South Dakota, Part 1

We’re on our first family vacation!!!  We’ve taken some small vacations, but nothing like this!  From Milwaukee to Mitchell, SD the first day.  We woke up, went to Mass and headed to the world famous CORN PALACE!

The exterior is made up of corn cobs or other corn material.  Dad had to lift up Joe so he could feel it.  The best thing about the Corn Palace for the boys was the full sized gym floor and stage on the inside (think, high school gym).  Apparently, it holds basketball games, circuses, and other special events in this small town.

We just couldn’t help ourselves.  We had to stop at Wall Drug!  Another tourist trap, yes, but the boys had a blast.  The look on Andrew’s innocent face is hilarious while he sits beside the scantily clad statue.

In the “Backyard” the boys enjoyed some little rides.  An old man saw them at lunch in the cafeteria and thought they were so well-behaved, that he gave them all quarters to spend outside.  Thanks, old man!  You made their day.  Plus, you made mama’s day by noticing how good the kids were being!

Andrew and daddy

Daddy in his native American garb.  Makes one handsome woman, no?

 

Close up with a buffalo.  I had to get this shot in case we didn’t see any more buffalo on the trip.   Spoiler alert:  we did.

Look out, Davy Crocket!

Yes, we were standing in the middle of the street for this picture.

Luke and Pat relaxing in the hotel pool.  While taking this picture, I noticed a few floaties next to Luke’s elbow (click on the picture to see it close up, but really, you should just take my word for it)  Yep… poop.  Andrew’s.  I was mortified to see it at first, and even more mortified to learn that it was Andrew’s.  It was a terrible clean up in the pool’s bathroom.  It was such a mess, I didn’t even want to take him upstairs to our room.  So that was the end of the pool play at that hotel.  We only had two more days there before moving on and I’m sure they cleaned it up, but still.  Gross.