This trip was all about relaxing and enjoying some me time, right??  It appears someone forgot to tell my bodyclock and I woke up at 5.30AM!!  Alice and Chris were still sleeping so I lay in bed until Alice woke up about an hour later.
I made oatmeal and cherry crumble with yogurt for breakfast – healthy huh?  Add a couple cups of coffee into to mix and I was ready for the day.  There was a very low cloud cover/mist but we were optomistic that there would be no rain.

We headed back to the hike that we didn’t get to finish the day before. The mist made for some dramatic photos.  It was amazing how many people were out and about compared to the day before when only people we saw were the ones that we helped get back on the trail.

Lots of pretty spring flowers dotted the trails.

 
 
I hiked here last fall with the kids and some nice soul pointed us in an easier route that winds up and round the rocky part of Baldy. 

The low clouds were starting to lift then suddenly…….

 
Blue Skies!!!

Can I tell you how happy I was??  I think I maybe even squealed with excitement!

We didn’t quite make it to the summit as it got kind of treacherous, but we were more than happy to have gotten up as far as we had.

And we needed to keep our reserves for getting back down again!

Those walking sticks got lots of compliments whilst we were out.

Some photos taken as we were heading back to the car.

 

We drove to the picnic area at the Northern most part of the refuge.  I had never been to this one, it was beautiful.  The bathrooms here were an adventure to say the least. No stall doors and very primitive.  But I should be thankful there wasn’t a young man in the ladies when I went.  Alice wasn’t quite that fortunate!  At least he was the one on the pot and not the other way around.

We found some horses grazing by the turn off to the picnic area.  Chris was keen to feed them carrots that we had in our picnic,  I wasn’t – that was my lunch!!

Photos from the picnic area

The finale to our time in the refuge was to be to drive up the autoroad that goes to the top of Mount Scott.  Poor Alice was a nervous wreck on the way up and had her eyes covered.  We stopped at sever points on the way up to take photos.

There are lots of cool boulders to explore on the top of Mount Scott and I found this guy sunning himself up there.

By now it was time to make the drive north back to Oklahoma City.  There were some severe thunderstorms popping up and I dislike storms as much as Alice dislikes drive up mountain roads!

We decided that we had to round off our trip with a stop for ice cream.  As soon as I got a decent signal I found the address of a Braums on my iphone.  We found one in Chickasha and boy did that ice cream taste good!

My little people were very happy to see Miss Chris pull up at our house.  I think Little Lady shadowed me the rest of the weekend!

It was a wonderful break, lots of laughs and great company. My family missed me but they survived and maybe next time I can go away for longer too!

I put the kids on the school bus on Friday and my sweetie took me over to Chris’s house.  We left OKC at 9 AM and there was a little light rain for a few minutes but nothing like what had been forecast.
We took the back roads instead of the interstate since there was no rush to get there.  This took us past the Meers store, famous for their 7 inch diameter burger.  We had a picnic, so no burgers for us but we did stop to take photos and use their restrooms!

 
 

So far so good, no major rain to speak of as yet!  Chris was a very accommodating driver and stopped whenever there was a good photo opportunity.  We ate our picnic lunch at Lost Lake and then headed to one of my favorite hiking trails.

There was plenty wildlife for us to see.

 

 

 

And stunning scenery

 

We started to hike up Little Baldy but not too far up the trail I heard someone calling for help.  So we stopped what we were doing and helped a man, little boy and their little dog find their way back onto the trail.  Then the heavens opened so we decided to call it a day and headed to the car to find our cottage.

We were staying close to the refuge in Medicine Park. Our cottage was called Buffalo Gal.  I had forgotten to pack extra memory cards for my camera so no photos of the cottage from me I’m afraid.

We made turkey chili for dinner and after we had eaten we settled down to watch a couple of movies.  I had the bed in the loft so only one glass of wine with dinner for me!  It had been a fun day with lots of laughs and we were all looking forward to getting back to our hike on Saturday.

Once upon a time around Christmas time, there was a Mommy who couldn’t come come up with any present hints for her wonderful hubby.  So she said “Honey, what I would like more than anything would be a day or two away from my Mommy responsibilities”  You see in the almost 8 years of being a Mommy she had only left them for a night and was back before they woke next morning.

And that is how my Mommy escape to the Wichita Mountains with Alice and Chris began!

I love to do research and plan vacations so I came up with a few ideas of places to go and we all decided the Wichita Mountains in SW Oklahoma would be a good destination.  We go there a few time a year as a family and I thought it would be nice to get out hiking without worrying that the kids were going to fall off a mountain (albeit a smallish Oklahoma mountain)

It was with a little trepidation that we planned it for April, it is tornado season after all and the thought of severe weather tends to make me a little anxious (ok, very anxious).  But we had to do it before the kids broke up for school in May and before it got too hot for Alice and I.

Fast forward to the week before our trip and the weather forecast was looking dire, 80% chance of thunderstorms and a chance of severe weather on the day we had planned to hike.  Fortunately Alice managed to remind me of the fickleness of Oklahoma weather and she was right! 

Our “baby” had a birthday this week and we had her birthday party today.  It is our wedding anniversary too – double celebrations!

She decided on a “fancy” tea party theme invited all the girls in her class.  No tea for the little ladies though – they had pink lemonade instead (Daddy and I had a cuppa though!!) 

Here are some photos of the treats I made.

Teapot shortbread

Cupcake bites

The girls all had a great time and little lady got some great gifts!  Tonight once I put the kids to bed I am putting up my feet and having a glass of wine with my sweetie.