A Week in Southern Oklahoma - Part 1

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Over a year ago, my aunt and uncle made Tbug a deal that she could come down and spend a week with them at their house, riding horses. Last summer, hubby and I couldn’t get her there. At Thanksgiving they made the offer again. Hubby and I knew we were going to get her there this year, No. Matter. What.

They extended this offer to me when I was a teenager and I actually got to spend a couple different weeks with them. I’m telling you, other than it’s hot in Southern Oklahoma in July, it was an excellent experience and when I told hubby, we knew it would be a good thing for Tbug. Spending an entire week with UB and working on her horsemanship skills. What better way to spend a week than riding horses…

Earlier this spring Tbug’s mom said that she had 3 weeks this entire summer that she had nothing going on. The first was the week of the 4th of July, the other 2 were the first 2 weeks of August. I finally got it worked out between all of our schedules that we were going down the week of 4th of July. Tbug got home from Cheer camp Friday June 30th at 11something at night and we made arrangements to meet up with her mom around 4 something July 1st to head to AC & UB’s.

Friday Night

Friday evening after hubby got off work, we spent the evening checking the running lights/break lights on the trailer. We figured if we were going to be driving at 4 something in the morning and beating the sun awake, we better have lights on and working. Out of like 30 lights, at least half were burned out (or so we thought). We ran to Walmart to buy new light bulbs, when we got home hubby went to replacing lights. Out of all those lightbulbs that “didn’t work” only 2 had to be replaced. The rest were just a loose connection that hubby tightened up. Not bad for a 23 year old trailer.

Saturday

I wasn’t kidding when I said we got up and left before the sun even rose. Who knew 3 something existed? Hubby and I had a pile of stuff to load up first thing, then we loaded horses, ourselves, and headed out to meet up with Tbug and her mom. They were on their way to North Carolina. I guess we’re all crazy… getting up early to drive somewhere, right? Serious, crazy… lol.

When we got to Tulsa, we decided to get breakfast. It was 7:30ish in the morning. I got out to feed horses while hubby went and got our breakfast. We gave them hay in the trailer before leaving home, but they don’t eat breakfast at 3am so we decided we’d stop along the way to feed them. When I opened the trailer door I realized I must have been tired when I was putting our stuff in the trailer because I put my boots in the horses feed bucket. Whoops.

We got to AC & UB’s fairly early since we got up so early. UB had come down with something the day before so he stayed in his room away from us. AC and UB got Abug presents for her birthday though. Try keeping her from opening them. ha!

After presents we headed to town for lunch and groceries. Lunch was at the Rib Crib in town. They give kids these sticks that I don’t really know how to describe them. Look at Tbug. We entertained ourselves obviously.

When we got back to the ranch, we ran out and checked on the horses. This was Barbie’s longest trip ever and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it wasn’t the furthest Kansas had been.

Then we went back to the house. AC had this recipe for Shrimp and Grits and Oh. My. Gosh. was it excellent. Like ridiculously beyond excellent. Does that sentence even make sense? But seriously it was flippin out of this world fantastic. No joke. Hubby made grilled Squash and Zucchini to go with it as a side dish, but the main star of the show as the Shrimp and Grits. And if you know me, I’m not huge on Fishy type foods, but YUM!

Then Tbug, Abug, and hubby jumped in the pool. This was as far as I got.

Sunday

Sunday UB was feeling better but still not up to par, so we didn’t ride horses. We ran up to the barn, fed, and then came back to the house. We got the biggest kick out of Tbug because she braided her shirt string into her hair. Whoops.

AC wanted cookies from Abug’s birthday, but we didn’t have any leftover so I decided to make some while at her house. I went through her cookie cutters and made some shapes I’d never made before. Tbug and Abug helped cut cookies.

While the cookies baked, hubby got ribs on the smoker, and then we all took naps. I guess he and I were tired.

AC & UB got a new guy who works for them. He started 2 days before we got down there. Truthfully you’d have thought he’d worked there for years. It was crazy. Anyway, Austin and his fiancé Miami were invited to a late lunch.

Abug helped me make the icing for the cookies and then Tbug helped me decorate them. AC didn’t have any food coloring so we played around with chocolate icing for the cookies. I’m not 100% sure I’m sold.

After the cookies were decorated, then it was time to work on the corn. It needed 20 minutes to cook. I got it all wrapped up to go on the grill just as Austin and Miami showed up. They found out that Abug had just had a birthday so they brought her a birthday present. So super sweet of them!

Our lunch consisted of Grilled ribs, grilled corn, potato salad, pasta salad, AC’s baked beans, garlic bread, and we finished off with watermelon that was topped with lime juice and salt.

AC said that they usually are dry this time of year and the grass is still green. In fact, they had rain almost every day we were there at one point of another. That afternoon when we went up to do chores, it started thundering as I was walking up to the barn and it started pouring just as I walked inside the barn door.

That night I watched the clouds and I swear they were circling around the house. It was freaky!

Monday

AC had to work 3 of the days we were there, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Not bad really. She said the next week she had to work every day because they had a huge project going live and she had to be present every day that week.

UB was feeling better on Monday, so we headed up to the barn to feed and saddle horses. UB had me saddle a horse called Poker Chip. I wound up riding him most of the week. This was a good, kid friendly horse so Abug got to ride him with me.

Abug loves to ride also… so she bounced back and forth between riding with me (mostly) and riding with Tbug. Tbug has a knee problem and left her knee brace at home. I mentioned something this weekend about her using it as an excuse because we put her out of her comfort zone and she wouldn’t comment….

Our cheering section.

Hubby went to the house to start on dinner just as we were finishing up riding horses. We had smoked brisket, Mac & Cheese, and some leftovers. Yum again! To say we ate well all week would be an understatement…

That afternoon I decided I should make some cookies for AC to take to work with her the next day since it was Independence Day. We ran to Walmart to get some food coloring so that we could make them patriotic. I hear her co-workers appreciated them.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning started out like the previous day. Wake up at 6am so we can get up to the barn, feed horses, work horses, and beat the heat. UB commented that the heat was actually quite low compared to even the previous week. I joked that we brought it with us.

Hubby went to the house just before lunch to get burgers ready and I stayed with Tbug to help get horses put away. Then we went down and ate lunch. We had burgers and all kinds of left over sides. UB had to leave to take horses to the horse shoer and hubby actually had to leave to go home. He had to go to work on Wednesday, plus Wednesday evening was his grandma’s visitation followed by her funeral on Thursday.

When UB got back with the horses, UB came and picked Tbug up and they ran to town to get us ice cream, then Tbug went up with him to help do chores and feed our animals. Once they were done with chores, they came and picked Abug and me up and we went to check on Buttercup, the baby calf that was born while UB and AC were on vacation. Buttercup got stepped on and had a broken leg, so they had her off in a pen by herself with her momma to keep her safe from the rest of the herd. After her leg heals, then they’ll turn her and momma back out with the herd.