Beaver's Bend- Spring Break 2012

Monday, April 2nd, it was finally here....SPRING BREAK....and our long awaited camping trip to Beaver's Bend State Park in Oklahoma. After a long 5 days of fever and strep throat, while daddy was turkey hunting, mama was ready to put sickness behind her and sit in her lawn chair! Poor Cooper was still sick when we left, but we dosed him up with motrin and headed out around 6 am following our friends the Mcniel's. There was already a large part of our group there that had arrived the day before. In all there would be 15 adults, 23 children, 17 of those being boys, and 4 dogs. What a crew... After arriving we got our campsite all set up... Complete with my pink flamingos in front of my camper, ha! Erik was beyond thrilled! Poor Cooper spent the whole day in the camper on the couch still suffering from strep throat and a fever. While Hagen, was off to go fishing with the other boys. Later that afternoon I headed end to town with Chelsea, Sarah and her little girl Grace (she is in Hagen's kindergarten class) to hit Wal-Mart for some last minute supplies. We had heard people through the store talking about a storm coming in, not thinking much about it. On our way back to the park we stopped at a local grocery store, Sarah and Chelsea ran in while Grace an I sat in the truck. Before I knew it, the sky was dark gray, the dirt was swirling in circles on the ground, and there was that oh so familiar beeping National Weather Service Bulletin on the radio. While I was reassuring Grace everything was going to be fine, I suddenly remembered we where in Oklahoma, home of the movie Twister. We hurried back to the campsite, where Erik had already taken down my Christmas lights from the awning of my camper, that he was so "excited" to put up earlier that day, so we could roll up the awning before the storm. The rain and winds soon passed, and just a light drizzle continued off and on through the night. We had a wonderful meal that night of burgers thanks to Sarah and Shannon, and the kids loved making smores around the fire. Tuesday, started with a great camping breakfast, eggs, pancakes, bacon, little smokies on the grill outside. I LOVE breakfast! After breakfast, most of the boys and dads headed out to fish. The girls stayed in camp and enjoyed the view from our lawn chairs. Sometime that afternoon, we started to hear reports of tornado's hitting parts of North Texas, specifically one of the schools in Forney. My sister Meghan, teaches/coaches at Forney High School, I was eventually able to reach my mom and she reported that my sister's campus was not hit by the storm but they were in lock down until about 5:30 that evening. The storm system was heading North East right toward us, and it soon started to poor, we were instructed by the park staff to take cover in the bath houses if needed..Oh my.. Fortunately we just received heavy rain. Camping is all about being spontaneous...So we hosted a spontaneous party in our camper that night while it rained. At one point we had 10 adults and 12 children in our camper. Erik made his famous guacamole, the kids watched a movie and played the X Box and the adults played 42. We still had a great time despite the rain! Wednesday morning the sun was shining and the weather was great! The boys went fishing once again, and the girls decided to head to town to the laundry mat! Yes, laundry on vacation....there was wet, muddy, clothes and towels everywhere. Michelle, Chelsea, Sarah, Grace, Harper and I, visited what I must say was the nicest laundry mat I have ever seen. We started our clothes, and looked across the street and what did we find...Mexican food, we decided that was just what we needed. After a nice lunch, and clean laundry we met Shannon and Christina at "Girls Gone Wine" It was the cutest little gift shop, that had a wine tasting bar in the back, of course I was the driver so I did not do much tasting, but it truly was an adorable place. We headed back to camp that afternoon to get ready for fish fry night!

Harper, wanting to know when the fish was going to be ready?

Frying fish.

Harper and Grant.

The boys washing their hands before supper.

Enjoying the great food.

And after supper, a little dancing. Cooper, Grace and Sarah performing The Cupid Shuffle. Later that night, the boys enjoyed more smores and then a night time game of baseball, using a whiffle ball with glow sticks shoved in the wholes. They had the BEST time ever.

A few more pictures of Harper cruising in the police car and posing by the infamous campsite flamingos. Thursday started out with another wonderful breakfast provided by the McManus family. After breakfast we all headed for a canoeing trip. I was so excited!

This is all of us loaded on a bus that took us for the rental place down to the river.

Everyone loaded up and ready to go!

How cute is she?

This is where Harper ended up riding most of the trip, right up front between my legs, after crying through the first half of the trip she slept through the second half.

The Capeharts in the canoe next to us.

A pretty waterfall we spotted on the trip, this was right after Erik rammed me into the brush trying to get over to the bank to look at it.. After the canoe trip, Sean, Erik, Scott and Ray headed to the golf course for some golf, the other guys headed out for some more fly fishing. Michelle, Sarah, Shannon and I decided to take the majority of the kids, to the nature museum at the park office, so off we went.

Our crew. Please take note of the "little princess" in front! Ha!

My sweet babies.

Enjoying the museum.

It is a tough life being Miss Harper Kate Tijerina!

Cooper loved these horses.

Such a beautiful place.

My big boy. After the museum, Michelle and I came back and start preparing for our meal night, we where having fajitas! We got everything prepared and the guys got back from a great day of golf and got the meat on the grill.

Enjoying the food. Friday morning started with an early fishing trip for the boys, as this was going to be our last day. While the boys were fishing, Michelle, Sarah and I were given the job of cooking breakfast. Well, we got SO BUSY sitting in our chairs drinking coffee and talking when the boys returned home there was no breakfast to speak of..

Fishing..

The Catch of the Day. When the boys returned we very quickly all worked together and whipped a wonderful breakfast!

How sweet is this picture! Harper was so tired from a morning playing and breakfast, she passed out on Jace. Jace is seriously one of the sweetest boys you will ever meet and was constantly trying to make Harper smile! During breakfast, everyone was talking about how they hated to leave, and we wished we could stay just one more night. Then everyone kind of looked at each other and said, "why not?" After quickly sweet talking the camp hosts they had four spots open for the four of our remaining families that decided to stay just one more night. So, the Martins, Donnels, Capeharts and yours truly decided to camp just one more night. After a late breakfast/lunch, Erik, Ray and his son Ray went for a bike ride on a trail. I had been promising Cooper I would take him on the train ride all week. So, Sean, Michelle and I loaded up a portion of the kids, Travis, Trent, Trace, Hagen, Cooper, Harper and Grace to go on the train ride adventure.

Getting read to go on the train ride. Love those sweet boys.

"The Girls"

Harper and Grace had matching pigtails for the train ride.

Our great friends the Donnells.

The view outside the train ride.

Lucky us...We just happened to have the lucky ticket and won a free bag of cotton candy!

After the train ride, we headed back to camp for an afternoon of games, fishing and fun. The boys did not return back to camp, until around 8 pm so we all decided to head back into town for pizza. We ate dinner at the neatest pizza place, The Grateful Head. They had the best pizza and the neatest atmosphere. All the boys sat at a table just to themselves with their own pizza, they LOVED that, I believe their were eight of them! Before we made it back to camp, Hagen and Harper were asleep. Hagen NEVER falls asleep early. We all headed to bed. Saturday, morning we all said goodbye to Beaver's Bend and headed back to Mabank, but not before making reservations for next year's spring break. We had to get back to Texas to prepare for Easter tomorrow.