Minnesota lake fun

As you can see traveling in the car so long makes one very tired!

Looking out the window enjoying the scenery of back roads in South and North Dakota.  We only were on interstate for the first hour and the last mile in MN.  Otherwise we made G proud and avoided all the major roads and took the back roads through farm land and small town Dakota!

We finally got to MN about supper time Thursday.  Just in time to see G&G before they headed out to the campsite. After playing for a little while we headed to bed.  The next day started our adventures at the lake.  We invited Cousin L with us the first day for the famous Zorbez pizza on the lake.

The family waiting for the pizza to arrive.

The satisfied customers after a wonderful lunch.

For the next day and a half we spent as much time on the beach as we could.  Even those who decided not to swim as much enjoyed the shade and fresh air!

We even got Uncle S to go into the water.  Aunt S and Amber were wore out after swimming laps around the swim area.

On Saturday, Aunt M made a crab/shrimp boil (minus the crab).  It was very good.

Doesn't it look great!  We all dug in and there wasn't any food left after we got down with it!

When the sun started going down and it got too cold to stay by the lake, we headed to the campsite to spend the evenings with G&G, Aunt M and Aunt R.

Being silly with our "hats".  The translation of the song we are singing is "when coming to the street, look both ways", then we would head into the "street".

G loves to spoil her little girls, so we got some presents from her recent trip to see Uncle W in Hawaii.  I also got a late birthday present from Aunt M.

Storybook land

Since Aberdeen was the place we ended up spending the night and D hearing from Uncle S about the fun park there, we decided to head to Storybook Land on our way out of town.  M&D thought we might spend an hour or so, have lunch and then finish the trip to MN.  C and I had so much fun though that we ended up being there almost 3 hours.

Storybook Land is the home of Wizard the Oz and the yellow brick road, but there are a lot of other fun characters there also from all your favorite stories.  The best park--FREE admission.  It really is more of a playground with statues everywhere, but we were the perfect age to enjoy it!  D even got into the fun--having the lion bite his head as he tried to get a drink of water on the hot 90 degree day.

Riding the ponies on the way to.....

Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eaters house!

We climbed the hill with Jack and Jill, sailed on the blue seas with the pirates, played in the woods with Bambi and friends, passed the 3 little pigs and their houses and climbed Rupunzel's castle. 

Then we stopped to eat lunch before heading to the Land of Oz!

Enjoying the fountain of books.

 

We walked the yellow brick road with Dorothy and her friends, past the Scarecrow's cornfield, through the woods to the tin man and into the cave of the lion.  We walked through the haunted forest and past the witch's castle until we got to Emerald City and the balloon ride of the Wizard.  What an adventure!

We ended the day with a ride around the park on their little train and a stop by the zoo to see the buffalo!

Waterslides

At  the end of July M and D had some vacation days planned to head to Minnesota for a family reunion.  As the date got closer M realized that even though we had planned to leave on Wednesday no one else would be in MN until Thursday later afternoon.  With M's new job approaching the decision teeter-tottor game was played.  Do we work that extra day or do we go up and take our time?  We finally made the decision Monday evening that things were looking good at M's job and who knew when she would get another day off as new employees and training would be taking place in August.  So early Wednesday morning we headed out.  The plan was to go through the Black Hills and possibly make it to Mitchell to visit some friends before heading to a hotel for the night.  Through M's lack of planning and a slight unplanned detour coming out of the Black Hills (no pictures even though we passed Mt. Rushmore  and I told M, "I've seen that before at school in a picture!") we ended up too far north of I-90 to visit friends.  So M in a panic started calling the different hotels along the map and finally found a place in Aberdeen for us to spend the night.  It actually worked out well (even though M was very sad to miss Mitchell and the friends there!) as the hotel had a fun park (ie. 2 slides!) for us to play on before bed and first thing the next morning.

C coming off the BIG slide with D.

I went with M quite a few times but even got brave enough to go down by myself as long as M was at the bottom to catch me!

Swimming in the deep end with just by float board!

Relaxing in the hot tub with D.

River Fun

A few Sundays back we decided to head up the canyon to cool off.  We drove until we found a good spot to soak our feet in the water.  It was a little cold, but that didn't stop us from playing and going out as deep as our waists.  What a great way to cool off.  It didn't last long because the rain started threatening as soon as we parked but we got almost a half hour of fun before it really poured!

Hanging out on the rocks with M.

D watching his much too brave girls try to climb around the rock in the current!

Watching the river go by!

The smiles say it all.  We had a great time even if it was short!

Company Picnic

A few Saturday's ago was D's company picnic.  It was only forecasted to be 95 that day, so we set out to have an afternoon of fun.  After a great lunch of BBQ, the only logical dessert is ICE CREAM!!

Then it was off to the bouncy houses.

 

Patiently waiting for our turn in the jumping house!

C climbing the rope ladder inside the caterpillar bouncy maze.

We had all sorts of fun on the 3 bouncy equipment they had.  We jumped and raced and had a good time--even if we were being silly!

 

While M tried to stay in the shade watching us on the bouncy houses, D and P found their own shady spot patiently waiting for us to finish up our fun.

After the bouncy houses, it was off to the carnival games.  I won a little stuffed horse and C won some new dress-up rings.

After the afternoon in the sun we were wore out, so we dropped P off and headed home for a nap.  When we woke up M took us the lake to cool off.