Leaving Colorado

When we drove through this area three weeks ago, all the trees were still green.  Yesterday, when we were there, the trees were yellow, green, and orange. It was very pretty.  We stopped in Vail to play at a park.  We ended up taking a bus into town and having lunch at a pizza place. 



This last view is of the Rocky Mountains from the Utah side. 



Last Day in Denver

We were supposed to go on a tour of the U.S. mint today but with a late start, construction in the area, and a lack of knowledge of where to park, we missed the start time.  We decided to go to the Children's Museum in Denver instead. They had some good displays and the kids enjoyed building, painting, making bubbles, doing a puppet show, and driving the fire truck. Erik really liked playing with the tools. Here Katie is with the train we built out of recycled materials.

After the museum, we went back to my brother's house and changed clothes and headed to the recreation center.  It is a gym and also has two pools, one lap pool and one shallow pool with a lazy river to float down. I wish they had something like this at my gym.

Butterflies

Today, we went to the Butterfly Pavilion near Denver where they have butterflies in a botanical garden setting.  They also have some sea life and insects.  I held a tarantula.  I will do anything to get a sticker.  The kids liked the butterflies for a while and then they started to freak out.  Too many flying bugs will freak out anyone after a while I suppose.  Some of those bugs were bigger than some birds I have seen.  I think Katie was looking for a net.

 Erik was a little disturbed.

Tonight, Erik made a duplo creation he was really proud of. It was a water and coffee dispenser. He wanted to pose by it.

 There was a trail outside with a lot of prairie dogs.  They were all pretty fat from eating leftover lunches from all the school field trips.

Back to Denver

Yesterday we drove back to Colorado, through Wyoming.

When we got here I ran my filthy car through the car wash and went to the bank.  Then we went to the park and played with the kids.  After that we had some posole and went to bed.

The posole had cilantro and it was great!

Scottsbluff

We are spending the weekend with my Aunt Pauline and Uncle Keith.  The kids have been having fun playing with their dog Oliver and playing games with them.

Today we visited Scottsbluff National Monument.  It is a big bluff on the Oregon trail.  It was named after a man who was hurt and left by his companions and he died on the mountain.  My aunt Pauline and Uncle Keith drove us up there.  These pictures are views from the top of the monument.

Saturday

Today we went to Mount Rushmore.  It has taken me longer to get to places than I had planned, so next time I will use google maps to plan and not just triptik from AAA.  The drive yesterday got too long and I wound up with grumpy kids when we finally arrived at my aunt's house at 8:00pm.  I did get some good pictures of the mountain. I think the historical significance of the carving was a little lost on Katie and Erik.  I will have to take them back here when they are older. We visited the visitor center where we watched a movie on the history of Mount Rushmore but the other welcome center where I wanted to go closed at 2 and we were not in time to see that movie.  I guess this is not the right time of year although we did beat some of the crowds.

They had flags of all the states with the year of statehood listed on the post. That was really neat.

South Dakota!

Driving here today reminded me of a West Wing episode where Donna gets sent to represent the white house in a meeting with people from North Dakota who want to change the name to Dakota.  They argue that they are losing tourism dollars to South Dakota.  They say they enjoy roughly the same climate as South Dakota but South Dakota has the word "south".  Donna says, "and Mount Rushmore".  Anyway....

The kids keep wanting to stand in the corn.

We went to De Smet, South Dakota today.  This is the town that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in These Happy Golden Years.  We were able to tour the museum, the surveyor's house, a replica of the Brewster school that she taught in and we drove by the site of Pa's store in town.  That completed our Laura Ingalls Tour. 

  Katie asked me what was that word for a flat area covered in grass? I said prairie, nooo valley...no.  She remembered a "plain" so thanks third grade history.  Then she said, " you told me to look out once in a while, I'm gonna watch my movie now k?"  Sure Katie, whatever it takes.  With Erik sleeping and her watching a movie we made it almost to our original destination.  For some reason, maybe my not taking the exact right roads, it is taking me longer to get places than I thought it would.  Plus we waited about an hour for the tour to start and then the tour itself was an hour so we didn't make it to our reserved hotel tonight.  Instead we will have an extra hour drive tomorrow.  However we are staying in a hotel with an indoor pool so the kids got to swim a little tonight. I am not sure I would call it a heated pool since it was pretty darn cold so mostly we splashed in the Jacuzzi.  Now I have two sleeping children and I am going to watch the season premiere of Grey's on my laptop with headphones.  Yay for the Internet.  We watched pretty much nothing but baseball at my grandma's house.  The Minnesota twins ended their losing streak yesterday. I know because first I listened to the game in the background while we played cards and then I watched it with my grandma. She needs someone to go to the stands and hold up a big sign so they will say hello to their number one fan.

Leaving Minnesota

It was pretty hard to leave today but we are planning on coming back in July for the party.  I hope to fly there next time and not do all this driving again since all the relatives should gather there for the party.  Today I said goodbye to my grandmother. I wish we didn't live so far apart.

Around town

Yesterday afternoon after walnut grove, we hung around playing outside with my cousin Timmy's son Eli.  He lives across the street from my grandma.  He shared his bike with Erik and all three kids enjoyed playing in his sandbox.  He has purple sand in his sandbox.  I walked across the road and got some tacos from Taco John and then my aunt Joyce and Uncle Edward played jumprope and swung the kids in the swings while I snuck back and had tacos with my grandma.  She also played cards with me which I really enjoyed. We played 500 and she won the first two games but I finally beat her the third game.  After that I took Erik to look at the community center where we will be having my grandmother's 90th birthday party next July.  My mom wanted me to check it out to decide which size room will be the best. Then we went to the grocery store to pick up some stuff on Grandma's list and picked up a pizza on the way home.  Grandma, Edward, Katie, Erik and I all had pizza together.  Then I set the camera up to take pictures of us.  They aren't the greatest pictures but they got the job done. After Erik went to bed, Ed took Katie outside to look for satellites and the stars.  He pointed out the big dipper to her and some other constellations.  It was about 40 degrees out there, quite a difference from the 100 degree temps back at home.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Today we took a little side trip to Walnut Grove, Minnesota.  Laura Ingalls lived here during the time period written about in her book On the Banks of Plum Creek.  We visited the dugout site that now is all caved in and only a depression in the land remains.  We also looked through the gift shop.  Katie and I have read the books as bedtime reading and now she will be reading one of them as a novel for school so since my grandma's house is only 45 minutes away I thought the field trip was a good idea. I have been there before a time or two.  We walked around the prairie and looked at the grasses and wild flowers.

They liked playing in the covered wagons.

Wednesday

Wednesday, I took the kids to mall of America.  It is the largest mall in America. It has four levels and an amusement park in the middle.  I shopped a little because I didn't bring enough pants for myself and old navy had sweatshirts on sale for 6.00. 

The kids had fun on the rides.

Tuesday night

This is the first time I really had a chance to post since there was no wifi where I was staying.

Tuesday night I went to my Aunt's house and was able to see my cousins and their kids.

Then we all went bowling.

My Uncle works at the bowling alley so we all bowled for free.  This is a picture of my cousin Chris holding Erik. They are both left handed so Chris helped Erik bowl every frame. It was really nice of him and Erik had a great time.  I got beat by a three year old.  Of course he had bumpers and I am not very good.

Minnesota

We made it here last night to my grandma's house.  My uncle, aunt, two cousins, and one second cousin (age 3) all live within two blocks of each other. 


There is a small zoo in the city park.  Erik, Eli, and Katie fed the deer some corn we had picked up in Nebraska that I thought was going to be a souvenir.  They also found some berries and acorns in the park and fed the deer that too.

Erik, Katie, and Eli on a wall in the park overlooking the river.  Erik and Eli are about two week apart in age. He belongs to my cousin Tim who lives here in the town my mom grew up in.

I am happy I found wifi at the McDonalds and Dairy Queen since the kids are happy to have a snack and I can check email.

Half way there I think

I had a little trouble finding the right road leaving my cousin's house this morning. My GPS does not know about road closures and I got turned around.  Thanks so much to the nice officer for those excllent directions and for not giving me a ticket. I think we may be in Iowa now but I didn't see the entering Iowa sign or I would have gotten out and taken a picture.  Maybe we can find the entering Minnesota sign.  Kids are taking a little break and eating and hopefully Erik can take a nap in the car.

On the road again

Today we are off to Minnesota.  My cousin gave us some tips on things to do up there so more adventure awaits. To Kurt and Kelly whom we stayed with thanks again you were great hosts. Erik asked this morning if he can come back to Jaden's house and Katie was so glad to finally play with Jaden again.  I hope we can all make it up to Grandma's house again in July when she turns 90.

I took some extra pictures of the clubhouse so I can see if I can convince Katie and Erik need one in the backyard.  Katie finally got up and I am packing while Erik watches Dora.  Then it is off to see if I can find my way to Minnesota while avoiding roads that were flooded earlier this year. Wish us luck!

Children of the corn

Today we slept late since the kids were up til midnight last night watching movies.  Kelly made quiche this morning and then we went to wal-mart to buy the windshield wipers.  The kids played really well most of the time running around in the clubhouse and playing with scooters and bikes.  This evening Jaden had football practice so Kelly and I took the other three to the park and played.  Then we had roasted chicken for dinner.  We took the kids over to play in the corn.

The clubhouse