Nashville

After leaving Grandma Fannie's house, we headed towards Nashville. Driving through Kentucky and Tennessee was a beautiful drive. When we got to Nashville, we stayed with Stacey's sister Robin and her husband Neal. On the first day we went to a park in the morning where Lauren got to chase around some ducks and geese. They had a very large play area with slides and swings which Lauren loved, and Emma slept through most of. It was in the mid-90's the whole time we were down there, which was a shock to us as we had not seen anything over 70 for quite a while at home in South Dakota.

Later on that day, we went to see the Operyland Hotel which has a huge indoor garden, streams, waterfalls and some great scenery. Below are pictures of the girls enjoying the scenery.
While at the Operyland Mall, the girls both got to ride on the Merry-go-round in the mall. Lauren liked it because her horsey went up and down.

On Friday, Neal and Robin took us to the Nashville Zoo. Lauren excited because she got to see elephants, tigers, giraffes, and a pig. She even got to pet a goat in the petting zoo. Emma was content spending most of the time in her stroller just taking in the view.

A couple of the afternoons, we got to cool off with a dip in the pool and Neal and Robin's apartment.

After a very nice and relaxing few days, we left about 7:30 PM on Saturday night and drove 11 hours straight through back to Stacey's sister Tammy's house, where we arrived abot 5:00 AM on Sunday morning. We spent Sunday there and celebrated Father's Day. Lauren and Emma had fun outside with their aunt Tammy playing with water baloons.

On Monday afternoon, we were in the car yet again on our way home. The girls did extremely well in the car, considering they were in it for over 40 hours in 8 days time.

Vacations, Reunions, and lots of time in the car...

Last weekend we started out our vacation by heading up to Huron for my 10 year reunion. After lots of fun there, we embarked on our vacation with our destination being Tammy's house on day one.

After spending Sunday night at Tammy's house, we hit the road on Monday driving through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and ending up at Great Grandma Fannie's house in Clayton, OH. The traveling went fairly well though we did have a few moments when we felt like the Griswold's, namely when Lauren threw up in the backseat and when we almost ran over a dog at a rest area.

It was a good thing that we got there when we did, because the girls really needed to get in a game of ring around the rosey!

As soon as we got to Grandma Fannie and Aunt Elaine's house, the girls were very excited and ready to swim in their pool.

On Tuesday, we played tourist and visited the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH and checked out the exhibit of WW1, WW2, Vietnam Era, Cold War Era, and Presidential airplanes.

Below is a picture of Stacey and the girls outside the Air Force One that was used for Presidents Kennedy though Regan. It is the plane that President Kennedy's body was flown back to Washington D.C. and LBJ was sworn in after the assasination.

Luckily Lauren was around to help Great Grandma Fannie with one of her daily tasks, of feeding the goldfish. She was quite helpful, as you can imagine.

After two very nice days of spending time with Great Grandma Fannie and Aunt Elaine, we were on the road again, heading towards Nashville.

Thank goodness for heaters...

Our first "official" camping experience happened over the weekend. We camped at Farmer Island in Pierre. It was a chilly weekend, but thankfully our little camper has a pretty powerful heater. The temperature barely rose over 50 degrees on Saturday so we were quite content to spend time inside and enjoyed time visiting with Grandpa and Grandma Hansen.

Emma inspects Grandpa and Daddy's campfire.

Lauren and her trusty flashlight explore the campsite.

Emma enjoyed sitting in her big sister's chair while Lauren found a

better spot on Grandma's lap.

Emma eating breakfast in the camper.

Tea Party

Our nieces, Taylor and Kara stayed with us Tuesday and Wednesday. Lauren had lots of fun with her cousins. They had lots of fun outside, playing with play-dough, sleeping in the living room, and having tea parties (Thanks Aunt Tammy for the tea set!).

Mommy's helper

Emma decided to help me with laundry. She pulled the clothes out of the dryer as fast as I could put them in.

New Swingset

Lauren and Emma enjoying their new swing set!

Lauren assisting Uncle Brandon with the construction.