A Little Day Trip

We decided to take a little trip on Sunday.
Friends at GFA recently went to Turner Falls and told us it was really neat.
We took them at their word and headed out around 9am.

Since I absolutely {LOVE} Cracker Barrel for breakfast, I suggested that we give the kids a cereal snack and then grab a later breakfast halfway there. Perfect!
We arrived at Turner Falls, which is in Oklahoma, around noon. (It's 2 hours north of Dallas.)

Since it's still off-peak season until May 1 and Rylee doesn't turn 6 years old until next week, it only cost us $7.67 for admission. Sweet.

Upon first arriving, we decided to hike to a cave. There are three. We went up to one. Along the way we passed the big waterfall. The cave was up a hill too steep to get to, but our kids did great climbing up the mountain to the area just below the entrance. (You can sort of tell how high up we were in the photo below.)
We came back down and decided to explore the castle. It was built in the 1930s by a professor as his summer home. It's a neat building situated up the hill with lots of steps to climb. The kids had fun. Poor Jenna's legs are short, though. She just cracks me up.The kids were pretty hot and a little hungry, so Joel got the wagon and our lunch from the car. We picked a spot to picnic and let the kids get in the water. They loved it!There was a playground structure nearby, so the kids decided to swing and climb for a bit. There were two couples taking pictures on the swingset and our kids just walked up, said hi, and made friends. Then, I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but Jenna ended up taking a picture with them!We enjoyed the conversation that ensued with the couples. Then, we headed to swim in another part of the stream.This next series of photos illustrates what happened over and over and over again. (Click a picture to see it larger.)Joel got a little snap happy and got this lovely shot. Proof that I talk with my hands a lot!

The weather was gorgeous and the kids got really comfortable in the water again.After meeting two other families and playing in the water for another hour, we dried off and drove around the rest of the campgrounds area. We're thinking this might be a good spot for our family to have our first camping trip.
On our way out of the area we stopped at the overlook to see where we had been. The kids liked looking down on the park from way up high.It was a good day. I just love our family.Then, we came home and Rylee lost her first tooth! The excitement is never ending around here.