Having A Ball In Sioux Falls!

We spent our Labor Day weekend making a quick trip to visit our favorite South Dakota people.

Kailyn was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. Isn't she a beautiful, grown-up girl?

Caden, age 4

Ava, age 5 months. Shelly and Ken claim Ava is a cranky night owl. I find that hard to believe-she's such a sweetheart during the day.

Jordan, age 6

Chase, age 2.

Here we are with Kailyn, right before her baptism.

Kailyn and her grandparents. It was fun to all be together.

Megan was wildly popular with the Bassett kids. She even watched Word Girl with them. Megan can now read all kinds of new words.

We spent Saturday afternoon exploring the falls of Sioux Falls.

There was a gorgeous, large park you could wander around,

play in the slime,

and (oops!) fall in.

Jordan and Kailyn had fun climbing down the cliffs.

We eventually ended up at the cafe/ice cream shop, where Ava found us this steal of a deal: if you buy one meal for the price of two meals, you get a second meal totally free! Wow! These South Dakotans know how to reel you in!

The kids, surprisingly enough,  chose a rainbow ice cream

which will hopefully fade before Jordan's first prom.

Next we went to a science park. Can I just say that South Dakota knows how to make communities attractive for families? Here Megan shows her entourage how to make a human sundial. 

 There were swings and

things to climb on.

Ava may look like she's having fun with Dad, but ignore that happy face.

I know she was terrified to be flying so high, despite her joyous giggle.

We also drove by Ken's hospital. Okay, technically it's not Ken's hospital, he just works here.

This is the children's wing of Ken's hospital. Okay, once again, I know it's not exactly Ken's hospital, but if Ken were going to own a hospital, I vote for this one.

After church on Sunday and lunch together, we headed homeward.  Along the way we stopped at the Dakota Badlands.

We also made a quick stop at the famous Wall Drug Store.

We spent the night in Rapid City, and got up this morning to visit the Presidents.

Megan is suppose to look like she's holding up the mountain, but once again my technical skills were AWOL and I just made Megan look like a Price is Right model.

I found this warning in the Rushmore bathroom. Darn. Now I have to take my rocks home dirty.

 We also stopped to visit this monument to Crazy Horse, which has been in the works for 63 years. It was a big disappointment.  Not only was it expensive to get in, but only about 10 percent is done (eventually he will be riding a horse) and the viewing spot was about a mile away unless you wanted to pay even more money to take a bus and get a little closer.

Of course, no visit to Rapid City is complete without a stop at the eerie and weird "Cosmos House".
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Megan demonstrated the mysterious force.

We stopped by Reptile Gardens so that Megan could pet the turtle she rode on 17 years ago.  She thought it had shrunk a bit. We also saw the bird show, snake show, and alligator wrestling.

We knew it was time to go home when we found Megan inappropriately flirting with the locals...

We will spend tomorrow packing up, then on to Idaho. *Sniff*

Strictly Business

Stan needed to visit several clients in the Utah area, so Megan and I decided to go along. It was a trip we had planned to do later, but quickly rescheduled when Megan got a job with the fair.



While Stan worked, Megan and I worked hard at shopping for college. Do you know how hard it is to find non-destroyed jeans acceptable for BYU-I in Megan's size and taste? Pretty much can't be done.


I wanted to immortalize this last time "shopping for college" bonding moment.
Megan was in no mood for picture taking. She's never go to make it as a famous person--she was down right rude to her personal paparazzi. Every time I pulled out my camera, Megan took off running.
Over the years, I've done a lot of back-to-school shopping trips with my daughters. Truthfully, I'm going to miss them. Our bank account is not.

In addition to shopping, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Utah.

We visited temple square.

Did you know they now let you walk right up to those iconic temple doors and take pictures without being dressed like a bride? There are even lots of helpful, name-tagged people who will snap the shot and chat with you. Just think, Megan, in ten years you can come back in your wedding dress and take some better pictures.

We drove by the duplex Stan and I lived in while residing in Provo.

We lived in the right side from 1977-1980.

Megan and I drove down to Payson and visited the cemetery where Mom and Dad are buried. This is the first time I've seen the complete headstone.

Here is the back. I haven't been in Utah since Mom's funeral.

It's odd to be here and not see Mom.

Grandma Kenison's headstone, just to the right of Mom's.

As we left the cemetery and started back to town, we passed Peteetneet school, which has been turned into a museum. I thought it would be fun to stick my head in and take a peek at Mom's old classroom.

Other than the oak moldings, doors, and windows, it didn't resemble Mom's old room, although I can still picture the classroom the way it had been, with desks, bulletin boards, books, and various things Mom had done to make it into the perfect classroom for first graders.

The people running the museum remember Mom, and were excited to give us "a little tour". Ten hours later, Megan and I had been shown every square inch of the building, including some I'd never known existed. (Did you know Peteetneet has a basement?) Poor Megan gamely endured the tour, but I'm pretty sure she would rather have been out somewhere eating dirt. I'm sorry Megan, I owe you. I just couldn't think of a polite way to say "Um, could we have the Reader's Digest version of this tour?"

This is the stairway outside of Mom's room, where Judy and I went to find paper and supplies to do Mom's bulletin boards and make copies of worksheets for Mom, using those old machines with purple ink.

We even toured the lunchroom/gym, home of all the pictures of Payson's beauty queens for the last 60 years.

It's good to know Judy lives on in Mom's old school, there on the right.

We drove by our 515 South 300 East house in Payson, quite changed from the old days. The peace roses are gone. The beautifully cared-for landscaping is buried under years of untrimmed bushes and trees and a summer's worth of weeks--I think Oma would cry to see it.

Instead of that beautiful Linden tree in the front, there's a large truck. I hope they are re roofing, and not using the front lawn I mowed so often for a parking lot. Those sidewalks and landscape timbers weren't doing much for me.

I'd love to look through the house to see how it's been changed inside.

One thing I must say about Utah--they have A LOT of frozen yogurt and ice cream places. Even so, Megan and I were puzzled to see this revolving black double-dip cone atop of Jimmy John's.

David and Bonnie were so nice to take us in with very short notice. They are the perfect hosts. That explains why I was forced to politely eat ice cream with them. Ignore that happy look on my face--that's just more me being polite as I pick a flavor (or two or three or four) of ice cream to sample.

 Just between you and me, David seems a bit obsessed with ice cream. Thank goodness it's not a family trait--I, for one, seldom eat ice cream.

 Yes, I "borrowed" this picture. Dave, just be happy I didn't ask Judy to provide me with one.

 After Stan finished his business in Utah, we headed up to visit Krew. Isn't he a cute little guy? He makes us laugh, with all of his funny OCD quirks and "Sorry Mommy" "Sorry Daddy" when he misbehaves. 

I'm more than a little concerned to have these two girls in the same state. They seem to bring out the naughty in each other. Megan, Jessica, it's not too late for me to put you in a timeout...