Sheridan Shores ala September

A few weeks back on a fine autumnal morning the kids and I took to the Hills to spend some time hiking with our friend, Denise. We hiked from one of the boat landings on Sheridan Lake around to the bridge above the spillway at the end of the lake. It was one of those fall days crisp enough to need a coat but not yet cold. We were also about the only folks around which could have made the hike pristine but we were hiking with three kids, so, you know, it was a little busy. Hopefully this is just the first of many such fall days.

1: Denise and Hans hiking along. 2: The view of our destination. 3: The view from our destination. 4: My kids and me. :)

Happy Autumn!

More of visiting with G&G

Here are some more pictures of what we did with G&G. One of the highlights that we didn't take pictures of was a trip to Armadillos Ice Cream Shop downtown. It is a little 'mom & pop' type place complete with 'flavor of the day' and 75 cent kid cones. We love it and visit it very often from March to November while it is open.

1: Kids at the Stav Kirke

2: Hans and Grandma walking on the path at Canyon Lake Park looking for more ducks and geese to feed.

3: Evan trying to get the duck to come just a little bit closer while he was feeding them.

4: The kids and G&G on the bridge at Canyon Lake Park. We were one of the only groups of people feeding the birds that day after a summer of them being continually fed. As a result they were thrilled to see us and followed us all around the lake begging for more.

We loved having Grandma and Grandpa here and hope that they enjoyed the rest of their trip. :)

My Grandma & Grandpa

This past Saturday my grandparents came for a visit. It had been awhile since they have made it out here. We all enjoyed having them around from Saturday afternoon until they took off to keep visiting family in Colorado on Tuesday morning. As usual with visitors at our house, the kids were certain that they were here for their entertainment.

Picture 1: The kids playing on the swing set with Grandma. Another fun back yard activity was catching bugs to show Grandma. Crickets, rolly-poleys, and grasshoppers are favorites.

Picture 2: Hans cuddling with Grandma for stories at bedtime.

Picture 3: Grandpa reading to Lydia who demanded this over and over and over and over....

Picture 4: G&G with the kids at the museum at the Stav Kirke Chapel along with statues of Ole and Lena, the Norwegian caretakers.

Cheese

Lydia has a lot of personality. I'm not exactly sure where that comes from though. :)

Picture 1: When we've had a messy meal so that both the table and kids are messy they are allowed to do a little suds painting. (It's like pre-washing them.) That is funny by itself but Lydia has recently decided that whenever she knows she is in a picture she must plaster a hilariously huge grin across her face and squeal "cheese."

Picture 2: During bedtime stories tonight Lydia needed to be wearing a necklace we got at the Fourth of July parade and Evan's winter hat. I have no idea why. Notice that she is also sporting the "cheese face."

15 Minutes? Ha!

For the summer reading program at the library the kids needed to read or be read to for 15 minutes a day. When I saw that I laughed out loud. Seriously, 15 minutes got us a prize? Ha! There are days when I feel like that's all I do. Since we do read a lot around here it seems like I'm often snapping a picture of someone reading with the kids. Here are a couple of recent pictures that are just cute and fun to share.

1. Lydia demanding some Daddy time after church on Sunday.

2. Hans and Lydia getting Dad in the chair with a pile of books before he even got dressed on Saturday.

3. The kids and I reading before bed tonight in "blanket nests". No it isn't really cold enough to need footie pajamas and an entire pile of blankets but it does make reading time more fun. :)

Now go cuddle up with a good book. We recommend a minimum of 15 minutes. :)

Run, Dad, Run

On the beautiful Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend Nathan ran in the Southern Hills Triathlon. That said, he actually ran the duathlon, one of the many options in the whole event. (Earlier in the summer he had planned on participating in the triathlon but when he started working for the general contractor of the building project at our church his swim time was cut out of his schedule.) This particular duathlon was a 5K run, a 20K bike, and a 5K run. Nathan came in 1st in his age group (he may have been the only one :) and his times placed him third overall. He though the whole thing was great and plans to keep competing in events similar to this in the future.

The kids and I had fun cheering him on from the sidelines. The time we spent in the water at the beach following the race was also a big hit with the kids along with staying at a hotel, throwing several hundred rocks into the lake, geocaching, and the dilly bars we had to celebrate on the way home.

It wasn't camping in the mountains (our usual Labor Day plans) but it was a nice weekend as a family. That's always our goal. Hopefully you had a great final weekend of "summer" and are beginning to enjoy autumn.

Miss JoElyn

Last week we had the pleasure of opening up our home to new visitors. While in MN earlier this summer we had run into a high school friend and extended the invitation to come visit anytime. Sometime in early August JoElyn called and took us up on our offer. She and her mom, Ellen, made a whirlwind tour of SD and a piece of WY to visit various family members. We loved having them for the evening. The kids think all visitors are here to read and play with them so when this happened with both JoElyn and Ellen, they were a huge hit. Nathan and I both enjoyed catching up with Jo which resulted in a worthwhile late night. We might be seeing more of JoElyn as she is currently job hunting and was liking what we had to say about Rapid City. It is a really nice place to live or, at the very least, to visit. :)

Range Days Rodeo

One of the biggest highlights of fair week is the three nights of rodeo action. I'm not an expert at all but it is just fun to watch. Range Days is small enough that there are usually only around ten contestants in each event which means it is constantly changing from event to event. The boys really like the calf roping and team roping events because "the cowboys lasso the cows" and the barrel races are neat because they are one of the only events where competitor stay on the horse. Our perennial favorite events are the ones where the cowboys fall off their horses (or bulls) with bull riding being the best of all.

The first pictures is from the first night which is always military appreciation night. National Guard soldiers from Rapid and airmen from Ellsworth are honored as a representation a of our military. There is also a B-1 Bomber flyover which is a little exhilarating and a lot loud.

Something else very fun we forgot to take pictures of was the clowns. Part of the clown's job is to distract the bulls from the fallen rider during the bull riding but the rest of the time they add to the entertainment factor. At some point in the night there is always a skit performed full of puns and one liners that flirts with ridiculous but it overall good, clean fun.

Hopefully the last picture comes through as a video and not an actual picture since I'm trying to upload it a new way. It is the 89 point bull ride that took first place. If your computer is slow it won't come through all that great but in person it was awesome. You can hear the crown roaring.

So, any takers on next year's fair? We'd love to have you if I've got you sold. :)

Taylor Swift

Monday night of the fair week we took the kids with us to the Taylor Swift and Neal McCoy concerts. The boys did enjoy it but Lydia was the one who really loved it. She has as much of a sense of rhythm as any 20 month old and was groovin' to the beat, laughing, dancing, and clapping like a regular country girl. :)

Ride 'em Cowboys

Early in our week of fair festivities we wandering all around the fairgrounds letting the kids soak up the variety of activities around them. We asked if they would like to ride a carnival ride and looked at a lot of the kiddie rides. They were all neat but both boys chose the "real horses" instead. Here are the happy cowboys out for their rides. Yipee-kai-yai-yeah!!

Pig Wrestling

This week we have been enjoying the Central States Fair which is held here in Rapid. For those of you reading from MN or WI, it's about the size of a large county fair. One of the telecommunication companies here sponsors my new favorite sport, pig wrestling. Th object is for a four person team to capture a greased pig from the within the mud pit and place it in the large container in the center of the pen. The faster the better with the fastest team overall taking $1,000 for their non-profit or charity. The fastest time we saw the other night was just over 7 seconds. Seriously, 7 seconds! We'll be at the finals tomorrow night. Lydia was scared to death when the crowd started yelling and the pig squealing but the boys wouldn't give up their ring side places for anything. And they were wearing the mud to prove it. I'm thinking that it'd be a great way to add $1,000 to our weekly offering. Anybody want to join me?

Sharing a Love

For as long as I've known Nathan he has loved all planes and dreamed of flying. He can identify nearly any plane that flies over head which has always amazed me. Saturday he shared a little of that love with the kids. Ellsworth Air Force Base is just east of town and they house the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. There are 25+ planes, asorted missles and rockets, and a helicopter scattered around the property and a self guided tour in the hanger. The boys especially seem to have picked up on Nathan's love so they were thrilled to get to look at, sit in, and touch airplanes. Lydia is our most adventurous child and I'm predicting that she'll be the one to jump out of them someday. The next 20 years should be interesting. :)

Jewel Cave #3: The Cache

While in the neighborhood of Jewel Cave we went hunting for a geocache. Evan and my Mom found it and Evan got to dig it out. He was slightly proud of himself.

Lydia was happy on Nathan's shoulders. If you look closely you'll see she has a piece of grass in her mouth. She and the boys have picked up on the fact that Dad puts them in his mouth so think they should too. Monkey see, monkey do. :)

Jewel Cave #2

Here are some of the amazing rock formations we saw at Jewel Cave. We thought they looked like caramel melting, popcorn, and a giant slice of bacon (although the third is hard to see in the picture). Cave tour or food tour, hmm, did we get them mixed up? Yum.