wide open spaces
I am not a fan of crowds or chaos or people rushing around like the sky is going to fall. I like slow. No people anywhere. Just the sound of my beating heart (You’ve Got Mail, anyone?) Okay, so I do like people just in limited amounts 🙂 Oklahoma is not the most beautiful state nor do we have a lot of attractions, but we sure have lots of wide open spaces ready to be explored. We were headed over to my in-laws when Chris decided to take a detour down a small highway. “Small highway” in Oklahoma is really just a technical term…more like a country road that it is legal to go 65mph.
Wide open spaces. Cute little red barn.
(these are all iPhone pics, I didn’t have my dslr)
He saw a small ‘dead end’ road near a river and we took another detour. Here’s the view in front and behind us. Makes me feel peaceful all over again just looking at all that nothingness.
The boys are very used to our random exploring. We normally would have packed appropriate shoes and snacks, but exploring had not been on the agenda. The kids all had their rain boots that double for farm boots when visiting their grandpa’s goats. Rainboots had to work. The “Bridge Out” sign was all we needed to see to know something wonderful must be up ahead.
Run wild and free boys.
A steep hike down sandy terrain led to the river.
I sure wish river water was beautiful blue ocean water, but I’ll be thankful for what I’ve been given. However, I won’t be swimming in it.
We did have one little explorer who was very upset over the sand…AKA “dirt”.
I am baffled by her recent aversion to sand or dirt. I took a million hours of pottery in college, so dirt and mud is quite appealing to me. She is surrounded by dirty brothers all the time. And yet, she is now very vocal in all things that are not clean. Baffles me, she does.
When we started hiking back up to the car, we passed a small group of teenagers. They were in swimsuits carrying pop and fishing poles. As we drove across a nearby bridge, we saw them jumping off the bridge we had previously been playing near. I was a bit jealous. The only time you would ever get me in dirty lake or river water is if it involved jumping off something. I spent a summer in Kazakstan in college and remember jumping off an old bridge with Kazakh friends into a fairly fast moving river. The rush of the jump was a great distraction from whatever was probably in that river.
Maybe someday we’ll go back to that Oklahoma bridge and do some safe jumping…..
The May giveaway day winner was Kara Miller. Congratulations Kara, you should have an email from me!
