Lake Texoma: Eisenhower State Park

This weekend was our last "camping" hurrah before school starts in a week! Our family and my parents headed up to Eisenhower State Park Friday to set up "camp." We pulled Drew & Jamie's pop-up and my parents brought theirs. We set up and decided a swim in the lake would be wonderful--we just didn't know how wonderful! We parked near the swim area and trekked down a trail until this beautiful vista of the swim beach came into view:

Actually, this picture doesn't even do it justice because I took this one on Sunday, a rainy, overcast day; I didn't have my camera when we went to swim on Friday. The beach was sandy and the water was refreshing and clear--hands down, our favorite lake for swimming.

Hot dogs went on the grill for supper, and we wound down pretty early in anticipation of the Saturday arrival of Drew and Jamie with the boat and Diana and Mark with Motley.

Saturday after breakfast we were joined by Chris' parents and soon after, my sister and brother-in-law. We decided to take a "hike" along a trail, and Noah found some treasures along the way.

It was good exercise that got us primed for lunch and a boat outing. Lake Texoma is HUGE and we seemed to have it to ourselves, so we enjoyed swimming, jumping, and skiing all afternoon.

 

Real smile vs. silly smile

 

Mark and Diana headed home late Saturday afternoon while the rest of us went back to "camp" and fired up some burgers on the grill. We had quite a feast, and had to save room for dessert. Selections included, but were not limited to: homemade ice cream, 7-Up pound cake, Italian cream cake, iced brownies, and whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. I'm not sure I burned enough calories to warrant all the samples I had...

Late Saturday night, we were all tucked in bed and heard thunderstorms rolling in. We were treated to the patter of rain on our cozy pop-up trailer, and were grateful for the dry and comfy accommodations, inauthentic as they may be. Sunday morning it was still drizzling, so we made breakfast in our respective campers and then gathered for worship. We wanted to wait out the rain, so we enjoyed some down time and dominoes until there was a good break, and drove back to the swimming beach to show Drew & Jamie.

After lunch it was time to pack up and head home. On the way back, near IKEA in Frisco, Drew heard/felt something odd and realized the tread of one of the boat trailer's tires had completely detached and flown off, taking the fender with it. Shockingly, it was still holding air just fine, but he quickly exited and headed to the nearest tire shop for a couple of new trailer tires. We are grateful the tire held up so well under freeway speeds and with Noah in the backseat of the truck!

This is the good tire, for comparison...

This is the tread-less tire, sans fender!