Handmade in the Wild: En Route to Wisconsin

We took a family vacation to Wisconsin this past summer. It was a family reunion of sorts with my mother-in-law's family. I hope to share more details about this fun get-away to Door County... but it may not happen until next summer ;) 

We had a few fun handmade sightings while there!

It was a 10 hour drive just to get there, so of course we had to stop at a few parks on the way to stretch our legs! I can't believe E's skirt still fits, and it appears that it will continue to do so for awhile... yay yoga-style waistbands!! She still loves how twirly it is and she still loves Minnie Mouse!

We stayed a cute resort with nice rooms and fun balconies (great distractions for the littles!) We recently had to retire the pajamas that E is wearing here, but they still fit last summer. We were thankful to have older cousins there to help distract the kiddos, too :)

The kids' first time bowling! The entire family ate out at a nearby restaurant, and the kids received free games of bowling with their kids meals. It was so fun to see the kids learning and to have their grandpa and great-grandpa showing them a thing or two. We look forward to more bowling fun soon! I think this dress was her favorite one that I made all summer. I'll have to remember the fabric combo for future creations :) 

Posts about the different outfits: Minnie Mouse Skirt; Pajamas; Pink, Black and White Dress

Final Day ~ Two Parks {May Family Vacation}

Tuesday morning! We spent the morning just exploring the city.

I've always wanted to see Dinosaur Park, but during all the times I've been to the Hills, I have never gotten up there. Until this trip! I was so excited! The park was a WPA project during the Great Depression. The kids loved the statue (and so did I, haha!).

Afterwards, James fell asleep in the car, so we found a great park in downtown Rapid City, and I stayed in the car with the doors open while Dan played with Ev. We eventually switched, because James just kept on sleeping. We let him play some once we finally woke up, too. It really was an amazing park... more like 4 parks in one and lots of opportunity for imagination play, too. 

------

An end to the trip: Dan's training started on Tuesday afternoon, but our original plan was to explore some in the morning (the parks above) and then I would take the kids for their afternoon nap in the hotel, and finally we'd eat supper together and I would take the kids home on Wednesday morning while Dan caught a ride home with a coworker after the training on Thursday. Well, after seeing how the first day affected the kids, plus I was not looking forward to trying to get the kids to nap in the same room together at the same time... I decided just to head home :) 

Overall, it was a great first vacation for us as a family of four, and the perfect practice for more vacations to come!

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!