Girls Hit the Highway: DeSmet

Our last and final trip of the Laura Ingalls adventure took us to DeSmet. We headed out to the original site of their homestead and it was hands down the best part of the entire 4 day trek.

Khloe insisted on sitting by herself

And I'm pretty sure you can't get much cuter than this...seriously.

The COOLEST chicken I have EVER seen.

no hesistation in grabbing water from the pump

a reconstruction of the homestead

it was absolutely gorgeous out there... 

On the wagon ride

School Time!

 Learning how to do Laundry

craft time!

corncob dolls!

 Making Jumpropes

This trip was absolutely fantastic... seriously.

The girls traveled so well, and my mom, Jamie, and I had fun just watching the girls run around :)

So much fun! I can't wait to take my own little girls on the same trip someday!

Girls Hit the Highway: Walnut Grove

Day three of our little adventure took us to some Sod houses, and to Walnut Grove, MN. Now... if you've ever seen the Little House on the Prairie series on TV (which I actually dislike.. because it is soooo far off base from the books) it "took place" in Walnut Grove.

Like I said... first stop was to see some sod houses... where we may have gotten distracted by some adorable kittens...

 I don't care what anyone says... i LOVE kittens and cats... they are just so cute!

Khloe however did not enjoy the little kittens little claws...

a hard lesson I also learned at the ripe age of 2.

Just as they sound, these houses are completely out of sod.

In the prairie there were no trees but plenty of grass.

It is estimated that at one point in time there were over 1 million sod houses in the prairie.

 Maddie and I working some 19 century clothing (and yes those sunglasses are straight out of the 1800's)

I picked this up thinking it'd be like a fun fact brochure about 100 years ago, what's changed...etc.

nope... it's a track.

So when you go see the sod houses you can also get a good dose of the gospel being slammed down your throat... 

remember

God Loves You!

Khloe having a "moment"

Having fun in Walnut Grove!

I bit the bullet and donned the beard and hat to become Pa

We then grabbed us some *ahem interesting lunch at Nellie's

we had to keep reminding ourselves that we were there for the experience...

We set up shop for the night in Brookings, SD

and headed straight for the pool!

Khloe would only go in with Grandma (who got in only after I made the grandkids manipulate her...)

And Uncle Jon joined us too!

And then there were water slides... oh.my.goodness

these were SO much fun... we even got Grandma to take a few slides

So blurry... I kept telling the girls to stay still and not until I saw the photos did I realize that Maddie had been posing in every single shot... creating a lovely blur.

Enjoying a few last splashes before we headed to 

DeSmet, SD!