-hiking and snakes
-digging for crystals in a sea of salt
-caves and bats
-a hotel with a pool
-trains
-Leonardo's Discovery Warehouse
*fire fighting
*space travel
*nails, hammers, and saws
*more trains
*painting
*lizards and more snakes
*puzzles
*Lego's
*LOTS of imagination!!
While Grandpa Doug and Grandma Becky were in town we decided to do a little Oklahoma exploration. Our first stop was Great Salt Plains State park. We enjoyed a mile long 'hike' and saw several snakes. The boys enjoyed throwing sticks at the snakes to get them to move around in the water. I did not enjoy this as much!! Mase made it most of the 'hike' and only had to be carried the last little bit.
Can you find the snakes?
Next stop, the actual salt plains. I have never seen anything like this before. It was like a sea of salt and a desolate waste land. There was only one area where we were allowed to dig for crystals, but we were able to drive out to the dig site. For those of you who are teachers or have grade school kids, it totally reminded me of the book Holes. We found several small crystals and it was salt, I tasted it.
It was bright and WINDY!
Next up on our road trip to the North West was Alabaster Caverns. Grandma Becky conquered her fear of bats and we all went on the cave tour. The tour was 3/4 of a mile long and we had to go up or down 330 steps. Mase only made it about half way through and then I had to carry him. I thought he might go to sleep!
That night we (the boys) swam in the hotel pool before we all passed out from exhaustion. The next morning Grandma and Grandpa head on to CO and we headed to Enid. We visited the Railroad Museum of Oklahoma and Leonardo's Discovery Warehouse. The boys had fun the day before, but trains and a warehouse full of toys was by far the favorite! At the train museum we saw several artifacts from the railroad companies of the past, but the best thing was the train cars. There were 10 different cabooses, a dinning car, and an engine. We were able to climb around and touch whatever we wanted! If my boys could experience heaven on earth, this was it (with hellish temperatures)!
Look at how BIG the engine wheels are! WOW!
My little engineers.
From there we grabbed a quick lunch at a local sandwich place and headed to Leonardo's. This place is full of fun imagination provoking things for kids of all ages. My boys enjoyed the fire house, the space shuttle, the solar system, the carpenter shop, the train table, the painting station, the puzzles, the Lego's, the dino dig, the lizard and snake room, the grocery store, the doctor's office, and the paper airplane launcher. Just to name a few. ; )
Ready for a space walk!
Mase flying the shuttle.
B at the controls.
B and Austin spent a LONG time in the carpenter shop.
Yes, the tools were real. That is an actual saw in Mase's hands. Happy to report, we came home with all fingers and toes!
Mase wanted so badly to play with the trains at the Railroad museum. Luck for him, Leonardo's was able to satisfy his need.
Austin and I were both surprised at the time Mase spent on his painting. I'm not sure I have ever seen him spend so much time on one task.
We had a great time, thanks to our Discovering OK with Kids magazine. I would recommend a quick trip to the North West. As New Channel 4 would say, "Is this a great state, or what?"
4 comments:
Oh my goodness! Can't believe all this fun stuff is in Oklahoma! You should write an Okie Travel book - I would buy it.
Are you sure Grandma Becky conquered her fear of bats... her face is telling me otherwise ;)
That train place looks awesome! We actually went to that salt place for a field trip when I was in elementary school. It is pretty cool. I remember that trip because grandma and grandpa were staying with us at the time.
We love all of those places, too!! Glad you guys had so much fun!
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