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!