first day of school

Everyone was excited about their first day back at school, but no one was very excited about standing out in the rain to get their pictures taken.

 Reggie - 1st Grade

 Brett - 3rd Grade

 Lydia - 2nd Grade

Lydia lost another tooth, so she is excited to show off her toothless smile!

summer weeks 11 and 12

After we returned from our roadtrip, we had exactly 2 weeks of summer left before school started.  And a lot of stuff left on our bucket list.

Buy school supplies:

Go to another Saints game:

 Why minor league games are more fun than major league games:

 Go to the state fair (Lydia is getting a little big for the bike tractors)

Have some state fair food - Brett chose mini donuts, Lydia chose ice cream, Reggie chose cotton candy, and I chose Martha's Cookies.

 Reggie started flag football:

 Go on a date with each kid separately to pick out their first-day-of-school outfit:

Go to Valleyfair for the 1st time!

 Go on The Monster over and over:

 Pose with Snoopy:

 Eat lunch in the parking lot:

 Enjoy Soak City:

 One last day at the beach:

Labor Day weekend, I had to take a radioactive pill to kill my thyroid.  I was not supposed to be around people for 3 days, so Bryan took the kids to Papa and MeeMaw's.

I'm guessing Papa drove way slower than Uncle Matt.

roadtrip part 4

This is the last post of our roadtrip!  On Sunday, we packed one more lunch, loaded up the van, and left Miller.  We stopped at the Falls in Sioux Falls for a picnic.

This park is a fun place for kids to take pictures of their mom with their brother or sister.

When we left Sioux Falls, we were just an hour's drive to my sister and brother-in-law's farm. My sister is an amazing woodworker and they turned an old schoolhouse into a workshop.  She runs her business, Four Winds Boat Shop, from there.

After we checked out the workshop, they took us for rides on their four wheelers.

 Then they took us for rides on their horse, Jack.

 Then the kids climbed on the haybales and tractors. Brett and Reggie are allergic to hay.

We had spaghetti for supper and made s'mores. We also got to see my niece and her fiance. We spent the night, and in the morning, Matt won Brett's heart by making him his favorite breakfast - breakfast sandwiches.  Then, it was time to go HOME!  After 11 day of fun, we were ready to see Dad and sleep in our own beds again!

roadtrip part 3.2

Friday morning was cold and rainy.  We went to Bear Country USA, which is a zoo that you drive through. At the end, there is a walk-through part with baby animals.

After Bear Country, we went back to the RV.  It was really rainy, so we watched a movie.

As usual, Brett fell asleep during the movie. We ate lunch without him and were visiting in the RV, deciding what we would do for the rest of the day.  Lydia was bouncing around the living area when she started to scream "Help! Help! I swallowed a penny!"  I grabbed her and tried to dislodge the penny.  She continued to scream and cry.  Out of fear, Reggie was also screaming and crying.  Mom decided to call 911.  I was praying out loud.  Brett woke up in all the chaos and started to cry.  What seemed like eternity was probably only a few minutes, and the crisis was over as quickly as it started.  The penny did not come up, it went down.  It took a long time for the ambulance to come, 20 minutes maybe.  I can't imagine if she had stopped breathing!  The EMTs did a physical exam, then said I could either have her taken in for x-rays or wait and see what happens.  I decided to wait and see, and she was completely fine.  Didn't lose her appetite or get a stomach ache, and was even making jokes about it by the end of the day.  But that was SO scary!

We had originally planned to go to a gold mine in the afternoon, but due to the rain and Lydia's second mishap, we didn't make it.  The rain did clear out later in the afternoon, and we were so glad it did! We had something very special planned for our last night in the Black Hills.  We went to an old west chuckwagon show at the Circle B Ranch!

There were a few different activities for the kids to do when we arrived: gem mining, lasso practice, jail, and wax bullet shooting (we didn't do that - it was pricy).  There was also a gift shop and wood carver's shop.

A few minutes before dinner, the Biscuit Bandit stole the biscuits! So the Sheriff had to gather up a posse to go after him and get the biscuits!  The Biscuit Bandit was not going to give up without a shootout.  But the Sheriff and his posse were able to apprehend him and recover the biscuits.

On the menu was beef or chicken, baked potato, beans, chunky applesauce, spice cake, and of course biscuits.  The live western music was fun!

Saturday morning, we packed up and started heading back east.  We stopped at Wall Drug, again. After lots of looking, the kids decided they wanted stuffed animals from Wall Drug for souvenirs.  Reggie wanted a prairie dog, Lydia picked a wolf, and Brett chose a buffalo.  We also ate at the restaurant.  Reggie had a buffalo burger!

The kids were pretty worn out from all our adventures, but we still had one more leg of our trip to go.