Freak of Nature

Mindy saw this happen. Otherwise I wouldn't have believed it.

Our trampolene tumbled over our fence and into our neighbor's yard. The trampolene got tangled in our hammock on the way over the fence and broke the cross bar. My neighbor's trampolene was lifted straight up into the air and OVER the roof of his TWO story house and crashed on the other side. Our's is the one with the net.

There was no noise. No wind that we could see or hear. It didn't touch any of the other lighter-weight things in the yard right next to it. It must have been some kind of microburst or something.

The kids are bummed that we no longer have a trampolene or a hammock. The yard will look so empty now.

Getting there

It took us a good 2 1/2 days to get to South Dakota...I'm kind of a sleepy road tripper. So we took lots of breaks. Here's a rest stop in Nebraska (I think). The kids needed to get some wiggles out.

All of the country that we drove through was beautiful. The fields were green, lots of flowers. I felt like I was out in the middle of no where most of the time, especially in South Dakota. The weather was perfect.
Our first stop was in Wall, South Dakota. Home of the famous Wall Drug Store.

It was a very kitschy place. But the kids enjoyed all the little photo op ops, especially the giant jack-a-lope.

There was a huge animatronic tyrannasaurus rex display that went off every 12 minutes. It scared the heck out of Hazel. But we had to go back to see it twice just for her.

The soda fountain makes awesome milk shakes, so we sampled some of those just before lunch (hey we were on vacation. It's a dairy group food, it counts!) They were very delicious and I highly recommend stopping just to get one.

Before heading out of town, I drove over to see the great icon of americana that is the 80 foot long dinosaur statue. They used it to get people to stop in town back in the day. It was dark when we drove in the night before so I couldn't get a pic then. Hazel was a bit scared of it. But it was pretty cool.

Blow out your candles

Birthdays aren't complete without cake and blowing out candles. The boys both celebrated their birthday while we were on the road. So yesterday we had the respecitively requested birthday desserts (PF Chang's Great Wall of Chocolate and Banana Cream Pie) and sang Happy Birthday. We are excited that Mike and Mindy and family are here for the week and could celebrate with us. The boys just wanted to light the candles on the cake/pie. You know...boys and fire just go thogether. I just was excited for the chocolate cake.

don't come home with a kitty

Very specific instructions from Nate. Jake and Amy have 4 kittens. But I'm allergic to cats and so it really was a moot point. My children, Hazel mostly, loved playing with the kitties, especially this tabby named Max. Those poor kitties started cringing and hiding everytime the kids came outside. I'm glad that they survived us.

Damsel in distress

Next-day ticket from Austin to Oklahoma City: $185
Parking the car in the lot for 2 days: $35

Being rescued by my knight in shining armour: Priceless

After driving 3500 miles and being gone for 15 days, I was too tired to make it the last 533 miles home by myself. Nate spent his day off saving me: rising at 4 am to catch an early flight to OK City to drive the 7 hours back home with us. He is my knight in shinining armour. Thank you Nate.

I'll post more about my trip later. For now we are enjoying not being in the car. Thanks to Jake and Amy for a great visit! We enjoyed spending time with ya'll and miss you already.