Little Family on the Prairie

Sunday, July 25th

We only with my grandparents stayed for the afternoon so that we could head on further down the road. On we drove as far as Keyhole State Park in Wyoming before too late. It was dark when we set up camp, but we found setting up the tent trailer isn’t too hard. Our girls were managing well in staying up late and not being too cranky for it. Here they are chasing grasshoppers, which fascinated them!

We woke up and had a hearty breakfast before breaking camp and heading on east. We took our time that day, stopping for various reasons. The Historic Point called the “Buffalo Jump” made us stop, but it was false advertising. The picture showed a deep hole showing 100’s of years of buffalo bones that had been uncovered at the bottom of a natural sinkhole that the Indians had used to run buffalo. However, after we paid our $10, we went down to find out that all that had been backfilled and only a small hole wish a few bones was showing. At least the girls liked it and seemed to learn something.

One side track we took was to check out Deadwood. It sounded like a cool ghost town, but ended up being alive and well, stock full of casinos. Not wanting to waste too much time, we just did a drive by through the town and found out it was the place where Wild Bill Hickok was shot while playing cards and where Calamity Jane was buried.

As we went through Sturgis, SD, we stopped at a small roadside chapel to find a geocache. We have to get find caches in every state we visit. Some day we’ll have to collect a cache in every state!

Then, as we traveled through South Dakota, we kept seeing these signs advertising Wall Drug and it’s free ice water and 5 cent coffee. Of course we were intrigued, but I didn’t have my hopes up because everyone had said it was “just a drug store”. However, we were pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere and things to see and do, not to mention the history of the place.  We stayed for a couple hours just looking at things in the stores, playing, and taking pictures.

 

Then we continued east. Little did we know that there would be so little beyond Wall, SD. We thought we’d be able to make it a little farther, but there just didn’t seem to be many places to stop and camp. There were no trees or state parks, and we knew we’d need to cool off before bed. So, we found a KOA in the middle of nowhere so we decided to stop early so we’d have time to swim.

 

Monday, July 26th

The next morning we got up and continued east once again. Our main destination that day was Walnut Grove, Minnesota. We decided to stay on the freeway so we could get a good “Welcome to Minnesota” picture. That is our new family goal…a collection of “welcome” signs.

It took what seemed like forever to get there, but we finally made it to Walnut Grove. Well, to tell you the truth, there isn’t much there. Laura didn’t actually give the name of the town in her books, but it was the actual town she lived near. The TV show used Walnut Grove more than they  should have, because the family actually moved on to De Smet, SD.

 

The museum there had some neat stuff, but it lacked any real history of the area. I bought a book that really had more information. The best part of our Walnut Grove visit was going out to the actual dugout spot where their home would have been in the book “On the Banks of Plum Creek”. We waded in the creek and walked on the “table land” from the story. We even saw the plum thicket, though they weren’t yet ripe.

After picking up some dinner in Tracy, Minnesota (the start of Ma and the girls’ first train ride), we started heading west again. We made it to our reserved spot on the Ingalls Homestead by nightfall.

  

Tuesday, July 27th

I didn’t realize what a neat place the Homestead was. I had read about it in the Family Fun article, but assumed it was just a camping place. In the morning we found out that it was really the spot that was Pa’s homestead in the 1880’s and had a hands-on tour of different parts of Laura’s life. They had built some buildings reminiscent of Laura’s life to wander through, a dugout home and a shanty, and a house just like they would have had there on that very homestead.

 

The girls’ favorite part was the two litters of kittens they found on the property. They loved holding them and didn’t want to leave them.

The homestead had sample crops planted and a wagon ride out to a little school. There they held a little mock school time and the girls even got to dress up in aprons and bonnets. (Too bad Kelby was too “grown up” to do it.) They also showed the girls how to make rag rugs, button toys, corn cob babies, and rope, all of which they got to bring home as souvenirs.

Mike is so good at taking pictures! 

  

We stayed so long that we were starving for lunch and went to a quaint down-home restaurant in De Smet. Then we drove around De Smet and saw a few of the spots mentioned in On the Shores of Silver Lake, the Long Winter, and the Little Town on the Prairie. This is the surveyor’s house where they lived one winter.

It was a good day of sight seeing, and then we were off again headed west. We stopped on Tuesday night at another KOA. We were early enough for the girls to get to swim again and enjoy a batch of kettle corn.

 

and yet there was even more…

Going East

What a wonderful time we are having! I love a good road trip. I’m not sure if the girls are bored, but I’m sure this will be something they’ll remember.

 

We drove all day on Thursday,  but we stopped at the Cataldo Mission in Idaho. Mike has always wanted to stop there, but we’ve always been in too much of a hurry. This time we even had time to hunt down a geocache.

 

Then we continued east until about 8:00 pm when we found a  campground just outside of Butte. We left home without a definite plan for where we were going to stay or how far we’d get each day, so we had to figure it out on the fly. I happened to find this campground and it was a risk because it was 10 miles off the freeway and we didn’t know if there would be a spot. It worked out beautifully. The forest we drove through was magnificent. There were tons of lodge pole pines that are so different from our Washington forests. Every now and then there was a vein of tall, bright white birch trees flowing down a valley. Huge boulders were sprinkled through the forest that reminded me of sleeping giants.

 

Luckily there was a place for us. We popped up the trailer, ate dinner, and went to sleep. When the sun came up the next morning, we got to appreciate the special place. It felt like a little gift from God. We enjoyed the scenery and quiet time there, then broke camp to move on to Bozeman, MT.

 

When we got to Bozeman, we had to do a little shopping. Then, we HAD to get our sandwiches from the famous Pickle Barrel. They were too huge and delicious. Next time we must not order a whole sandwich each. I think they must be 18 inches long. We each ate a half for lunch that day and the other half for dinner the next.

 

 

Then we drove to Livingston where we checked into our hotel. We had a wedding to get ready for, so we had to have a place to shower. We were able to get in a little swim too, so the girls were excited.

Then we went out to our friend’s wedding. We enjoyed the outdoor wedding at the base of the mountains south of Livingston. Merris was a friend of Mike and I back when we were Resident Advisors at MSU the year before we got married. Mike always advised her to hold out for the right guy and that he was out there somewhere. Well, now she’s found him and looks like he was worth the wait!

  

The dinner was delicious barbeque. The girls enjoyed traipsing through the tall grasses catching little moths, already looking like “little girls on the prairie”.

 

We slept at the hotel that night and enjoyed our continental breakfast the next morning before we headed out toward Billings. We got to my grandparent’s house by 11:00. We visited and had lunch. My aunt Linda was at work, so we stopped into the Shoppe to see her. “The Shoppe” used to be my Grandma’s consignment store. I grew up working there over the summers and getting all my clothes there.

 

 

Then we had lunch with Gramma and Grampa and, of course, ice cream. I even recorded my grandparents telling us a little about when they were little as we talked about our visit to Little House land. I’m so excited I thought to video them.

 

 

And then we were off…to be continued.

Eastward Ho!

Summer is just sneaking by us. We have been having a great time! The weather has even improved.

The week after the 4th of July was slow, but it was an opportunity to get ready for the big week that was coming. I spent my time trying to get ready to teach Outdoor Skills at our Girl Scout Day camp.

On Thursday, that week, the girls and and I rode our bikes to the library for a special presentation, “Westward Ho”. It was about the food of the pioneers. The librarians offered a feast of recipes. They had corn bread, baked beans, bean chili, and a black bean soup. It was delicious. She also baked a 4th of July cake and various pies. We even tried a dandelion salad! My girls were adventurous and tried everything. They even liked it (except the dandelion greens which were pretty bitter.) The librarians shared excerpts from books and diaries of pioneer women. They were a hard working sort having to fight every day just to feed their family. It really has me thinking about the life I lead as a woman. I got it easy!

On Saturday we went camping to our old stand by location of Newhalem. Mike had asked a friend from work if his family would like to join us and they did. They have four kids and they all loved playing together. We got a camp site next to a really neat wooded area where they all could play. The kids build themselves forts.



 
We had a really great time talking walks and hanging out with friends. I even tested a few things for our upcoming Girl Scout camp. We made no-bake chocolate cookies and I left them out on the picnic table to cool. Apparently they were too tempting for our little friend.


On Monday at 1:00 we had the first day of Girl Scout day camp. I spent all morning planning and packing the car with stuff I might need. We taught fire skills on Monday, outdoor cooking on Tuesday, navigation on Wednesday, and Hiking on Thursday. I think that my class was a hit with the girls. It was so fun to give these girls the opportunity to learn some new things and to build their confidence in other areas. I had them lighting matches, using a lighter to light a camp stove, identifying plants in the woods and even a little geocaching! Here they are building edible fires!





That was a great week! The girls also got to do crafts, archery, and songs/games, and swimming. We were pooped by the end. On weekend we didn’t do too much just so we could recover.

This week we were getting everything ready to head out for Montana and our “Little House on the Prairie” vacation.

We are going to a wedding in Livingstone, Montana and then to visit my grandparents in Billings. Then, we are going to keep heading east through Mt. Rushmore and on to Walnut Grove, MN. This is the first time we’ve done a road trip like that…to just visit touristy places.

I’ve checked out the whole series of Little House on the Prairie audio books to listen to the whole way! Hopefully it will be one of those things that the girls remember forever…even if they think it is weird that we went to Minnesota.

Keep us in your prayers for safety and smooth sailing (and no deer)! Also, we are hoping the weather works for us. We’ll be able to be flexible, so who knows what all we’ll do on this trip! I’m sure that updates and pictures will follow!

Fourth of July

We continued to be busy this week. I really wish I could slow time down. After we took the kids home from Kelby’s birthday, we had to go get Kelby’s teeth cleaned, then the sun came out for a minute and we dropped by the church pool for an hour.
The sun has really been hiding from us this week!

On Wednesday Kelby had a friend over and I tried to get some Girl Scout stuff planned for Twilight Camp in two weeks. That was harder to prepare for than I thought. Teaching outdoor skills to all those age groups is tricky. I think I’ve got a plan now anyway.

On Thursday I had to take Kelby down to Children’s Dental for a check up on the site where they pulled her tooth out last month. They want to make sure it heals up nice because there is a risk that the bone won’t heal due to the radiation she had there. They thought it looked good, but want to see us again in three months.
On Friday afternoon we had planned to have a little birthday celebration for Naomi and Kelby with all the cousins. We wanted to meet at the church pool, but it ended up being closed for a chemical treatment. We met at the spray park instead. They played and played together and we had a delicious “smores brownie cake” and some ice cream treats.

Kelby got some fun stuff from her aunties. She even got a sliver horse necklace to go with the horse earrings that Gramma Dee Dee sent.

On Saturday the weather was still icky. Kelby got to go on her Gramma Date with Gramma Debbie. They love that present. They do lunch and go shopping together.

Anika helped to start making my Flag Cake for the next day. She even used a knife to cut the strawberries for me.

That evening we went to our friends' house for dinner and poker plus fireworks. It was a a perfect party! We had mexican potluck and then she had a babysitter come over to watch the kids. The grown ups played poker. Fun! (I think I played pretty well, though I didn’t win.) They have a super cool tree house at their place and the only bummer of the night was when a little guy fell and hurt his foot. His parents took him to the ER and they found out it was a sprain. We thought it could be broken. Poor guy!

 

Then it was time for a fire and fireworks! We had a great time. I love being invited over to friends' houses! Thank you! The kids had a great time too!

On Sunday morning, we had to miss church and go to the Sedro-Woolley Foot Race...a 4th of July tradition. Everyone “ran”. I walked with Anika, but the other girls ran the best they could. Tegan ran into a new friend that she met at the soccer VBS, so she was so excited and just meandered with her.

Then we went to the two hour parade. Luckily we had found our seats before the race, because there wasn’t much room. The kids caught a ton of candy. We were freezing and covered up in blankets the whole time. After the parade we came home and finished getting ready to have some neighbors over. Just in time for the party, it started to really rain. We pulled our BBQ out into the front yard anyway and put the food up on the porch. After making some coffee and hot water for cocoa to warm everyone up, things looked better. We brought our fire bowl out into the front yard and then it was a party!

I have been wanting to make this Flag Cake for years! It is always in the magazines this time of year. This was a very tasty version with cream cheese mixed in with the whipped cream. Yum!

Note the ugly clouds in the background!  

This morning was really yucky weather outside. We had hoped to go hiking since Mike had the day off, but instead we watched a Shirley Temple movie, Heidi. Then later we watched Flicka 2. By the time that was done, the sun came out. Rumor has it that the sun is here to stay for at least a week, so YEAH!
Our goal for this week is to visit a park in Bellingham and get my shopping done for Twilight Camp. I also want to try thrift store shopping and even garage sales to start finding back-to-school clothes for the girls. We’ve had some great success and fun shopping thrift stores together.
Hope everyone had a great 4th!