Handmade in the Wild: Hometown Pride

We've now lived here in Mitchell, SD for almost three years, and we have just been loving it! 

One day last summer, they were serving free ice cream downtown... we definitely took advantage of that! Ev loves driving past the Corn Palace every chance we get ;) 

We host a rodeo in town every summer, and there is a free meal served the night before the action truly starts. I'm hoping that we finally attend one of the real sessions this coming summer! We loved going to rodeos when we lived out in Great Falls, so now it's time to introduce the kiddos to it!

Of course, there is the Corn Palace Festival - complete with carnival rides!! Ev loves rides, and James will be right there beside her next year! So much to look forward to!!!

Peekaboo's 4-in-1 Sunhat with stash fabrics (blog post)
A modified Riley Tank from Made for Mermaids using a ruffle fabric from either Hancock or JoAnns.
A simple tank dress that I was testing for Simple Simon and Co, but it never was released - fabric is from Art Gallery and Walmart.

Handmade in the Wild: SD State Fair

I'm a loyal 4-H girl, and I've missed attending the SD State Fair in recent years - actually, it's been since my senior year of high school since I've been there! Eek, that's longer than I thought! Anyway, since the kids are getting bigger, we thought that this year would be a good time to start the tradition back up! It helps that we live only about an hour away ;)

We went up for one day and the kids had a lot of fun! Ev kept asking for the rides - it was really hard for her to focus on anything else, since we saved the rides for last! But, she still loved seeing the animals and a few other exhibits. 

We were surprised with James' shyness around the animals in this petting zoo, but he loved seeing them when they were in their own pens ;) 

Then it was time for her favorite part! This was her first time on a "roller coaster" and she LOVED it! 

Waving to Daddy!

She rode a few other rides, too. James will be ready to join her next year! I'm excited to keep bringing them back and introducing them to more aspects of the fair. Hopefully, they'll be excited to be in 4-H when they're older!

E's dress: Felicity Dress by Peek-A-Boo Pattern Shop (blog post)

E's hat: 4-in-1 Sun Hat by Peek-A-Boo Pattern Shop (blog post)

My Top: Lane Raglan by Hey June Handmade (Hasn't been blogged yet... Art Gallery Knit for the sleeves, unknown solid for the main)

Next Up ~ Mt. Rushmore and Horse Thief {May Family Vacation}

After getting to our hotel, we organized our room and headed to Mt. Rushmore. 

Last winter, I won a Instagram give-away from the SD Department of Tourism, which included a Mt. Rushmore parking pass, a state park sticker and several South Dakota-Made goodies like truffles and coffee. This giveaway was a major motivation to get out to the Hills this summer - more like a good excuse to see how well the kids would do in the car (we had a 10 hour car trip planned for July... posts about that one eventually!).

Dan hadn't been to Mt. Rushmore since they improved the trails and the visitor center, and Ev was excited to see Mt. Rushmore - we have one book that has it and there is a big painting of it at Wall Drug. James, on the other hand was pretty tired and pretty cranky. Neither child has ever slept super well in the car, so he had only one short nap before our stop at Wall Drug. But, we got through it and enjoyed the hike.

Instead of heading back to the hotel right away, we decided to head to nearby Horse Thief Lake for another short hike. Ev and Dan had some fun exploring again, while James was in the carrier on my back... still not sleeping - crazy one-year-old!

Here, we let James out a bit... he loves exploring just as much as Ev does, but his footing isn't quite as sure ;)

After this hike, we headed back to Rapid. Both kids were asleep within 3 minutes in the car! We picked up some pizza and then enjoyed the water park at the hotel. Day 1 was a full, fun and exhausting day!

Starting Out ~ Wall Drug {May Family Vacation}

Dan had a work training in Rapid City last May, so we decided to go out a day early for our first family-of-four vacation :)

We left on a Monday morning, and planned to stop once between home and our hotel in Rapid. Somehow, we made it to Wall Drug without stopping, which worked out well... we were able to eat a picnic lunch that we had brought and then enjoy all the fun photo-ops in the "Backyard."

I need to go look up my pictures of the main 2 trips I remember stopping here - once when we were on a family road trip en route to a family wedding in Washington and another time as a Senior in high school en route to the state track meet. 

I'm so glad we have these pictures of the kids! Fun for me to take the pictures and fun for the kids to play around and stretch their legs before heading into the car for the last hour to our hotel. 

PS: As I look at these pictures I remember being disappointed about going so early in the season since it was a little chilly out, plus some attractions weren't open yet in the Hills because it wasn't officially "tourist season." However, how fun was it for the kids to run around Wall Drug and not have to worry too much about waiting in lines to sit on these props or having a mommy too worried about losing track of kids in a crowd. No worries there, haha!