We packed up the car and headed to Robbers Cave State Park in OK for a wilderness retreat. One of our nieces, Emma, worked with her dad to plan a family camp out.
I'll be honest, I was tired, pregnant, and not all that excited about it this trip. Turns out, what you need most, isn't what you think it is. We had a great time being away from the city and enjoying God's beautiful creations.
Here are some memorable moments from our trip.
(1) Miss Sophie - Our camp site was on the bank of the river -- absolutely beautiful with the sun setting and fall leaves changing colors. While we were yet unpacking the cars, Sophie managed to do the unthinkable -- jump into the water! Of course, she claimed it was an accident. We should have expected as much from the crazy 3 year old...but she was given amble warning. Luckily, we could share Tanner's extra shoes/coat so she could be all nice and cozy.
(2) Mr. Tanner, on the other hand, had another "accident" that was completely my fault. On the car trip down, we put him in a diaper so we wouldn't have any emergency potty breaks in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. While we were getting settled in and making dinner, Tanner mentioned he had to go to the bathroom. I didn't feel like hiking down to the bathroom to take him -- so I told him just to go in his pants. He gave me a weird look and then repeated to ask to go to the bathroom. Well, needless to say, he finally headed my advice, except to my horror, I realized he was not wearing a diaper (Anthony had already put his undies back on). I just told my child to pee in his pants, awesome!
(3) Miriam - 8 years old, going on 20. My favorite quote all weekend, "I'm glad I'm not like those other fancy, frilly girls. Alls I need is a slick of chapstick and I'm good to go."
2nd Favorite Quote: Getting ready to eat pancakes and pouring Aunt Jemima syrup on Tanner's Pancakes. "No, mom! That's girls syrup. Do we have any BOY syrup?"
(4) Robber's Cave - We hiked up with the whole family about a mile to Robber's Cave -- an old cave that robbers used to make their escape over 100 years ago -- until finally it was purposefully dynamited to prevent such escapes.
We should have know with the ones, they always prefer to take the path less traveled. The was a easy trail for us to hike up, but of course, the kids preferred to climb the rocks no matter how steep. And with toddlers, it can be quite scary, to say the least.
Somehow we made it, safe and sound. Here's a breathtaking few from the top:
Inside the cave, we had our own sort of fun:
Nature's playground. 
Cassidy is always the adventurous time, and if you saw her dad, you'd understand why.
(5) Roasting S'mores by the fire. The BEST part of camping and the only reason I agreed to come in the freezing cold weather. It doesn't get much better...
(6) Freezing Cold -- When I first decided to come, I didn't realize it would be in the 50s for the high. At night, it must have gotten into the 30s. Anthony reassured me I'd stay warm with the sub-zero sleeping bag. "When I use that sleeping bag, I don't need anything else on, otherwise I got too hot." Well-- I beg to differ. Even with my 3 layers of clothing, I froze. And poor Tanner did too. He kept waking up every 30 minutes. Around 2 am, he started screaming, "I want my shovel!" (i.e., another nightmare about having to share his toys). Anthony about had it and dragged him to the car. He didn't like that much either, but made a truce with him he could return to the tent if he was quite and slept in his own sleeping bag. It worked like a charm cause that was the last time (that night) he woke up.
(7) Keys. On second thought, though, it wasn't the smartest idea. On the late-night escapade, turns out the keys got left in the car and Anthony locked it. It's hard to think straight in the middle of the night. Luckily, a few phone calls and $20 later, we were back in our car. I was shocked at how quickly the "locksmith" worked his magic, but I'm sure there's a few scrapes I don't want to know about. The important thing -- we got our keys!
I've learned my lesson. Next time, we're sleeping in a cabin!
Despite the cold weather, we definitely enjoyed the beautiful scenery, mugs of hot chocolate, a quick snooze by the lake, s'mores by the fire, paddle boating in the sun, touring the nature museum, feeding the huge goldfish, and enjoying time with family.
The kids were entertained 110% of the time. Turns out, all kids need to be happy is dirt and shovel and spent majority of time building some sort of castle. They tried to go "fishing" but only caught weeds. At least they got to see/touch some other fisherman's trout. Tanner also enjoyed "going on bear hunts" along our hike the following morning.
