Family Time

We had heard fantastic things about the Iowa State Fair, so it was a must on our summer bucket list.  I'm not sure where we went wrong, but that was a first and last for our little family.

Yes, we had fun checking out the animals, eating fried food on a stick and people-watching, but I'm confident we will not be spending that kind of money to tell our kids "No" to every carnival booth, fair ride, exotic animal exhibit and junk food stand in sight again.

We quickly forgot about that adventure in the name of bigger and better ones, though.  On Labor Day weekend we traveled to South Dakota to meet my family at Mt. Rushmore!  We took two days to get there, and of course, the hotel was a complete hit.

 And I'm pretty sure there is a law that says you can't drive through South Dakota without stopping at the Corn Palace.

 It was a great place to stretch our legs, anyway.

We also had to check out Dinosaur Park, where the kids had a blast climbing on the life-sized dinosaurs and enjoying the views.

 But, as the saying goes, it's all fun and games until someone uses a giant mud puddle as a slip-n-slide... or something like that.

And, in true compassionate parenting form, Jason and I just laughed and laughed at him.  He was a total mess!

The real fun started once we met up with our family.  We had a big house in the Black Hills that we all shared, and had a wonderful time visiting, eating good food, and relaxing.

 We went mining in the Black Hills and panned for gold (which Jason took waaay to seriously),

then headed over to Mt. Rushmore, which was incredible.

We obviously had a whole lot of fun because I have exactly zero pictures of our whole group together- which was my whole family except for my brother, his wife and their two kids, who just moved to Seattle.  One of the best parts of the trip was gathering everyone together and listening to my parents tell their grandkids stories about their grandparents.

We're not quite sure when we'll see everyone in my family again, so this was a delightful chance to enjoy being (almost) all together one more time this year.