My mom is a wonderful person. Growing up, she always encouraged us, supported us, and taught us to fear the Lord. If you’ve never read Proverbs 31 (I highly recommend it; it’s a great read), it speaks of a woman who fears God and the impact it has on her household. My mom is such a woman. She has had such an impact on me and my sisters that we decided to surprise her with a birthday getaway to Broken Bow, Oklahoma.

The day of, Mom was still uncertain of where exactly we would be going. She also had zero idea that all us daughters would be coming along for the trip. As far as she was privy to, just me and her were heading to some top secret mysterious location.

Pulling up to the house I had my older sister Andrea duck down in the back seat of my car until we came out. Mom and I said our goodbyes to Dad and headed out to load up the car. As she got comfortable in the front seat, Andrea popped up from the back seat to her surprise! She was truly ecstatic!

At almost the same time, my younger sister Jessica snuck from inside the house walking toward the car. Mom absolutely flipped! She couldn’t believe we were all coming! The surprises continued to grow. Once we got loaded up and said goodbyes to Dad (again) we finally informed her that we would be going to Broken Bow for a weekend getaway.

The trip there was pretty seamless. We caught up on life and got to have nice girl chat. Once in Oklahoma, we headed straight to the Blue Sky Lodge for our camping adventures to begin.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a fan of camp like adventures in a traditional sense. I don’t do sleeping outside and I don’t do non running water. I will do a cabin as long as it basically has all the modern amenities of a hotel room. I enjoy glamping, not camping. So when it came down to where to stay, I chose wisely for our woodsy endeavors.

The cabin was the perfect size. We walked in to monstrously high ceilings and clear air space. On either side of the living area were large bedrooms with comfy king sized beds and full bathrooms with spa style tubs and open showers. To add to the fluff, the cabin came with two quick start fireplaces, a fire pit, and a hot tub. This I could do!

After some time to take it all in, we unpacked and chilled a bit before heading to dinner at a bustling spot called Abendigo’s. Only a short drive into neighboring Hochatown, the restaurant was simple to find off the main road.

While we waited for our table, we scoured the indoor gift shop. The store was full of cutesy trinkets and funny Sasquatch knickknacks.

Once seated we kicked off our meal with Sicilian Nachos. I wasn’t sure if they would taste good based on the plate, but it ended up being a really yummy dish. It’s wonton strips topped with Alfredo sauce, chicken, banana peppers, jalapeños and olives. For the entrees, we ordered to our tastes; steaks, burgers and tacos. It was a nice candlelit meal which served as the perfect close to our first day.

After dinner, we passed on dessert and headed back to the cabin. Now that we were all full it was time for pjs and chilling on the sofa cozied up next to the fire to finish watching our earlier endeavor, Black Adam.

The next day we got a late start with treating ourselves to much needed sleeping in. My sisters beat me to being up anyway and introduced Mom to my youngest sister Jessica’s Ring Fit on her Nintendo Switch.

I gave it a go for a hot minute and it was no joke. It’s a workout video game. You get an avatar and the remotes are attached to your leg and the ring. You get points for completing exercise challenges. I didn’t do too much because we were going to be doing a lot of hiking where we were headed next.

Broken Bow Lake is one of the central hot spots when visiting. People rave about how scenic the water is. There’s plenty to do like hiking, fishing, boating, kayaking and so much more. We chose to stick to the land surveying the beautiful river and overlooks down into the surrounding valleys.

I think one of our favorite parts was scoping out the river. It’s so serene and the sound of rushing water made me want to set up a hammock and just listen at my leisure. We saw people out fly fishing, regular fishing, and just taking it all in. Me and Andrea got brave and dipped our feet in the shockingly cold water. It was like icy cold. Definitely not something I would swim in, but a fun experience nonetheless.

We drove the winding roads pit stopping to walk a couple of quick trails here and there. Thankfully the weather was ideal so we were able to stay out for a few hours before tiring down.

After all that hiking around the lake, we packed it up and headed back to our glorious cabin for some much deserved downtime. Me, Mom, and Andrea decided to take a dip in the hottub while Jessica caught up on some Netflix shows inside.

Later on me and my sisters prepped and cooked dinner for Mom while she relaxed and enjoyed being pampered. One of the common experiences for mothers on vacation is it ends up not being a TRUE vacation. If you’ve got kiddos, they usually take up a chunk of time with parents tending to their needs, so by the time vacation is over and you’re back home, it feels like you need a real vacation from your “vacation”.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to fight too hard to get mom to let us take care of her lol. We had dinner, enjoyed a game of Scattegories and watched some more movies before calling it a night.

Our final day in Broken Bow was dedicated to wandering around town. We visited a couple local gift and antique stores. It was pretty fun to walk through shops finding old items ringing nostalgic memories from our childhood. At one local shop they sold homemade pickled quail eggs. Of course, being the foodie that I am, I couldn’t pass up a chance to eat something THAT unique!

As soon as we got back to the cabin, I convinced all of us to partake in a community tasting of the quail eggs. What’s a trip without some random foodie sidebar?? From the looks on our faces, all I can say is it was truly an experience lol!

The rest of the evening was time to just bond and enjoy each other’s company. We got to talk and have some really nice conversations about pasts as well as futures. We talked about health, and God, and the grand kids. It was nice to let conversation flow where it would with no rush to hurry back to anything in particular.

The final morning we took our time to pack for a lazy eleven o’clock checkout. It was really challenging to say goodbye to that bubbling hot tub and homey fireplace, but three hours away, real life was calling.

We filed into the car for the ride back home laughing, giggling, and reminiscing over the wonderful stay. It had been a beautiful bonding experience of sorts; just the daughters of the house celebrating their much deserving Mother. Memories like this hold a treasured weight forever. It’s a blessed milestone we’ll always enjoy carrying dearly in our hearts.

Love you Mom ❤️