Showing posts with label Camping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Camping. Show all posts

Thursday, December 29, 2011

My 2011 Recap!!

Overall 2011 has been a great year. I look back on the year and are thankful for MANY things: My family, friends, job, and my health. 2011 started out with many unknowns- We were moving from South Carolina to Oklahoma!! We did not know a single person already living here so it was a bit scary, but we made the move and are really enjoying Oklahoma. 2011 had a lot of unknowns like; will we like Oklahoma, will Casey find a job, will we make friends, will I like my new job, will we find a house, will we get a lot of tornadoes. The answer to all of the unknowns was YES! Well except for the tornadoes; thankfully we didn't get any this year. However we did get an earthquake!!! Oklahoma is feeling more and more like home to us every day and we are looking forward to what 2012 will have in store.

January:

We moved from South Carolina to Oklahoma for my job. It was a bit scary but we knew we would be just fine, and we have been! Both locations have their ups and downs and we are just making the best of everything. Oh and did i mention i turned 30 in January!!!

February:

SNOW SNOW and more SNOW!!! My second day on the job we were hit with 24 inches of snow and stranded in our new home for a week. It was fun for the first few days, however towards the end we were all starting to get stir crazy! Oklahoma does not normally get this much snow. We hit a record for the most amount of snow this February!

March:

We took a few day trips to explore Oklahoma and surrounding states. We visited Tallgrass Prairie Preserve to see the Bison. We saw 100's of bison on this clear weekend day. We also got not one, but two flat tires on this trip :(
We have not made the 2 hour drive since then, in fear of another flat tire.

We also took a weekend trip to Springfield, MO. We visited the Springfield Zoo where Colton had his first train ride. We took a ride through Fantastic Caverns and we visited the Granddaddy of all Bass Pro Shop! We had a nice family vacation in MO!


April:
We were under our first Tornado watch in Oklahoma. The locals say it's nothing to worry about; however I was a mess and getting ready to drive to a storm shelter!!
I got a new car!! A 2011 Kia Forte!! I love her!
Colton got a turtle. When we asked what he wanted to name his turtle he said "Duck". So we are now the proud owner of a turtle named Duck!


May:

We went to our first Tulsa Driller's Game to watch our neighbor sing the National Anthem! Shayna did such a great job! The driller stadium is very nice, new, and overlooks downtown Tulsa. Looking forward to taking Colton back once he is a bit older and can enjoy the game!

I went on a road trip to Dallas to visit my College friends! I had such a blast visiting Ashley and Jen! I wish the miles were closer for all of us.

We met up with my parents for our first camping trip of the year. We met "half way" between Tulsa and Memphis at Village Creek State Park- Arkansas.

June:

I attended Tulsa's Chef for the Cure. It was for a great cause with great co-workers!

We took a day trip to see the sights on Route 66 between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. We stopped at the Round Barn, Blue Whale and Pops!

Little buddy Colton had his first trip to the ER. He stepped on blender blade; 9 stitches later the only thing that could make him happy was a red popsicle!!!

July:

 We went on a day trip to National Falls State Park on the boarder of Oklahoma and Arkansas. Parts of "Where the Red Fern Grows" was filled at this waterfall. It was very pretty, and very HOT that day. After visiting the falls I read "Where the Red Fern Grows" for the first time. It was so sad!

I spent 2 weeks away from my family in Louisville KY. It was a great work experience and I learned a lot, but I was happy to come home and see my family again! I also got to cross an item off of my Bucket List. I got my first pair of Birkenstocks!



August:

We stayed local this month. We had a picnic at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Visited the RiverWalk in Jenks, OK. I also made my first batch of Hummus and submitted my first recpie to recipe.com ( it has not been published yet :( )

September:

We spent a week in Colorado. We visited my friend's Shanna and Tyler. We had a blast and had perfect weather. We saw the sites in Colorado Springs, Denver, Boulder, Estes Park, and Rocky Mountain National State Park. I can wait to go back September 2012 for their wedding!

We took a day trip to Oklahoma City. Our plan was to visit the Botanical Garden; it was under construction. We also planned to visit the Oklahoma City Zoo; it was WAY too busy. So instead we spent the entire day at the Childern's Science Museum! We had a blast and had the place to our self, since everyone was at the zoo.

October:
We were invited to our first OU Football Party! I volunteered for a breast cancer awareness event; Treasure your Chest! We saw the famous Luchadoors in Downtown Tulsa!
Casey's parents came to visit! They were here for Halloween and Colton's 4th birthday! So great to see them. It had been almost a year since we saw them last!!

November:

Colton Turns 4 Years Old! Time sure does fly!


I ran my first race! 4 miles and 3 pints of Guinness for Tulsa's Pub Run!


We spent Thanksgiving with my parents in Olive Branch, MS. It was so good to spend the holiday with my parents and my sister's family! The boys had a blast playing together. It makes me wish the miles were closer :(


December:

We took Colton ice skating for the first time, visited the center of the universe, I GAVE BLOOD, and my parents came to visit for Christmas!!!!


2011 was a great year with lots of adventures!

 We are looking forward to what comes our way in 2012!! Happy New Year to all!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Green Leaf State Park; Oklahoma

Casey went camping at Green Leaf State Park a few weekends ago with a few guy friends. I asked that he bring the camera and take some pictures. This is ALL I got...

A seasoning salt picture...
The campground...
A deadly snake that they caught, killed...
AND ATE!!!! So gross!!
I don't think that C3 will be visiting this state park. You had to pay to take a shower!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Village Creek State Park- Arkansas

For Memorial Day Weekend C3 went camping with Nene and Papa. It was our first time camping in Arkansas. We had a great time and thought Village Creek State Park was very nice.


They had a playground for buddy! Always a plus!




Fishing for the family. Side note- Colton's fishing pole did not make it back to the dock, it is somewhere at the bottom of this lake :(




Fun times with Nene and Papa.














Movie night at campsite A.




Dutch Oven cooking!







A lake for Colton to "swim".




"Ladies and Gentleman here's Colton" State for a dance party in the woods!





And lots of outdoor activities to keep crazy Colton busy!




Overall we would give this park 7 1/2 stars out of 10.




There are three things we did not like about the state park.


1. BUGS BUGS and more BUGS


2. The bathrooms were not cleaned on a regular basis


3. Lots of traffic on campsite B- there is free beach access near where we were staying and a lot of local families and teens came to the beach. Many drove by way too fast to get the beach.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Richard B Russell State Park

C3 spent the weekend camping at Richard B Russell State Park. We had a great time, and the weather was just perfect for camping and being outdoors. This was our first tent camping trip! Friends of ours would be joining us on Saturday night, so we decided to borrow a tent so that we could share a campsite. On our first night, we stayed at campsite #2 and it was way too small for our family of 3. The view was decent of the lake, and the walk to the restrooms was pretty far. Our friends were joining us Saturday night and i was worried how we were going to fit another family of 3 with their tent too! Luckily on Saturday morning we realized that the campers at site #6 had left! This site was a large pull through site right on the water! There is no way that both of our tents would have fit at site #2. Plus #6 was a bit closer to the restrooms. The restrooms were cleanish, and had a very small shower. The yummy coffee peculator we got! I'm not sure what it is about camping, but everything seems to taste better when camping. It must be all the fresh air we are getting. Our friends, Kayla, Jonathon and Jud! Jud is just a few months younger that Colton. The two boys had a fun time playing and fishing together. Colton caught his first fish!!!!!!
Colton also rode on a skate board for the first time, and of course,
it's a Harvest Long Board!


My boys! I love this picture!






We had some interesting neighbors.
Colton loved walking by these campers and looking at the spiders.



We had a great time camping at Richard B Russell State Park. It was about an hour and a half drive from our hours. The campsites were on a loop around the lake, so there were really only campers to the left and right of you. We did not feel like other campers were right on top of us. I can say that this campsite was QUIET! Meaning, i think we were the loudest ones there. There seemed be more retired couples camping than younger families with kids. We had fun and would go back again.