Getaway to Ticks Bend....I Mean Beavers Bend State Park

 Back in April, we decided we needed to do a short family getaway after the semester was over. The last time we'd been on vacation just to vacation (not going to see family in CO) was when we went to San Antonio when Maddy was 3 months old. We found Beavers Bend State Park close to Broken Bow, OK and decided to go there. We booked a cabin in the state park and eagerly awaited the day we could take off for our getaway. We left on Sunday afternoon and stayed through Tuesday afternoon. It was short, but so fun and relaxing. We had no computer and no cell phones while we were up there. We just got to enjoy being around each other and the beautiful scenery.

 We built a fire and roasted some marshmallows. Also popped some jiffy pop. Aaron had never done one of those before.

 This is a 100 year old cabin they had at the visitor center. I like the mud chinking ( I think that's what it's called). A couple named Comma and Mabel lived in the cabin when the CCC was building the park back in the '30's.

 I'm glad our cabin was a little more modern.

 Maddy loved building the fire. She used her walker everywhere. This is the first one she's had that has worked on anything but smooth floors. It was so exciting to see her walking around with it outside on dirt and rougher ground.

 Can I help you? Exploring the inside of the old post office at the visitor center.

 Maddy put this caterpillar through purgatory for an hour or so.

 Aaron wanted to get dessert for Mother's Day. We went down to the little country restaurant and store they had down the road. Maddy liked the chocolate cake.

 Wading in the creek.

 Can we roast these things already?

 Helping in the cabin.

 The lake front.

 An old lathe. Looked like it was run by pedal power.

 Walking around the cabin.

 Look at the board I found. Isn't it amazing?

 Maddy's baby. The caterpillar again. She really was in love with this thing. She would put it on the ground and say it was going to bed and then bury it under a bunch of dirt and leaves. Then after he took a nap, she'd uncover him again for a while. the caterpillar did survive.

 Old telephone in the post office.

 Big, tall pine trees!

 "Porcupines". That's what Maddy called these little seed pod things. I think they are from sycamores. Don't really know for sure.

 Putting feet in the lake. Maddy loved putting her feet in the water. It was kind of hot while we were out so bet it felt good. She wanted me and Aaron to put our feet in too, so we did.

 Stick bug. The wildlife we saw was 99% bugs and insects. This stick bug was the favorite of both Aaron and Maddy.

 This is what you call tired. Maddy fell asleep on our hike. We went over a bump with the stroller and she fell forward like this and never stirred.

The "yoda" stick. This is what Maddy called this little stick she found. She loved it so much she insisted on bringing the stick home.

So remember the bugs and insects I mentioned just a bit ago? There was one kind of creepy crawly that we had waaayyyyy too much contact with this trip. On our last morning, we went hiking on a little nature trail by our cabin. I'd been very diligent about putting bug spray on everyone--until this point. It was in my bag and I thought we were driving to the trailhead, but we ended up walking so I didn't have the bug spray. We had a great time letting Maddy wade in the creek and the hike was only about a mile total. After we got back, we finished loading up the car and then went to the visitor center to return our cabin keys and look at the gift shop. While we were looking around in the gift shop, I felt something tickling my face. I reached up to brush it off, looked at my had and said, "Oh my gosh! It's a tick!" as flung it away in a blind panic. Just as I threw it, I realized that we were in the gift shop and I probably should have held on to it and tried to kill it instead of letting it roam free indoors. So we looked all over the floor and couldn't find it. Ooops. Well, just a few minutes later, Aaron found a tick on his leg. I think I flung the tick right on to him. Then Aaron thought he felt something crawling on his back, so he lifted up his shirt and, sure enough, there was a tick on his back. Remember, all this is going on in the middle of the gift shop. He got that tick off and killed it. We got our stuff and went to check out. Apparently the lady hadn't noticed out crazy antics with the ticks. When Aaron told her we found a couple of ticks on us, she said, "Yeah. They're bad this year." So then we went out to the restrooms in the visitor center and Aaron went to the bathroom to check himself over and I went to check myself over. Neither of us saw any more ticks. When I came out I told Aaron that I couldnt' really see my back very well when I was checking, so he tried to lift up my shirt right in middle of the place to check for ticks! I told him we were in public and he could look in the car. Good grief! So we went to the car but forgot to check me. Well that night, when we got home we took showers right as we got home. Then later when I was changing for bed, I felt a bump on my back. I  yelled at Aaron to come check what it was. Sure enough, a tick that had decided to start digging into his meal. Yuck! Aaron tried to get a match at first to get him out but I thought I'd heard that wasnt' what you did anymore so we looked it up on the CDC website and they said just to pull it out with tweezers and clean the bite with alcohol. So that is what we did. It hurt to get the tick out. I don't know if that's because Aaron was pinching my skin with the tweezers because he was trying to get as close to the skin as possible or if it just hurt because of pulling the tick out. Anyway, apparently it could take up to three months to know if I got an nasty diseases like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever or Lyme's disease. Great! We triple checked Maddy and checked through everyone's hair, but didn't find any more ticks. Thank goodness! Despite the tick bite, it was a great trip.