Our trip to South Dakota (and back)

My sister and her family moved to South Dakota a few months before we moved to Salt Lake, and it worked out well that my younger brothers and Thing 1 had their spring break and off-track at the same time. So we took a road trip with Grandma. We had a few side stops along the way.

Our first stop was at Mount Rushmore! Having never been, Thing 1 and I were pretty excited, Thing 2 was indifferent, but that's understandable, you can't expect a 3 year old to be excited to about history.

We stopped in Keystone, which is the little town outside of Rushmore and got pizza that would be equivalent to Chico's Pizza in Moses Lake. Yeah, it was that good!

At a rest area, my brothers got out their little airplanes for a little bit of running around and playing.

Thing1 and Thing 2 definitely burned some energy at that stop. 

Thing 1 doted on his only female cousin, and as you can tell by the look on her face, she loved it. 

We got to go to Devil's Gulch in Garretson. This is the location where Jesse James jumped a gulch after robbing the bank. He then hid somewhere nearby and was later caught.

You can see the bridge where he is said to have jumped the cliffs. That was one well trained horse!

They loved reading with their aunt and cousins.

And because we missed an Easter egg hunt at home, we got to have one with cousins. 

In the city of Sioux Falls, we went to the Sioux Falls park. It was really pretty, but we didn't have near as much time to explore around the falls.

 

It was a race wherever she was pushed. She laughed and giggled every time.

On our way home from South Dakota we stopped a Martin's Cove. We had family on my mother's side that traveled in both the Martin and Willy Handcart Companies, it was neat to see their names on the walls and know that they survived the hardships they encountered.

I thought this was interesting. A local donated this beautiful wedding dress to the exhibit. Anyhow, the wedding gown you see was very expensive, know why? A rancher mortgaged his property so that he could purchase it for his daughter! I certainly hoped that marriage lasted!!!!

Hi! I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!

It snowed quite a bit on us for a few days, and we finally got to go and build a snowman. The boys named him Olaf. We had recently gone and seen the Disney movie Frozen in theaters, and we love it! Olaf is a snowman character from the movie, and he likes warm hugs. Tunes was having a sale on the soundtrack and we listen to it frequently and randomly break into song. The boys favorite is "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"

Police Officers and T-Rexes

For Halloween, we went to visit Mommy's parents in Nevada. They moved there towards the beginning of the year. Daddy was going to be in the area for a week of work at different customer sites, and Thing 1 was on his off track, so we went to visit.

Thing 1 decided that he wanted to be Lego City's Chase McCain, and I knew what we needed to do for his costume, but I couldn't find what I needed and didn't have time to figure out how to make it, so I bought something and added a badge. The costume was similar enough, that Thing 1 didn't even mind. He just really wanted to make sure he was a police officer.

Thing 2 told me he wanted to be a dinosaur, and I knew exactly how I was going to make his costumer, it turned out so stinkin' cute! The only problem was that Thing 2 wasn't all that fond of it. He eventually got to the point where he was okay with it, and kind of got into the roaring, but it was for bribery purposes.

Thing 1 was attempting to show Thing 2 how to roar at the camera, and he was an awesome instructor.

Thing 2 was having to adapt to an extra limb, and wanted to see it for himself. When he did it, it turned out adorable!

"Hmmm, should I attack Mommy now? Or wait until after we go trick or treating?"

Uh oh, you can tell what that cute little dinosaur is thinking...

ROAR! Get the police officer!

Mr. GQ here, he's certainly comfortable in front of the camera. My tough police officer.

And of course, I had to end with a happy police officer, because that's what he is the most. 

Things birthdays!

We VERY recently celebrated the Things birthdays and we had an awesome day celebrating the two together. We went to the pool, playground, out to lunch, and had their favorite Super Duper Macaroni Cheese that Daddy makes. I forget to take the camera to the playground or pool, but I'm kind of glad that I did because I wouldn't have played with them so much. We're hoping to go back to the pool shortly so that we can catch Thing 1 swimming on video. We're very pleased that he figured out how to swim underwater on his own! Thing 2 also figured how to swim with his life jacket on without Mommy or Daddy. It's so fun to watch him. It's really funny to watch when he decides he is done swimming on his stomach and just rolls onto his back and floats. He's so chill and relaxed! Depending on when we get back to the pool, I'm hoping to share pictures soon!

Here are pictures from them opening presents and blowing out candles on their birthday cake.

 They love their soft Angry Birds hooded blankets.

And below is Adam opening his much desired Cowboy boots. He's been wanting these for a very long time.

The joy of a boy, his Angry Bird blanket and his Cowboy boots.

The Things again agreed on a birthday cake theme. I hope that they do that for the next few years to make things easier, but if not, I'll make something work. I want to keep them happy. So here is their Lego cake. I wanted to do fondant, but with our recent move and unpacking still, I didn't have time.

I was so excited to have found Lego candles on clearance! Bonus!

Happy birthday my handsome not so little Things! Mommy and Daddy love you very much!!!!!