going back west

We took a slightly longer road home from Minnesota to go to Mount Rushmore. That part of South Dakota was crawling with bikers because the day we were travelling through was the first day of Sturgis (this huge motorcycle rally, in case you haven't heard.) We stopped at Wall Drug on the way there, and it was one of the most bizarre places I've been.





Mount Rushmore was way more amazing than I remember it being when I was a child. Not that Mount Rushmore itself had changed, but it seems like there wasn't a museum and fancy walkway and stuff when I was little. And, I think I just appreciate the enormity of the undertaking a lot more now. It was well worth the extra hour or so it added on to our journey. And, the Black Hills area is gorgeous compared to the rest of South Dakota (and all of Nebraska, sorry Nebraska).

the land of 10,000 lakes and 16 cousins

We were in Minnesota for about 3 weeks, and I hardly took any pictures. We spent a lot of time stripping off wallpaper, sorting through boxes, installing light fixtures, and painting at my mom's house. The kids had a blast playing with cousins. They went to chutes and ladders (the sweetest park ever), went swimming, played lazer tag, drove bumper cars, played miniature golf. We went to Valleyfair for a day, and Henry was brave enough to go on most of the big rides, and even Elsa was brave enough to go on the Wild Thing:

We didn't take any pictures of the above-mentioned events or of a lot of the cousins. We were just too busy enjoying ourselves, I guess. We did take some pictures at the zoo. My favorite part was the butterfly garden, or the grizzly bear doing a backwards shimmy into the water.


And, we finshed up the trip by checking out Amy's new digs in Mankato.

So family, if any of you happen to have pictures of our trip, please send them to us. It was so good to be home for a while. The kids were not happy to leave, but Christmas will come soon.

going east

We made the long drive out to Minnesota this summer. We've never braved it with the kids before, but we felt up for the adventure. We tried to keep the journey entertaining. Here are some of our favorite moments:

Ice cream and tanks at the Museum of Retired Military Vehicles (that wasn't the official name, but you get the idea).








Elsa and Will very excited about sharing the creepy hotel bed.


And, the Winter Quarters temple near Omaha, Nebraska, which was amazingly beautiful but completely unphotographed. This lovely sign was in the next closest town though:

our own private bean museum

Brandon's friend from high school arranged for us to have a private animal showing at the Bean Museum. It was pretty sweet. I've already posted a lot of reptile pictures, so I'll skip the snake and lizard. But, I feel the need to prove that we were all brave enough to hold the tarantula. Will was the first, and he didn't hesitate one bit.

climbing the trees at great grandma and grandpa's

I really liked these pictures from our trip to visit Brandon's Grandma and Grandpa down in Price this summer. Will's face is a little chocolaty because he quickly discovered the bowl of Hershey's kisses on Grandpa and Grandma's counter.

4th of july

I'm really behind on my record-keeping. So, here are the pictures from the 4th. We somehow didn't take any on the actual 4th of July. But, here are some from the big thing they do down on Center Street. Elsa was hard to pull away from the reptiles, she didn't want to jump on any of the bouncy things as long as there were snakes and turtles to pet.

We had a great 4th. I loved that it rained a little in the morning so it wasn't miserably hot for the parade. We had a barbeque with Brandon's family and walked over to watch the fireworks by the Marriott Center. Grandma Cynthia provided more glowsticks than my kids had ever seen in one place. And, the fireworks were great, as always.