late July fun

kaitlyn in her fashion revue outfit (she made the skirt). matt working to earn money which then burns holes in his pockets! matt having fun at weight park and driving a fire engine during ethnic fest. and some green tomatoes from our garden.

this summer has been tough for matt. it's hard to get him anywhere outside the house. often that involves bribery, threats and or tears, but once he finally adjusts to wherever it is (which can take hours, as in the case of kandle pool today) he has a blast (like at ethnic fest and the pool today). so I continue to struggle through the difficulties and keep him involved and engaged.

little house trip part 4

went for a run through de smet before the kids woke up. had breakfast and swam in the pool then headed to the historical society in town. took the tour, which included the surveyor's house, the first de smet schoolhouse and the house in town that pa built. it was really neat, then went to a schoolhouse across the way that had lots of hands on stuff for kids. had lunch at the oxbow cafe (big burger for $3 and pancakes for $1.60!) then headed out to the original ingalls homestead. they have a lot of really neat things there; a sod house, claim shanty, a reproduction of the ingalls claim shanty, hay roof barn, schoolhouse and church. the kids got to drive the horses on a wagon ride and ride a pony, make rope, sew on a treadle machine and play a pump organ just like Mary's. kaitlyn spent a good amount of time finding and snuggling kittens! she is my daughter !  we then headed into brookings and checked into the water slide hotel. had a near crisis as matt was a few millimeters under the height requirement, but lifeguards agreed to swim test him, then allowed him in the slide. they had the slide to themselves for over an hour, then other kids came, we took a break for pizza and then the kids went back for another 30 minutes before it closed. they got to eat pancake snakes for breakfast (the pancake machine was malfunctioning slightly!) then swim again in the morning. they were troopers for the 4 hour trip back to Minneapolis. it was a nice day to be in a car with ac. we lucked out with weather most of the trip was 70's and low. 80's, but that last day was. 90+ and humid! 

kaitlyn spent some of her money at the moose gift shop in the airport and matt got subway (again) and we all decided that it was nice to get home quickly on a plane! 

little house trip part 3

after breakfast at the hotel, we hit the road toward walnut grove. stopped outside of Rochester for frozen custard then again just wast to go to oxbow park zoo - a native species zoo. we had met people at the fair showing raptors from there. the kids really enjoyed it - cougars, wolves, bison, skunks, prarie dogs, etc. we stopped on the road for a late lunch at erbert and gerberts which appeared to be almost exactly like a jimmy john's. we made it to our hotel to east of walnut grove in time for a swim in the swamp like pool. we then headed to walnut grove for dinner at the community center and then on to the pagent, which even matt seemed to sort of enjoy. 

next day we had breakfast at hotel, checked out and headed into the walnut grove . went out to the dugout site at plum creek, beautiful little creek, very near. the museum in walnut grove was fantastic, all kinds of hands on things for the kids. there was a decent amount of focus on the tv show, which I know little about. then onto the park where matt mini golfed, the kids made crafts and kaitlyn competed in the laura look alike contest. she did great, but thankfully didn't make the finals, so we were able to head out to dreamer on time. it was near to drive through the towns talked about in the books ( Volga, Tracy, brookings, etc). we also listened to the books while we drove. checked into hotel in desert got sandwiches at subway and headed to the happy golden years pageant.  that included a wagon ride and another place for matt to spend money!

little house trip part 2

we arrived after noon instead of first thing in the morning. the kids still wanted to go to mall of America, but were good with a two hour limit. we had a late lunch there and enjoyed the American girl store and the Lego store. matt started spending his spending money right away! we then drove to wabasha mn, crossing over the misiissippi a few times. wabasha is where the movie grumpy old men was filmed. we stopped for Mexican food on the way (really good veggie potato burrito) (matt protested and ate subway later ). the kids thoroughly enjoyed the pool (with basketball hoops !) and played Legos and filled out journals and went to bed. mom created these fantastic journals for the kids to write in and gave them spending money for the next day for doing it!

next morning we had breakfast at hotel then headed across the Mississippi to pepin wi. visited the small but nicely done museum there then drove out to the rebuilt little house in the big woods. the area is very pretty, much more rolling hills than I expected. we drove back into pepin and strolled the lake shore, picking up some pebbles just like laura. lunch was great at the nelson cheese factory and I was excited to have a sprecher root beer! then we drove back to mn and went to lark toys, spent more spending money and played mini golf. then to the wabasha county fair. the fair was held at the coffee mill ski hill, with all of maybe 300 vertical feet! the kids spent over an hour in the 4-h building making crafts and making butter with the dairy princesses. then unlimited rides (they must have gone on the slide 30 times !) for them and fried cheese curds for me. since it was late, we stayed another night in wabasha, went back, enjoyed the pool and had dinner at subway.