Witchita Mountains

This weekend we took a day trip to the Witchita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. It was our first trip there and we will be back.




Emmett was all about some hiking. Never mind the path; he was a bulldozer. In fact I had to do a bit of corralling to keep him headed in the right direction.







Probably the best part about the park was the free roaming animals. We saw a lot of lone buffalo and then we happened upon this whole herd. We also saw a longhorn, but of course that was when I didn't have the camera on me.


Because of the drought there was a burn ban, but we came prepared with charcoal which we were allowed to use in the grates. It wasn't quite as fun as roasting over an open flame, but with Emmett's fearless nature I'm not sure a fire on the ground would have been a good idea anyway.






We took a gorgeous drive to the top of Mt. Scott and we had fantastic views from up there. Because Emmett had been all over the place on the trails below and because there was no more than a few larger rocks separating us from the the edge we decided to keep Emmett in the car. Casey and I took turns exploring with Miles and Emmett was tired enough that he didn't mind being in the car.

Great State Fair of Oklahoma!

After arriving home from Virginia at 3:45am Saturday morning my boss graciously gave me a free day off to compensate and we used it for a weekday fair trip on Wednesday. Despite the short showers that kept cropping up we had a great day.

We started with the animal barns where we met horses, sheep, and pigs. We saw the birthing center where there were lots of newborns. We even got to pet a baby chick and a bunny.


We spent some time in the butterfly garden where we saw dozens of different kinds of butterflies. Both boys were far more interested in butterflies than I expected. We had one casualty when Emmett stepped on one by accident. Oops!




We also went through the petting zoo where we fed llamas, goats, pigs and others.







We happened upon a very small parade with horses, tractors, and real cowboys.



We found a dinosaur attraction that was supposed to be a journey through the body of a dinosaur. I figured it would be right up Miles' alley since he's so into science. He was reluctant to enter and from the outside it did look pretty intimidating with the loud music, dark mouth, and the giant teeth. I ended up carrying him through and it was pretty lame. It's pretty much exactly what you would expect for $3 at the fair. We entered through the "esophagus" and exited through the "large intestine" complete with fart noises.

Soccer

It's been a rocky start. Miles is tolerating soccer, but he doesn't love it. We practice at a school with a nice big playground and he'd much rather spend his practice time playing so sometimes he does. It's enough of a problem that we are moving practice to the other side of the school. Miles isn't the only one distracted by the playground, but he's certainly the most stubborn. When he's done with soccer for the day he's done. Casey volunteered to be assistant coach to help keep Miles engaged and it helped some. Casey was able to find some fun games that the kids seem to like so practices have been getting better.

This weekend we had our first game and we definitely have room to improve. Miles would run around for a minute and then just walk off the field. That was a common theme for our team. At one point we only had one player on the field and none of the other kids wanted to play. Our lone player told Casey that we needed more balls which was a pretty cute idea, but unfortunately not within the rules of the game.

A Walk Around the Neighborhood

We love going for walks and now that it's not so hot we're back to walking through the neighborhood a couple times a week. There's still a lot of rural area surrounding our neighborhood so sometimes we venture off the beaten path and do some exploring. The kids absolutely love these nature walks.

Oktoberfest

This week we headed to Choctaw for their annual Oktoberfest. It was our first visit and all in all it was a fun night albeit a longish drive for mainly just dinner. We sampled some German food, listened to a live German band, and Miles took a round through the bounce houses.

Arts Festival

Sunday we headed out to the OCCC Arts Festival. We enjoyed some tasty fair food, the crafts and the giant sandbox in the kiddie tent, and the gorgeous fall weather. We came back that night for the fireworks and we took in the show from underneath a cozy blanket on the lawn.


Learning to juggle with scarfs.






Meeting Seymour Art.







The highlight of the trip.




Our creations!

Week 34

Double fisted bacon eater