapers, no naps ... it was so wonderful.   I'm so appreciative of my mom and brother for keeping Maggie.  It's not that she is "hard" but it was so great to do all the things with the boys.   Where we would have to had split up for naps, etc ...
I really missed her, though. : )

Had a great trip, and looking forward to another one sometime in the future!