Great Grandma and Uncle Luke

Luke made a stop in Wisconsin on his way back to the Dominican. He was visiting his girlfriend in Scotland for a couple of weeks. Anders and I decided to head up to Grantsburg to visit. Since his flight wasn't coming in until 6:30 we decided to spend the afternoon with my Grandma Muriel.

At my grandma's apartment, they have special times for "Family Swim." It worked out to visit her during one of those times. Grandma and Anders were the only ones in the pool. He loved playing in the wheelchair ramp. 

Great Grandma and Anders playing basketball.

Visiting in the pool. My grandma is pretty spunky for being almost 88. She swims several times a week and walks 3 times around her lake on most days. She golfs too!

Playing catch

We left my grandma's at about 4:00 and headed over to see Ty and Jenny. They are renting a house near Lake Harriet to be close to the hospital when they have their baby. 

We enjoyed visiting, the park, and supper at The Malt Shoppe.

We got to Grantsburg around 8:30. My parents weren't home yet, as they were still picking Luke up and stopped for a bite to eat. Luke loses his luggage and golf clubs on nearly every trip he takes from Scotland. His luggage was lost in Heathrow after a baggage belt broke. 

 
This is a picture of the luggage off of the belt that broke. It made the London news.

We went to bed before they got home.

Grandma Muriel, as well as my sister, Mark, and Zach came on Saturday for lunch.

Playing ladder golf with Great Grandma

Luke and Anders playing catch.

Anders with his favorite buddies Zach and Luke! He adores them and they are so good to him.

Day 5-South Dakota

Dinosaur Park, Rapid City, and Stagecoaches

We decided to go back into Rapid City for the morning to see some sights. We had heard about the Dinosaur Park and thought Anders would enjoy it.

Having fun climbing!

If I remember right, the park opened in 1936!! So, it has been around for awhile!

As you can see, it has been climbed on a few times! Nothing fancy, but they had several statues like this for kids to climb on. Of course there was a gift shop too! It was actually one of the nicest ones we were in. Kris even found a t-shirt for under $10.

As we were coming down the hill from the park, I was walking on a path next to the steps with Anders. I fell right on my bumper!! How embarrassing!!!!  I snapped at Kris for not helping me up :-) He said, "Did that hurt your ego more than your butt?" We both laughed!! Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of this graceful moment!!

Anders had seen a "Pirate's Cove" mini golf in Rapid City on the way to the cabin and was dying to play, so this was our next stop! 

Daddy giving Anders some putting tips!

The losers go here!

After mini golf, we headed back to the downtown area for some splashpad fun! 

It was a perfect day for this! I love the concept of a splashpad! I wish there were more around here! The upkeep would be so much cheaper than a pool! 

Admission is free to the public!

The best part, is that there was an ampitheater right next to it! How fun to have music and splashing at the same time!! 

Anders had a great time!!

Our hosts, Brian and Joan invited us to take a stagecoach ride, which we knew would be a great opportunity for Anders. They have a friend who has a stagecoach (from West Salem, WI). He and his partner travel around with the stagecoach to different functions and give stagecoach rides. They stopped off in Nemo for a couple nights!

We were picked up at our cabin by the stagecoach!

Joan was a retired 1st Grade Teacher, so she was so good with Anders. She even had a hat for him to wear on the ride.  Joan rode on top with a friend and we rode in the coach!! We picked up another friend along the way who comes to Nemo from Weyauwega, WI for the summer. We had a nice visit!

Leaving by stagecoach. A view of Joan and Brian's Rock Ridge!

Nemo Post Office and Fire Station.

Taking a break!

Anders playing the part!

We stopped at his campsite on the way back to Rock Ridge. He wanted to unhitch 2 of the horses. He even put on a little show for us having them walk perfectly side by side! He was quite a performer!

Anders really wanted to ride up on top and this was his reaction when he finally did!

Riding on top with Joan on the way back!

Good bye! Thanks so much for the ride!

Anders decided to take an adventure of his own when we got back to Rock Ridge! He grabbed his suitcase, a towel, and of course Cheez-Its!!!

We decided to hit the hay early because we had a long drive ahead in the morning!

Wake up time on Friday!!

Goodbye Barnhouse!!! Thanks for the memories!!!!!

We were going to stop half way again, but were making such great time (and Anders was being great), we decided to go all the way. We stopped 2 times for the bathroom and 1 time for Culver's and made it home by 6:00 Friday night!

Day 4- South Dakota

Fishing and a Beautiful Drive!

Kris and Anders went to the Pactola Reservoir to fish in the morning, while I stayed back at the cabin for some R&R. It was a beautiful morning. Anders had fun catching sunnies with dad. However, they didn't bring any back with them.

We decided on a trip to Custer State Park for the afternoon. What a beautiful drive!

A stop along Needles State Highway.

Daddy and Anders

Anders being Anders.

The highlight of Needles Highway was the small tunnels. We enjoyed honking our horn through each of them. They were of course one car at a time (or bus, or motorhome). We were surprised to pass a tour bus along the way?? Dad also taught Anders what "switchbacks" were.

Watching cars come out of the tunnel.

Antelope mama and her baby in Custer.

 

Buffalo 

I think this is known as a "cowbird."

It was amazing how close the buffalo came to the cars. They were such a hoot!

We made our way back down to Mount Rushmore, which was really neat because the tunnels were designed so that each time you went through, you could see Mount Rushmore.

It was a beautiful day!

Day 3- South Dakota

Hill City, Mount Rushmore, Bear Country, and Firehouse Brewery

Our plan today was to go to the dinosaur museum in Hill City and then make our way to Mount Rushmore, so we headed out fairly early.



We stopped in Hill City on our way to Mount Rushmore. We visited The Black Hills Institute of Geological Research. It was very interesting and I did not realize how many dinosaurs lived in South Dakota! They had a 70% complete T-Rex, which Anders found very exciting!


http://www.bhigr.com/

Anders being goofy!

Time for a drink!

Mount Rushmore was probably the highlight of the trip for all of us. What an amazing monument!! It was very interesting to learn about the creation of the monument.

Beautiful!

Wisconsin!!

Binoculars come in handy.

A couple had asked us to take a picture of them because I had the same phone as them. We asked them to do the same. Don't worry if we're centered. :)

This is probably one of my favorite pictures. He was so excited about taking pictures throughout the whole trip. If we took a picture, he had to take one. This one says it all.

As we were heading into Rapid City, we came across Bear Country U.S.A. I was thinking we would try to go, so I talked Kris into pulling in. It is a drive through Wildlife Park. As we pulled up to the gates, Kris pulled out a $20. There were no prices posted. When the cashier said, "Three in your car? That will be $42.00." Kris' reaction was priceless, and there was no turning back.

Big Horned Sheep

It was fun to see the bears. They walked right in front of the car and often would just sit there.

Bison

They had a walk through park also. This badger and her babies were quite comical!

The baby bears were so cute.

Kris had heard about a brewery downtown Rapid City, so we decided to go and have a drink. I was expecting downtown to be very touristy, but it ended up being a really beautiful city. This was icing on the cake. We sad out on the patio and enjoyed some drinks and appetizers. Afterwards, we walked down the street and found a beautiful town square with a splash pad and amphitheater. I told Anders he could go in the fountains, but he didn't want to because he didn't have his swimsuit. I told him we would try and get back before the end of the week.