Friday, July 13, 2007

Hello Again

Well, we are back, not quite back to normal, but define normal. For those unaware, we made our first cross-country car trip at the end of June and got back earlier this week. Is it possible to feel jet-lag when only crossing two time zones? This is a question I've been pondering. I feel as if I'm walking through mud, and my girls can attest to the crabbiness that has over-taken me.

In all actuality the trips out there and then back home again went really well (thank you God for portable DVD players!!). The princess' all behaved (just a few minor fights &/or irrational screaming) and really seemed to enjoy pausing their movie to see what their crazy parents were pointing out this time. The king and I realized that we are indeed getting older if we can find eastern North Dakota interesting . . .

On our trip back we stopped at De Smet, SD where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in the "Little Town on the Prairie". For the Laura "fans" out there, we got to walk through the actual "surveyor's house" where Laura and her family stayed their first winter on the prairie. Of course the house was filled with things that "looked just like what Laura, Mary, Ma or Pa might have had". We had to chuckle about that. We got to go into a replica of the Brewster school where Laura taught while Almanzo began to court her. The local historical society recently acquired the original school where Laura and Carrie attended in town, so we got to peek in there and see the renovation being started. They managed to uncover part of the original blackboard, so that was fun to see. And finally we got a really interesting tour of the house that Pa built for Ma after Laura married Almanzo. It was full of original Ingalls/Wilder things and the tour guides gave a lot of the family's history. Like what happened to Mary, Carrie, and Grace, etc.
Princess #1 just soaked up the information like a sponge. It was fun for her to see the books come to life.

Then the second day we stopped at Mt. Rushmore and toured that area. The renovations that they have done since I was there last were very impressive. It was fun to take the trail around the base of the mountain and listen in on a Ranger-given history lesson about the mountain.

And two days later we arrived home. Safe and sound. Grateful to be home again. Thankful for air conditioning and long-lost, much missed toys to play with again.

More to come--the king has started the kitchen renovation (the chorus said "Hallelujah"), so I'll have plenty to blog about!

1 comment:

LaughterThoughts said...

FUN! B#1 is loving the Little House chapter books. I need to get the originals to read with her. I'm sure she'd enjoy them. All I have to say is "Princess #1 likes these" and she'll be all over them. :)

Vacation, wow... guess who's still in town! We have been assured by the Monkey Daddy that we will make on our big summer trip this summer... before school starts here (and more importantly- there... where it starts for cousins at least two weeks earlier).:)

Anyways, I guess an across-the-country trip is more fun if it's spontaneous! No headaches there, right?:) I am not complaining-- a vacation is a vacation, and i am grateful to get one no matter how it comes!