Family Vacation

We left Norman around 6 pm on Thursday and headed for the mountains...Quartz Mountains that is :) Not enough time or patience to make it to the Rockies so SW OK will have to do :) We got off to a great start thanks to Papa George loaning us the Expedition equipped with a DVD player. We popped in a new Wubbzy video, got the kiddos dinner at McDonald's and didn't hear a peep out of them the entire drive! We arrived at the entrance to Mt. Scott (near Medicine Park) at 7:58 pm. The sign said, "gate closes at 8 pm" so we had to turn around and save the mountain for the next day. We stopped back by Medicine Park and had a fabulous dinner at the Plantation Cafe. The kids were less than well behaved as they had 2 hours of pent up energy they were ready to unleash! So, we scarfed down our fried food as fast as we could and got out of there :) We took a walk across the MP bridges...so pretty covered with Christmas lights! The kids loved running across :) Wish we could have seen more of this area in the day time.

After a quick walk through Medicine Park, we got back in the car in search of a place to stay in Lawton. Luckily, we found a great hotel with a small wall between the beds which made it easy to get the kids down. Well, maybe easy isn't the right word....more like easier. The kid's beds were right next to each other and they did what you would expect kids to do when it's time to go to bed....they giggled their silly heads off!!! Sooooo cute! Travis and I layed in bed listening to them for quite a while before we enforced sleep time :) So, to all of you parents who find yourselves in this situation in the future....put the older child in bed with you, put the younger child in his/her crib, THEN, when the younger child drifts off to sleep, put older child back in their bed. This worked like a charm for us...wish we had started with this plan to begin with :)

The next morning after breakfast we headed back to Mt. Scott. The road was long, windy and narrow. I stressed the entire way up. Once on top, Nathan couldn't wait to get out and go exploring. So, he and Travis went out and climbed some rocks and took in the beautiful view.

We stopped at the Nature Center and Museum and the kids really enjoyed looking at all of the creatures. Nathan loved the deer antler exhibit and Natalie liked the butterflies...go figure!

Back in the car and off to our next adventure...Quartz Mountain! We hope to stay at the Lodge there sometime this summer, so we decided to go check it out while we were so close. The area is fabulous! Who knew Oklahoma had such great scenery...so different than what we have around the Metro. The Lodge overlooks the lake which is gorgeous...blue water!!! We are really looking forward to spending more time there this summer. While we were there, we decided to hike one of the smaller mountains. Travis carried Natalie to the top, but Nathan was such a trooper and climbed all by himself! With Daddy leading the way and Mommy hanging back to catch anyone who falls...Luckily we all made it to the top and back down again with no problems :) Once on top, we let Natalie go exploring. Nathan is our little mountain climber...he really enjoyed the hike. We saw tons of cactus plants on the hike which fascinated Nathan. He was quick to point out some that had a heart shape to them...so observant!

After our hike, we piled back into the car and headed home. Along the way, we came across a fun park and had to check it out. Nathan and Travis rode the go-carts and tilt-a-whirl while Natalie and I sat in the car (she was glued to Wubbzy and we were not about to take her away from it!!) She was too small to ride anything at the park anyway. We all had yummy snow cones which was the perfect snack after a long day of sight seeing, hiking and go-cart riding :)