August was full of visits and visitors. Just how we like it!
Lisa started our adventures off (okay, technically she came toward the end of July but it's going in this blog post anyway) with a quick trip (literally - 13 hours after we picked her up, we dropped her back off at the airport) to see the visiting Rodin exhibit at the art museum with me. Rodin is most famous for his The Thinker sculpture.
We can't go to the art museum without a stop at the children's studio!
Tyler loves the puppet show theater there.
A few days later, Opa flew out for the weekend. A Nursery Leader back in his home ward, he had been looking forward to coming to our Nursery for a long time now. That was fun! And really good to have him here to visit (Tyler uses his swing lots now that you helped us hang it up!).
Is it kosher to take pictures at Church? Well, how else am I supposed to remember these cute kids when they're all 20?
The day my Dad flew out, Lisa flew back in for a longer stay (wahoo! She must have had fun earlier). Two of the reasons I love it when people visit are:
1 - To see Tyler (and the visitor) light up.
2- To have someone to play tourist with me.
Lisa and I made it to three attractions I hadn't yet been to.
We toured the Pettigrew House which is a beautifully preserved mansion up in a neighborhood of other such homes that I love to drive through and imagine their glory days 100 years ago.
It's an odd sensation to be in your car driving down a busy street only to look out the window and see a huge battleship resting in the grass like a big planter. So you can see why I've always wanted to tour the USS South Dakota museum. It was actually quite interesting and was a pretty important ship during WWII.
On every visit Lisa and I had noticed signs for a Japanese Garden so we decided it was time to find it. It turned out to be a very nice walkway with Japanese influenced gardens, pagodas, and lanterns all along a little lake. Someone really put a lot of time into making this little area of Sioux Falls quite nice and unique.
Goodbye Lisa, hello Kristen! The next weekend, Carrie's youngest sister came out during her break at BYU.
It was windy at the waterfall.
We took the free trolley tour all around downtown.
And found the tri-state marker. That's right, we were in South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota at the same time!
We explored the fair.
And went to a Superhero waterskiing show. I know, right? The things you can find to do in the middle of the prairie!
The weekend of the 22nd, we met up with Tyson's parents in Omaha. We got to stay in really nice accommodations on the military base thanks to Tyson's Dad. Everyone's been telling us how great the zoo is there. They were right! There is a cool aquarium, nice animal enclosures, pretty landscaping, and even a skyride over the some of the animals. I have to admit, if I had to be an animal at a zoo, I wouldn't mind living here.
Tyler mapping out our next move at the zoo.
The view is great up here!
And even better up here! A nice way to relax your feet at the end of a busy zoo day.
We were also able to go to the temple and visit the Kanesville tabernacle again. Then topped it all off with a picnic in a downtown park in Omaha, complete with feeding the swans.
My blankey and my Grandpa. Life is good!
Happy to spend so much time with family this month!
