Pops Arcadia, OK

The weekend before my birthday (I turned 35 last week!) we took a little trip down to OKC for the weekend and drug our camper and my father in law along. I am going to share in no particular order, just going along as I get the pictures edited. 

 

We stopped by Pops in Arcadia which is about 20 minutes northeast of OKC on old Route 66.  It was the first time Kiera and I had ever been and Jimmy and his dad hadn't been in a long time.  Oh and I must mention first that I was 2 weeks in to a month long clean eating challenge.  I totally cheated...but just a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They literally have any and every flavor of pop that you could imagine...coffee, buffalo sauce, bacon, maple, Ranch dressing, Celery, Sweet corn...I would love to try them but I don't want to spend $2 on a whole bottle and hate it.

 

We ate lunch and Kiera's first choice of pop was strawberry.  Jimmy had a Black Cherry Cream which was wonderful.  I only took little sips of them since I am not drinking any pop due to my clean eating and because I have just basically cut it out of my life anyway.  Jimmy and I shared an Arcadia burger which had blue cheese, bacon and barbecue sauce.  We weren't sure how the bbq sauce would be on the burger but they all worked together very nicely.  I totally cheated and ate a quarter of the burger and some fries. It helped my mental clean eating issues.  Jimmy's dad had a salad I think and Kiera ate a corn dog. 

 

Pops has 6 pack boxes that you can grab off of the shelves and put together your own selection to take home.  $15 for these 6 but the experience and excitement for Kiera picking out flavors was well worth it.  She had a blast.   

 

 

 

The only ones Jimmy and I got to pick out were the very cherry and apple pie.  I was a little overwhelmed with the hundreds (or maybe thousands) of choices.  The cases were pretty much sorted by type or flavor so once I really started looking it wasn't so bad.  And the bottles are stinking cute, we are keeping them.

Labor Day

Labor Day weekend we were once again out at the river.  I mean it's free camping since we are property owners at the river ranch.  All it costs us is a tank of gas and we just raid our kitchen for food to bring.  Anywho, Jimmy's mom camped with us a couple nights and on Saturday we went into Tahlequah to take part in the Cherokee national holiday. Ya know since the 3 of them are Cherokees.   There were stick ball games, horseshoes, craft fair, a pow wow, and all sorts of other things going on.  We only went to the craft fair.  Everything was so spread out over town, it didn't seem very well organized to me. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday we spent all day down on the river swimming and playing.  We met some people that were on a float trip who stopped nearby and chatted with them.   Some other people next to us had turned their raft upside down and used the bottom as a slip-n-slide into the water.  So we all did that too and it was pretty darn fun. 

 

Monday when we were on our way home we were traveling around 70mph on the highway right outside of Tulsa when there was a sudden weird vibration going on in the truck.  Jimmy looked in his side view mirror and said "He just hit me!  That guy just ran into our trailer!"  Yep.  We have only had our camper for a little over two months and that happened.  Just our luck.  A 22 year old kid fell asleep at the wheel and ran into our camper.  He was driving his parents Chrysler 300 because he wrecked his a couple weeks before.  His parents car was torn up.  The whole right quarter panel was peeled back and our stabilizing jack under the camper shredded his tire.  Luckily he ran into us instead of oncoming traffic.  Everyone was ok, but he was pretty shaken up.  In the meantime before we can get it in to have it repaired I have done a lovely patch job with a trash bag and Gorialla tape.  It still camps just fine!

 



Kiera's 7th Birthday

For Kiera's birthday this year we decided to camp out at the river.  We invited other people but no one came out besides Jimmy's dad, his aunt and two cousins.  I had a conversation with Kiera that her friends couldn't make it and luckily she was OK with it.  We went up to camp on Thursday evening since Jimmy and I both took off work on Friday. 

 

Friday we were going to take Kiera to the big blue slide but it was closed.  We headed on into Tahlequah and took her to a park to play for a little while.  After that we headed on over to Del Rancho for some lunch.  Jimmy and I used to eat at Del Rancho after being on the lake with friends all day during the first few years we were together.  Good times, good times.  They have the best steak sandwiches EVER, and their Indian Taco's are pretty awesome too.  Kiera had a grilled cheese  sandwich. 

 

After lunch we decided to head back up to camp  and we first let Kiera open her Lego present from us which she loves. 

 

  

We also made Snoopy snow cones with the thing she got from Jimmy's mom.  It is definitely something we will be making outside. 

 

 

Then we decided to go down and swim for a bit. There were some clouds to the north of us which wasn't enough make us leave but once we saw lightening we decided that was our cue to bolt (ha! pun intended).     

 

 
Jimmy and I were working on setting up the tent for when his aunt and cousins would arrive when the rain came.  We could hear it coming in the trees and had to scoop everything up and put it under the canopy which we did  just in time.  It rained hard for an hour and a half.  How hard you ask?  Jimmy's dad said "it reminds me of the monsoon season in Vietnam".  Lovely.  There were a lot of lightning strikes around our area and the thunder was cracking right over head.  The rain eventually stopped and left everything soaked but it was all good. 

 

 

Saturday we went on a 6 mile raft float (minus Jimmy's dad).  It went by fairly quick since the river was up about 5 feet from all the rain.  Just before we got back to camp it started to rain again!  Kiera, Alyana and myself were in the back of the truck getting pelted by the rain.  It stings when it hits you at 20 miles an hour.   Everyone eventually piled into the camper and I decorated Kiera's Unikitty cake for her party.  I am not proud of the way it turned out because 1. I was doing it in the camper and 2. the humidity in the air was not helping the icing at all!  I took a picture of it but I will not be sharing it.  The rain was the same monsoon type that it was on Friday, but it eventually cleared and we made our was down to the clubhouse to have the party.

 

 

  

I love the view in the clubhouse, walls full of windows overlooking the river.  I could definitely live in there, sitting on the deck drinking coffee in the mornings.

 

 

 

Kiera said she had fun but wished there were more activities.  Uh, I though I did pretty good.  Unikitty coloring pages,  unicorn horns, pin the horn on Unikitty, party horns and poppers.  I guess that's what she gets for telling me to do what I want!  However, I am so very thankful for everyone participating in the activities and really making it a special day for our girl. 

 

 

She is teaching ME

One day last week I worked a half day and took Kiera to the dollar movies afterward to watch Rio 2.  While we were there I gave her a few quarters to buy some junk out of one of those little machines.  She got a little bow necklace and the mustache.  After the movie we went to see my friend Michelle so I could get my hair cut and brows waxed.  I told Kiera she needed to put the mustache on and ask Michelle if she could wax her mustache.  She did and Michelle though it was pretty darn funny.

 

After we left, Kiera kept the mustache on even when we stopped by the grocery store.  I was slightly cringing on the inside because of the attention it would draw.  Because if people are looking at her, people are looking at me.  I really don't like to be the center of attention.  I like to blend in.  But I let her do it anyway because it isn't about me, it's about her. 

 

She so very proudly walked through the grocery store and when the cashier told Kiera "I like your caterpillar" she politely replies "It is a mustache".  Just smile Ashley, just smile.  She forces me to be in what I feel are uncomfortable situations and I just have deal with it.  It isn't the first time and I know it won't be the last.  She doesn't even know it but she is teaching ME. 

 

I guess it all fits in our grand scheme of raising her to be a certain type of person, which is somewhere between the very best parts of Jimmy and me, and hopefully very few of our worst.  So far so good I think... 

 

And because I am not a completely boring mom, I did put it on at the theater (along with some bunny ears) just long enough to take a picture.  It got some laughs out of my girl which totally overrides any other feeling and replaces it with complete and utter joy. 

4th of July weekend

This year for the 4th of July weekend we (and Jimmy's dad!) headed out to the river to camp.  4 nights and I wasn't ready to come back to town yet.  I don't think I have mentioned this before but we got a new camper  a few weeks ago.  It's absolutely awesome.  Jimmy and I both agree that we could definitely live in it for quite a while, though we wouldn't since that would take the fun out of camping for us.  We are definitely planning on some long RV traveling when we get older.  We have both had our fair share of tent camping and are definitely at the point we prefer some comfort... and air conditioning.  Anyway we got there Wednesday evening and Jimmy's cousin Jackie, her husband Brian and their son arrived at the same time stayed a couple nights in their pop up.

 

 

 

 

You can't by bottle rockets in Oklahoma so Jimmy and I took a quick drive into Arkansas to pick some up.  Kiera spent the night setting those off.  This is one of those things that I know some parents would freak out about.  We are not the type of parent that is going to stick a sparkler in a red solo cup to keep her from getting burned.  How else are do we learn?  By getting hurt and learning things the hard way.  Besides the only person to get injured was me when she wasn't watching were her punk was and burned my leg.    

 

 

 

Jimmy let his inner geek shine and set up an projector and sheet to watch movies on. 

 

My father in laws new puppy is the sweetest little thing.  He is a daschund/terrier mix of some sort.  We are pretty convinced I am his 2nd favorite person.    He did great around the fireworks.  Berkley was another story.  He went off and hid in the woods somewhere for over an hour covered in cockleburs and sand. 

On the 4th we did a 6 mile canoe trip with Jackie and Brian and got to visit with another cousin Destre for a little bit that wasn't able go with us.  At least we all got a picture together!

Who cares that 2 of them aren't looking at the camera?  I don't! 

Of course that evening we blew up a massive amount of fireworks and documented Kiera's yearly picture with them.

 

Girls trying to play football with the boys.  Too stinking cute.

 

Saturday we went on another 6 mile float trip in a raft with some friends that we met up with.  That was a long day on the river but so wonderful.  Jimmy injured his face shallow diving (which he has done 100 times before and never got hurt he will tell you), but I will spare him and not show the picture of his black eye and cut upper lip.