Beaver's Bend...a little delayed

At the beginning of this month my family took a vacation to Beaver's Bend, OK. we had so much fun enjoying each other and just spending time together.
The cabin was more than we could have ever imagined. The first thing you see when you walk through the door is the three story window that looks out into the forest. The decor in the cabin looked like Great Wolf Lodge meets the IKEA catalog. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Before we ever left for the trip, we drew names for who would cook breakfast an dinner each day. It made for some great menus. We had some old family standbys: like stroganoff and
breakfast casserole. We also tried out some new recipes: like french toast and cheese enchiladas.

On our way to the cabin we stopped in Paris, TX for lunch. It proved a little harder than we thought to find a place open for lunch on Sundays. We finally found a place called "The Roadhouse." It was the kind of small-town place where you have to walk through the smoking section to get to the non-smoking.

Kyle and I were just happy to get out of the Jeep for a while.




We encountered a little bit of wildlife when they sat us at a table with an awkwardly low hanging buffalo head. Seriously...his hair was about an inch from my face.



While we were in Paris, I navigated us to the Texas Eiffel Tower. The nieces really seemed to enjoy it.



My attempt at being an abstract photographer.



We also made a stop on the way in Hugo, OK. My mom's family has some roots in Hugo, and she knew of a so-called "Circus Cemetery." We weren't really sure what to expect, but it was fantastic and bizarre at the same time.

By far the tallest gravestone.



Some of the gravestones were really intricate and showed what the person did in the circus.




Our first day in Beaver's Bend we ventured out to the forest museum. There were a ton of wood carvings and antique wood products.

Kyle and I took a picture with Woody the bear. He's much more fun to party with than Smokey.


We also got to see a 100 year old log cabin. Let's just say it had an open floor plan.




That day we took a trip to Broken Bow lake and went on the bumper boats. It was apparently pretty amusing seeing my sister-in-law Shellye get in (and out of) the bumper boats.




Me and the nieces found a scenic creek and decided it begged for a photo op.


Kyle was super excited to get to take Jeb the Jeep out to his natural habitat, as he puts it. It really was beautiful out there.

Kami was feeling a little dejected after fishing for a few hours with no bites. This was her best attempt at a pouty face.

While Kami, Kyle, and I were fishing, Kevan and Brook decided to try their hand at flying kites. Brook had been wanting to break out her kite all summer, but there really wasn't any wind to speak of. Up here, there was plenty. I haven't seen her smile that big in a while.

Kyle really got his feet wet while we were fishing. This is him out about 2 feet into the water. He was really at one with nature. Nice to see him in his natural habitat, as well :)

On the way back from fishing we saw a go-kart place on the side of the road. They were just about to close, but let us all go for a spin before they shut everything down. It was so much fun, but I haven't driven gokarts in a while and was a little chicken. Kami was the leader of the pack, as anyone could have guessed (she who has no fear). Kyle brought up second, with me in third, and Brook (who couldn't ever get around me because I kept accidentally cutting her off) came in fourth.

I would say that we had a fun filled trip with lots of great memories made. It was Kyle's first family vacation with all of us, and hopefully it won't be his last. I think everyone was pretty worn out by the end of the trip, as evidenced by how my niece, Kami fell asleep in the Jeep on the way back home.

I can't wait for our next family adventure!!!