Part III

I tried to write about the trip in the first blog post, but it wasn't meant to be. I am going to try to write in this one instead. Hopefully, it will work out better this time. Anyway, as it is apparent, we went to Wisconsin for about a week in April to visit Grammy, Grampy, Aunt April, Cousin Michayla, and Uncle Scott. Joe's brother Jacob came with us. We drove there.

We left on a Thursday and drove all Thursday and Friday. Thank goodness for the drop-down DVD player in the car or the trip would have been much worse. As it was, the boys did pretty well, except for occasional fights about toys and boredem related whining. Dallin had a hard time the second day and grumped a lot, mostly when we stopped to eat. Dallin also had to go to the bathroom a lot. It meant stopping almost hourly for potty breaks, sometimes just on the side of the road when there wasn't another town or gas station for miles. At least we didn't have any accidents in the car. On Thursday night, we stayed in Rapid City South Dakota at a hotel with a water park. It was really fun for the boys (even though a lot of water park activities are wasted on them because they can swim and are afraid of waterslides) and it was a good incentive to behave in the car so we could hurry and get there.

On Sunday, we went to church with Grammy and Grampy. It was kind of strange. I grew up in that ward/branch myself, but I really didn't recognize many people there anymore. Dallin and Porter did well in Primary. Porter was braver than I thought he would be and went to his class without any fuss. Dallin had to sit with Aunt April for a while to warm up to the new primary, but was eventually okay and even gave the prayer in his class. After church, we went back to Grammy and Grampy's to play in the yard and eat. The boys had a good time playing with Michayla and the grownups. (The first pictures of the kids playing in the yard are of Sunday). We also went to the park near Grammy and Grampy's. Two the three kids fell off of the merry-go-round but it was still a good time. The boys (including the grown up boys) played soccer while Michayla cheered on the sidelines.

On Monday, we went bowling (pictures are in Part I). Porter and Dallin have been wanting to go real bowling for a while now and were excited. The bowling itself went pretty well. Joe and Dallin won. Afterward though, Dallin got upset and threw a massive tantrum that lasted from the bowling alley parking lot, to Perkins, through most of lunch. He and I spent at least half of lunch time in the bathroom while he screamed and cried for reasons that I don't think he even understood. He is lucky he finally settled down because I nearly gave him to an old woman in the restroom who thought he was cute in his all his wailing glory. When we got home, he took a nice nap while Joe and Jacob took Porter back to the bowling alley.

On Tuesday, we went to the zoo. The pictures are below in Part II. Porter's favorite things were (1) all the meat-eaters, (2) the fighting raccoons, and (3) feeding the giraffes. Dallin's favorite things were the eagle and the train. That night, we went over the April and Scott's to see their new house and play at the nearby park.

On Wednesday, the kids "helped" with yardwork and then colored pictures on the sidewalk with chalk. We went to look at my old houses and then to A&W for lunch. After lunch, we went to visit a woman from the ward who is in the nursing home. I remember her from when we lived there. Her daughter and I were friends. Then we went home for naps until it was time for the Young Women's spagetti dinner.

Thursday was our last day. We drove to Minnesota to go the Mall of America. Porter was very excited to go to the Lego Land. He could have spent hours there looking at all the Legos. He got two sets and was anxious to get started on building them.

Dallin was less excited about Lego Land. He liked it but he had in his mind that he could buy a set of Legos with Robin (from Batman) in them and such things don't seem to exist

We were in Minnesota for Jacob to go through the temple in St. Paul. He and Joe and Grammy and Grampy went to the temple, while April and I stayed with the kids at the Mall to ride the rides. (We also went to the Disney Store to get Dallin some Buzz Lightyear items, since he was disappointed with the Legos). I got sick on one of the rides, but otherwise, it was a good time. April and I were pretty worn out and grumpy from wrangling the three kids by the end though. I may or may not have accidentally run over our jug of juice in the parking lot. It exploded loudly and we thought we had hit something. I'm glad April was there and we could laugh about it though.

On Friday, we began our drive back home, after saying our goodbyes to everyone.

We drove back to Rapid City and went to another hotel with a waterpark (hooray for Rapid City and swimming). We went to Mount Rushmore the next day. This is a picture of some mountain goats we saw while walking around.

Porter was fascinated by everything there. Dallin was mostly grumpy because his rain boots were hard to walk in and we wanted to be carried.

we tried to take a family picture but Dallin was too upset

We went on the little hike around the mountain. Porter found a cave.

Dallin decided to rest

That night, we drove to Casper Wyoming and stayed there that night. It was a pretty crappy hotel frankly, but it was mostly funny. My favorite part was the maid who brought us bedsheets and then had me help her make the bed. She jokingly critized my bed-making the whole time. She was happier with Jacob, who knew how to make a bed with military precision. We finally got home on Sunday evening. Dallin was sad again. It took us two days to get all the laundry caught up. Porter wishes we lived in Wisconsin (I think Joe wishes it sometimes too), but he would miss Grandma too much if we did. It was a good trip. It has made Joe slightly arrogant, thinking we can go on long road trips all the time now. The next place we will probably go though is to where ever Erin and Isaac are when their baby is born and blessed.