Vermillion

Last week my sister, Mandi, and I took our kids on a road trip to Vermillion, SD. That's where she has been living while her hubby attended law school. Now that he is studying for the bar in CO, we decided to go see more about their life in the middle of nowhere. We left Friday afternoon and had a LONG drive, then a PAINFUL night in a hotel with the seven of us. We finished our trip Saturday, played, and went to bed...not too painful. Next was church on Sunday...MORTIFYING! I had to take EVERY child out at least once. Lizzie never made it back in to finish sacrament meeting. Needless to say, we left after that! The rest of the week was a roller coaster, but overall the kids had a good time, and occasionally, so did the moms. It was a lot of work, and a lot of screaming (mostly from the kids), but I think that all seven of us really enjoyed the experience. Well...most of the experience.


On Monday we went to Yankton to visit the duck pond, playground, aquarium, fish hatchery...and then lunch and ICE CREAM! It was a REALLY fun day! The kids LOVED it!



Tuesday we...I can't remember.


Wednesday we ventured to a new park that is really more like 4 parks put together. It was so fun. The kids had a blast!

Thursday we took the kids to downtown Vermillion and took some pictures. SO many of them turned out SO great. I simply couldn't choose, so here are just SOME of the ones that Mandi got.

Thursday afternoon we went to the pool! How adorable is my little man? He looked so cute in the whole ensemble from Grammy, but he will never wear the shoes again. His feet are WAY too fat!

Thursday night/Friday morning (all through the night and wee hours of the morning) Marlee and I were awake dealing with a stomach bug. We decided it would be best to head home and pray that nobody else came down with it. We quickly packed up the car, and made it as far as Kearney, NE where we gave in to cranky kids, and puking bellies. We stayed in a hotel again, despite the HUGE FAILURE of an attempt the first time. Lucky for us, this time was COMPLETELY different! SO MUCH BETTER! THANK YOU MOM! I don't have pics yet, and they are KILLER! They will come soon! The kids went to the indoor water park, slept, ate, and behaved...mostly! It was a good end!

Then they were tired for the ride home! The babies were anyway--the "big girls" were too busy singing "the bad guy song" from Anastasia to fall asleep! It was hilarious!

Thanks for a fun week Earls!