Witchita Mini-Vacation

It has been a while since we have been able to get away as a family and just spent some time hanging out together.  With an extra day off we decided/hoped this weekend would work.  With basketball tournaments and wells drilling it almost didn't but thankfully everything fell into place and we were able to head out Saturday to the Witchita Wildlife preserve in Lauton OK.  To me when the bible talks about a barren and desolate land this is what I picture.  There are lots of boulders, scrub trees and "mountains"  Ron looks at this land and thinks it is beyond beautiful...such a different take on what we see.  Regardless of what we both think everyone enjoyed exploring this land.  We did lots of hiking-might be slow going but everyone stuck with it.  The kids mostly loved finding caves and crevasse to climb in, plenty of huge boulders to climb.  We spend the evening at a hotel and did a lot of swimming, something James was pretty excited about-both swimming and the hotel.  Sunday we hung out a little at the hotel and then headed back to the preserve to explore some more.  The older kids hiked to the top of Mt Lincoln  pretty impressive to see them on top.   James and I stayed at the bottom.  It don't know what is worse, dragging a kid up rocks or sitting with them waiting for an hour...we sang lots of songs, and threw lots of rocks.  By the time we were done hiking the most common phrase the kids were yelling was "cactus alert"   It was a wonderful time spent away from everything.

MORE PICTURES FROM THIS WEEKEND

 

 

 I won't say what Ron did to make the kids crack up.... something kids only think is funny.

 We came back from a hike to find this huge bull buffalo right by our car.

 James never likes being left behind.  Good thing he has an never ending supply of energy.