More Family Fun in Oklahoma

The main goal of our four week stay in Oklahoma was to spend time with family.  We got to see all of our siblings multiple times, we spent time with our sons, and had many days with our parents.  

Mark's brother and sister-in-law, Lucky and Lizzie, hosted a family gathering at their new place south of Tulsa.  Our nephew Brian and his family were visiting from South Korea, where he is working for several years with his job at Exxon-Mobile.  So we loved getting to see many of our nephews and nieces (and those cute great nieces and nephews that always seem to be in the pictures that Denisa takes).

Lucky and Lizzie have transformed this 40 acres into a fun park for their nine grandchildren.  The house is shaped like a barn, so looks right at home amongst the 200 pecan trees on the property.

Every barn should house some horses, and these roll around the large garage when the stirrups are pumped.  Camden flew all the way from South Korea in his cowboy hat, so it was fitting that this cowboy had a horse to ride when he was visiting his grandparents.

The weight limit for the horses is 250 pounds, and Denisa took them out for a test drive too.  You can also see the horse stalls that were built into the garage to bed the horses when the riders are finished with them. As you can tell, Megan is Denisa's cowgirl side kick, and she loves making rabbit ears for pictures.

There is also a porch swing big enough to hold at least 3 nieces.

Every barn also needs a mule--and this one has four tires and can hold up to 8 people if you don't mind being cozy with your cousins.

Mark was the licensed driver, and the kids took turns steering the mule.

The newest toy at the barn is a zipline, and it was finished while we were there.  Isn't there a joke about the number of engineers it take to build a zipline platform?  All these nephews are graduates of OSU's college of engineering.  Including our son, Blake, we have six OSU engineers in our family.

The maiden voyage of the zipline was actually the next day, and the kids loved it!

Lucky and Lizzie's ranch also includes an RV pad with full hookups.  They called us to get dimensions of our motorhome when they poured the cement slab.  Today, however, it was doubling as a soggy basketball court.

Lucky and Lizzie hosted a feast that was enjoyed by all, and we had a great time.  The family gathering had to break up when the rain started and everyone ran for their hotel rooms.  When they returned the next day, it literally took a boat ride over the low water crossing to get back to the barn.









Since we don't have any grandchildren yet, we enjoy spending time with our brothers' and sisters' grandchildren.  On another day we were playing with Connie and Joe's grandchildren that live in Edmond.  They were riding their various vehicles around the neighborhood on a beautiful evening after we met for pizza.

We had never ridden a three-wheeled wiggle scooter before.  Denisa always enjoys trying out a new children's toy, so she took it for several rides around the cul-de-sac.  You literally have to wiggle to make it go.  Even though the three-year-old nephews could make it go, she never could wiggle it up the hill.

We did lots of eating while we were home in Oklahoma.  Besides the feasts cooked by relatives on our behalf, we also partook of some classic Oklahoma cuisine.  In the little town of Okarche resides Eischens--the oldest bar in the state.  

Featured on "American's Drive-ins, Diners and Dives", patrons come prepared for a wait to get a table most days.  Their menu is very simple, and they are famous for their fried chicken.  We also like the fried okra, and the white bread and pickles and onions round out the meal.  

Not exactly health food, this is just one of the reasons that in four weeks we put back on most of the weight we lost while we were on the road for four months.