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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

South Dakota Trip—Tuesday

Tuesday was a jam packed day!  We spent a lot of time in the Badlands.  What beauty our God created for us to enjoy.

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me and Ethan.  It was only 69* or so but man were we HOT climbing around there.

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That is Ron and Ethan WAY up on the tip top!

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He’s taking pictures of a RATTLESNAKE! 

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Gosh I love this guy!

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Ethan took this great picture of Ron and me

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These guys crossed the road right in front of us!  So cool!

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Ethan enjoyed the day of seeing and climbing!  For a while…then he just wanted to read!  And had to pout a bit when we said “No!  Just keep looking!”

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South Dakota Bound—Monday

With 3 kids working at the pool this summer, there isn’t going to be much of a chance for the 6 of us to get away together.  We will try to do things with the kids individually for a little getaway throughout the summer.  Recently it was Ethan’s turn.  He and Ron and I traveled to South Dakota for a few days.  A beautiful state!

It rained on Monday THE WHOLE WAY THERE!  A yucky, drizzly, icky rain.  We stopped at the Corn Palace, of course, just to say Ethan had been there.

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Ethan was tickled to eat a Corn Dog at the Corn Palace.  What fun!

We then drove on to the Badlands.  We had a quick stop at the Prairie Dog town.

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Aren’t they cute little critters??

Then we parked and walked around in the badlands for just a little while.

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Gosh I love this kid!  We had a BUNCH of fun together!

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Ron is great about stopping and pointing interesting things out to Ethan!  What a GREAT dad!

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Because it was so rainy/drizzly all day, and we didn’t want to set up a tent to have it rain on us just to take it down and pack it up wet the next morning, we got a Kabin at the KOA in Interior, SD.  I LOVED it, and would be perfectly happy to never sleep in a tent again.  I’m a Kabin fan!

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Evening at the White River, Interior, SD

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The (chilly) end of day one!

Mall of America

After a hectic start to June, Ron and I managed to get away to Minneapolis for a quick getaway.  We were SO tired from Dairy Days/Funnel cakes that just relaxing felt great!  We enjoyed a yummy supper at Outback Steak House, a morning at IKEA, the rest of the day at the Mall of America and the next morning at Midwest Brewing.  Ron was thrilled to have

this

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for a snack at the Mall of America.  I kept shopping and he caught up with me later.  I couldn’t watch him eat it ;)

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Strawberry Pickin’

On our way home from Ft. Wayne, Ethan and I drove by Hilger’s.  I saw signs for U-Pick strawberries, and I just HAD to stop!  It was a beautiful, sunny day, and we were up for a wagon ride out to the strawberry field!

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ok…bad lighting…knew it was when I took the picture, LOL…but that IS Ethan’s big smile on that wagon!

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mmmmmmm….SOOOOO yummy!

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Strawberry Shortcake for supper! 

On the way home, I called Rachel to tell her what we were bringing home.  I asked her to make shortcake for us.  She did a GREAT job and we had an AMAZING lunch the next day. Strawberry shortcake with REAL whipped cream.  YUM!

Monday, June 21, 2010

A stop at CTS

I had a few things to drop off at Concordia Theological Seminary while in Ft. Wayne.  I really miss that place!  Ethan didn’t remember ever being there before, and as we were walking around, enjoying the beautiful day, he said “Mom!  This isn’t ANYTHING like I pictured it would be!”  I asked “What did you think it would be?”  He said “Just a big BUILDING with windows!”  He enjoyed the visit, and took most of these photos (except, of course, the ones he is in :-)

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Ethan and Martin :-)

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NICE picture, Ethan! 

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I LOVE this picture!!!

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Inside the Chapel

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I thought this one was kind of interesting…

We spent a very enjoyable hour or two walking around and looking at things.  The only thing missing were the ducks in the pond.  But I’m sure they’ll be back some day!