The saga continues...

You may remember this:



Well let me tell you part two. Van recently graduated to a big boy bed. A few nights ago we were playing games with Ben's parents and of course Van was not going to bed as well as we would have liked. But he was staying in his room so we just kind of ignored it and let him play in there. As Ben's parents were leaving they decided to say good night to Van. Well this is what we found upon arrival:


He had meticulously smeared Desitin all over his body. He didn't just half heartedly smear some here and there. Oh No, he made sure ever inch of exposed skin was covered...and evenly so. I think if we would have come in just a few minutes later he would have had his whole face covered. Notice how the Desitin goes right up to his lips but not actually on them, now that is commitment. I was oddly proud of him for doing such a thorough job. If you are going to do something do it right, right. Well, needless to say the clean up was a nightmare. Not only had he covered his body and his hair he also shared the love with the carpet, his blanket, a hat and some toys. All of which still carry a very distict Desitin odor...including the kid! The weirdest part is we don't even use Desitin, my brother left it here when he was visiting...thanks Kirk. I will get you back! I have heard Vaseline is a pain to clean up.

Road Trip

For vacation this year we decided to take a road trip to Mt. Rushmore. We figured we were in the car for over 36 hours over 4 days. It went amazingly well. The kids did great. It was not without hiccups but no major incidents or meltdowns. The kids all slept great in the motels we stayed at and even the one night we camped. Which you know, if you have ever traveled with kids, is a feat all it's own. Here are a few pics of the trip...

This is Devils Tower...Just a big rock formation.

Van in a coon skin cap...this picture was very difficult he did not want to wear the hat, so worth it though. When am I ever going to get another chance to get a picture of him in a coon skin cap?


This is the place where we camped, the kids don't even know who the Flintstones are, but Ben and I thought it was funny. And they took the Flintstones theme very serious...everything was Flintstones. This was Lillie and Van's first time camping and we were very nervous. We went once when Joe was a baby. And haven't been since. Our families both camped a lot when we were growing up and we have wanted to take our kids but have been too scared...it was awesome. We had so much fun.
Ben and the kids setting up the tents.
Notice Joe's job was interpreting the directions.

Joe and Lillie had their own tent and actually slept in it the whole night.

This is the tent that we moved 3 times before we finally liked where it ended up. The people around us probably thought we were crazy. This is also the tent we shared with Van. BTW "two rooms" translates into one big tent with a very flimsy piece of nylon that you can attach to the center, but provides no real separation. It was at least big enough to set up the pack and play and house all of the luggage on one side and a full sized air mattress on the other.
Cooking dinner
Everyone pitched in

Roasting marshmallows...the best part of camping.

Cheap mans view of Crazy horse, it was more expensive to get into Crazy horse than it was to get into Mt. Rushmore...this view was just fine for us.

Finally at Mt. Rushmore


I loved the way the flags looked all together...had to throw in an artistic pic for good measure.



The last part of our trip I do not have pictures of. We decided to end with a drive-in movie after we got home. Yet another thing that we have wanted to try but have been to scared to do. And again it went very well. I have very fond memories of going to the drive-in movies as a kid and have wanted to share it with my kids for a while. Ben had never been either so we decided it was time to give it a try. We had already conquered the trip to Mt. Rushmore and camping this week why not add another notch to our belt.

We had a great time this week trying new things together. I hope this is one of those trips that the kids will remember fondly for a long time.