Westward Bound Take III

As I mentioned yesterday, we were up early and by 7:30, we had arrived at our new destination. We are a part of a group on Facebook in which people live full-time on the road. If you know me personally or have been reading this blog very long you know that we want to do this for a year before our boys are grown. Anyway, a couple of months ago I saw these pictures someone posted of a little "gem" they had found. I told Johnny if we were ever in the area, we should check it out. Turner Falls Park in Davis, Oklahoma is indeed a gem. We hoped to camp in the park (it is all first come-first serve), but it was a Friday and more people are always camping on the weekends. When we pulled up to the entrance, we were excited to know they did have spots left! To get to the camping area, we had to cross this bridge-which the water flows over. 

John Gannon lectured Johnny. He always stops or goes really slow when there is something new like this and it drives JG crazy! "What if this river starts flowing like the Ocoee and here we are in this truck?" We got everything set and headed out to explore. We walked across from our campsite to follow a trail...

 It led us down to the water to explore all kinds of neat things.

By the way ladies, that is a "lake dress" I am wearing. It is perfect for these kinds of adventures-it is made entirely of swim-suit material. 

This place was so beautiful! Because of the light colored rocks, it made the water look crystal clear and that paradise green/blue color!

 The guys found a small cave to explore.

 I absolutely love watching these two explore new places!

 Eventually, we found a larger cave.

 Once we got inside, it was really awesome! I am not sure how I forgot to take pictures!

After we were done exploring that area, we went down to another level of the park in which there is a deeper hole of water. They have 2 slides and a diving board. Again, the water and scenery is beautiful! And FYI: All children 12 and under have to wear life jackets at all times. If you go, make sure you pack some. Both of our boys are swimmers, but I still make them wear life jackets when they are in our lake at home. There is just so much more area when swimming in natural pools of water than in pools.

 Did you think he would go off the slide like a normal person? OF course not, that is a little too safe!

 Here is how a safe person goes off the slide, one hand in the air-just in case Jesus needs to reach down and grab me to safety!

 I just thought this one was funny--his arms look like they have been stretched somehow!

 This little guy loves to do some twists and cannon balls!

 We explored on the other side of the pool a bit.

 After playing there several hours, we walked over to another area and here is what we found!

 More natural beauty!

There are two old castles in the park that served as "summer homes" for the people who built them. Of course, we checked them out.

 Behold, the guard with a swelled out chest...

 We had a perfect day, playing and exploring for over 8 hours!

 Don't let this fool you-I thought he was going to nap. Turns out, he was just resting his eyes for about 60 seconds or so... I am always amazed at the endurance of both of these boys-they can keep going and going.

Turner Falls Park was indeed a great place! From here, we journey to our next adventure, a place where I have at least 3,204 philosophical thoughts run through my head in the matter of minutes as I wrestle with a huge bought of fear. Will it defeat me?

Oh, and just so you know-you probably want to avoid this place (Turner Falls) on a Saturday. At 8:30 a.m. we were leaving the park and traffic was backed up for miles trying to get into the park. Again, we just attribute our timing and experience as a gift from God!

Live a Meaningful Life!