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Travel Log 7: Happy Thanksgiving, Oklahoma
Wrapping up our time in Oklahoma City
It’s crazy to me that 5 weeks have gone by and our stay in Oklahoma is over. We really like Oklahoma. It’s definitely on our list of places to consider living. Granted, we haven’t experienced the tornado season so that might change our minds but we really like the area.
Oklahoma City isn’t one of those cities that has a ton of big buildings, graffiti on the walls, or shady neighborhoods. It’s a really nice city that we feel safe being in and there are quite a few things in a 2 hour radius to do. They have some beautiful communities here with gorgeous houses.
Table of contents
- Museum of Osteology
- Thanksgiving
- Christmas Lights
- Ice Skating
- Princess Ball & Lake Hefner
- Date Day… j/k
- Learning as We Go
- Looking Forward to Christmas
Museum of Osteology
The last 2 weeks have been slower here. The kids have been off and on sick. It’s been more of everyday life than always running. But we have still found fun things to explore.
We went to the Museum of Osteology which is a museum not quite like any we have been to before. It was full of over 450 real skeletons from all over the world.
They had scavenger hunts for different age groups, even adults. It was a neat place but Arabelle kept asking us why they would kill the animals and was devastated that they killed the animals and put them on display there. It took a while to get her to understand that they weren’t killed but when they did die they were donated here so we could see and understand the skeletal system of various animals. 😁
Thanksgiving
We spent our first major holiday away from Pennsylvania which was definitely a weird feeling. I usually host Thanksgiving for my family so we are used to having a lot of people around on the holiday.
Emalyn struggled a little with not being around family and it just being us. But we made the day as fun as possible.
We made our own big Thanksgiving dinner just like we do when everyone comes over. Then that afternoon we went to the movie theater to see Moana 2. There were quite a few people, I didn’t realize people went to the movies on Thanksgiving, lol.
We all thought the movie was good. It wasn’t as good as the first one but they rarely ever are.
Christmas Lights
Not all of our adventures are super successful. 😬
I saw a few advertisements for Castle Christmas in Muskogee. It looked really cool. Lights, inflatables, activities, and then a castle you could go in! So we decided to make the 2.5-hour drive there.
To be fair the light display was free (recommended donation of $5 or $10) but when we got there some of the lights didn’t even work. The inflatable section was a little different than we normally see but not anything spectacular.
The activities were lacking and fairly expensive. Inside the castle were a few vendors and a Santa that was a Renaissance-style Santa. He stopped to talk to the kids and I’m pretty sure they had no idea who he was. 😁
All in all, we drove 2.5 hours and only stayed for less than 30 minutes. So trying to redeem the night I found another light display just 5 minutes away in Honor Heights Park.
This one was definitely better! However, by this point in the night we had some meltdowns and the kids were tired so we didn’t stop to walk through or even get hot chocolate.
So far we haven’t been very impressed with the Christmas lights in Oklahoma. At the time of writing this, we have one more place to check out if everyone feels good and is up to it before we leave.
Update: Before we left Oklahoma, we went to the Chickasha Festival of Light. It was great! Much better than the other two and highly recommended. We got to do the drive trough and took a carriage ride through it as well. The kids had a great time and it was a little cold, just like back in PA!
Ice Skating
The kids tried something new this year! We went to Myriad Botanical Gardens to go ice skating. The 4 older kids all tried ice skating and they all really enjoyed it.
I’ll be honest, they did better than I was expecting. Emalyn quickly got the hang of it, she’s definitely our athletic one. They had a penguin for the little kids that they could push along to help them stay upright.
Adeline was frustrated she couldn’t participate but we enjoyed watching, especially when Brian duffed it. 😂
After ice skating, we went in and checked out the Crystal Bridge with some Christmas lights. I’m not sure I would say it was worth what we paid. If you’ve been to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh, PA, Myriad was nowhere near as nice or as large.
Princess Ball & Lake Hefner
I found a Princess Holiday Ball that was happening in Oklahoma City so I bought tickets for the girls and I. It was in a beautiful development of multi-million dollar houses (which I might have been drooling over) at a country club.
They had quite a few princesses that the girls could meet and take pictures with. I bought the VIP package so they received a tiara, necklace, a special wishing ceremony with Jasmine, and a portrait with Elsa and Anna.
The princesses also sang a song, read them a story, and danced with the girls. They really enjoyed it, especially Adeline who is very much into princesses right now.
While we were there the boys went to see a replica lighthouse at the nearby Lake Hefner. They said it was a cool little lighthouse on the lake. They also went to get donuts and browse a bookstore.
It was nice to have some time with a small group, especially when it is all 7 of us all the time.
Date Day… j/k
When we went to visit my high school friend and her kids all 10 kids got along and had a great time. Our kids wanted to go back and see them again and we were so grateful when she offered to watch them for Brian and I to go on a date.
Unfortunately, the night before we were supposed to go one of her kids came down with the stomach bug. Though we were disappointed we were grateful that it happened before we got there so we weren’t exposed.
Brian had already taken the afternoon off so we decided to head to the Science Museum Oklahoma. The science museum was a nifty place that had a variety of different exhibits. They also had a large section of the museum dedicated to airplanes with actual airplanes from throughout history. Eli really liked that section of the museum.
Learning as We Go
We are almost 3 months into this adventure and we are learning a lot. For example, I might have overpacked a little and also underestimated the cooler weather. It’s definitely been nice here but 50/60 degree days still usually require pants and a hoodie. So I had to go buy some warmer clothes for everyone.
I’m also trying to be able to get some things for Christmas so we made up two boxes to send back to Pennsylvania. I knew it would be pricey but I had no idea it would cost us over $400!
Lesson learned, next time we want to send something back it might be cheaper to donate it and buy it again later if we need to.
Looking Forward to Christmas
It’s also been a little bit different as far as getting excited for the holidays. We usually put up our tree on Black Friday and have decorated it by now. We leave Oklahoma on December 8th and go to the house we will be staying in for Christmas. So we need to wait until then to get a tree and decorations.
It’s also nicer and decently warm. When we go get a tree next week it’s supposed to be 70 degrees. It will take some getting used to celebrating a holiday when we are used to being cold and snowy.
Our Elf-on-the-Shelf did “find” us in Oklahoma which the kids are very happy about. They were worried he wouldn’t make it.
He normally starts off December sitting on our Christmas tree. The kids were worried about that too, but he found some sort of plant to sit in 😂.
We have been doing holiday lights and have some more Christmas things planned when we get to Texas. This is helping it feel like Christmas, even if it is different, and even though we won’t be seeing family this year.
But we are very excited because my aunt is coming to visit us in Texas next weekend! She is not only coming to visit but she’s going to watch the kids so Brian and I can get a little bit of time away and finish up some Christmas shopping.
Definitely grateful that she’s willing to make the trip to visit. I think that will help with the kids’ missing family too.
As we close this chapter in Oklahoma we are excited to move on to Fort Worth/Dallas area for the holidays. I hope you are enjoying this season and have a blessed month!
Merry Christmas friends! 🎄
