South Dakota

This past weekend we made a quick escape to Spearfish, SD to visit John, Brittnie, and Taylor who moved there a little over a year ago. I think both Kole and I were dreading the 6 hour drive as Payton is not a big fan of riding in the car seat, never really has been really, but as an infant she would eventually give in and sleep, not so much these days. We left late Friday morning and I did my best to wear her out before we got in the car in hopes she would sleep a couple hours. We got 45 minutes out of her, awesome. She was tired and angry about being in the car when she woke up and we still had 2 hours until our scheduled mid-way stop in Lusk, WY. It was a rough couple of hours, but we survived. The above picture is quite misleading as she watched about 10 minutes of a video and then decided it was more fun to push all of the buttons. In fear that we would break the DVD player Nana so graciously lent us, I ended video time.

We made it to Lusk, gassed up and stopped for a quick bite at The Pizza Place (that's literally the name). The pizza was great and the people friendly.

So happy to have escaped the dreaded car seat...

Making friends with the manager who was trying to balance the books with a game of peek-a-boo

She's quite the character when strangers are around, she doesn't know the meaning of the word and spends any time we are out in public be-friending anyone who will give her the time of day.

Mom and Dad's reward for surviving the first half of the drive

We made it to Spearfish around 6:30 in the evening. The second half of the drive was smoother, she slept for a whole hour this time, wasn't as angry when she woke up, and it was only 2 1/2 hours to Spearfish from Lusk.

We hit the Friday night street fair the town puts on, mingled, drank beer, ate bratwursts and caught up with old friends.

Taylor ( 2 1/2) and Payton hit it off immediately and spent the whole weekend playing together. Taylor was so sweet to Payton and really mothered her all weekend. Payton was really good for the most part (minus a minor dinner incident) and really enjoyed playing with Taylor.

Saturday we slept in a little and woke to the smell of Brittnie's yummy breakfast casserole, such a treat! We went to the local fish hatchery and park and let the girls explore. Payton learned the word "fish" while we were there.

Too cute for words!

Fast friends...

Saturday evening after we let the girls nap and enjoyed a little adult Wang - playing (it's a yard game) time we went to Deadwood, a quaint little gambling town in the Black Hills. There was a dog jumping competition going on in the street behind one of the big casinos that we stopped and watched for a while. It was pretty cool. We walked around a bit and ended the evening with an amazing dinner at an Italian restaurant (where Payton was less than delightful and the meal was consumed quickly).

Happy Father's Day!!!

Sunday morning the dad's played and early round of golf to enjoy their day and we hung home with girls in pajamas, they needed some downtime after our busy Saturday.

After golf we drive up the canyon to have Indian Tacos at the restaurant at the top. The inside was a 45 minute wait so we ate out on the little patio that has it's own little kitchen.

Here Payton is making friends with the kitchen staff...

Sweet family!

We stopped at the falls on the way down and explored, these are 20 min from John and Brittnie's house, they live in such a beautiful area.

I love this picture of the girls with their dads and Father's Day. Look how they are just chatting up a storm!

We left to brave the 6 hour trip back home around 6:30 Sunday evening. Payton did much better, ate some dinner, watched Tangled with mom and then crashed around 9:30 and slept until we pulled in the driveway at 12:30 am! Kole and I were pretty tired, especially Kole since it rained the entire 6 hour drive home, but we agreed driving at night is the way to go right now until Payton chills out about riding in her car seat.

We had such a great visit, thank you Ainsworths for sharing your home with us and for such a wonderful weekend. We love you and miss you dearly and it feels that no time has passed when we get to see you.

Until next time...