Fourth of July

For our holiday weekend, we packed up the car and headed to South Dakota. The girls did a great job on the six hour drive, and we kept talking about how we need to do more road trips. Annie loved seeing all the farms along the way, and pointed out water towers, silos, barns, animals, and wind turbines. It was enough to keep her from sleeping till we were within 20 miles of our final destination, of course. When we arrived we were greeted by my sister and her family, and by my parents (who'd arrived after a long two day drive from Arizona). We had a wonderful time getting to see their new home (as of May), and the relaxed and festive pace of the Fourth in a small town. We hope to get to do many more weekend trips, as it was wonderful to watch the cousins play together (and good to see the adults, too!).

Friday morning we spent some time up at Alex's parents home for homemade donuts and relaxing. It was a rainy day, and we enjoyed watching it from the enclosed porch, and getting a little bit wet as we explored. The last time we'd visited there, Annie wasn't walking yet, so it was fun to watch her get to appreciate more of their beautiful yard and gardens.




After our flag pancake breakfast, we headed out to the nature trail for a beautiful walk. Annie and Elliott continue to enjoy time together, Elliott could do just about anything and it would make Annie smile, she clearly thinks he's the greatest, and he is a great big cousin. Annie and Kate do sometimes love to be together, and can be quite sweet with big hugs for each other. There is a definitely more uncertainty, though, as to how to play together. At just nine months apart, we hope sometime they will be great playmates.







Saturday afternoon involved naptime, a very noisy parade (that started right in front of their house, so we got to appreciate all the sounds of line-up time), a trip to the Shakespeare Garden, and then Elliott and Annie each got to take a turn driving one of the parade tractors down the street. Needless to say, they enjoyed themselves immensely, and we loved watching them.




For the evening, we headed up to one of Alex's uncle's farm for his family's annual (going back longer than 40 years) picnic. It had beautiful views looking over the hills, all of his family were fun and welcoming, and we had a great place to watch fireworks, both the towns and the family's. Annie actually made it through the whole show, watching from the inside of our car with cousin Elliott, his cousin Caroline, and Grandma.




On Sunday morning, we had some nice time together before church. Elliott, as with their visit here, was incredibly sweet with Siri the entire time. He continually talked about what a "tiny, little baby" she was, and was always very aware of her and gentle with her. It's pretty endearing to watch.

We went to Sara's new church (and Alex's family church, where Kate was baptized last winter) for service. Then, while Eric, Siri and I packed up the car, Annie went with the rest out to Alex's Grandpa's farm where Annie was quite impressed with the tractor.