Lydia's Fashion Show

Oh, it is fun to dress a baby girl!

Lydia at 6 weeks old

6 weeks old

7 weeks old - Her tennis outfit. I don't even have a tennis outfit!

8 weeks old

2 months old

11 weeks old - love the elephants and let's be honest, the hair!

Little House on the Prairie

Growing up I loved reading all of the Little House on the Prairie books. So when we moved to South Dakota and I found out the setting for some of the books took place an hour and a half away in De Smet, we knew we had to go. We spent Saturday, July 31, at the Ingalls Homestead where Laura and her family really lived 130 years ago. http://www.ingallshomestead.com/

A pioneer dugout.

It was surprisingly cool inside. I could see why they would live in these.

Tyler and Carrie in the shanty.

On a covered wagon ride out to the schoolhouse. Look at all that wide open space!

Carrie and Tyler on the wagon ride

A little house on the prairie.

Tyler pretending to cook inside the house.

This was such a fun place to visit! Lots of places to explore that demonstrated what life was like. And lots of animals. Cats, chickens, a baby cow, horses, and these cute miniature horses saddled up for the kids to ride. Tyler was too nervous to ride, but he sat for a picture.

Tyler's favorite part of the whole homestead was the kittens. Lots of tame barn kittens that didn't mind (so much) a 3 year old scooping them up and loving them.

Our family relaxing in the gift shop. I would definitely recommend the Ingalls Homestead to anyone coming out to South Dakota. It was so cool to see this place where Laura and her family actually walked. That was my favorite part of our day trip adventure. Tyler's was the kittens. Tyson's favorite part was watching Tyler's little legs running all over the wide open prairie. And Lydia liked sleeping in her stroller the best.

Baking Success!

http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake-balls/

These beauties made for one happy husband on his birthday (July 26). Happy Birthday, Honey!

MSP Birthday

My wonderful sister, Lisa, surprised me with a most fun birthday present - a day trip to the Mall of America in Minneapolis (MSP). Wow! Who does that? Someone who works for Delta and always has the most creative present ideas. Initially I thought I just couldn't leave my newborn. But then I realized, I need a break and Tyson is perfectly capable of taking care of the children, so away we went!

This is just a portion of center court at the mall. It's a full on amusement park! Once we flew in, we took the city tram to the mall and had about 4 hours to shop and go to dinner before we needed to be back at the airport. Some of my favorite stores were: H&M, American Girls, Wisconsin Cheese, and a lot more. We were booking it as the mall is huge!

I know I look a bit maniacal in this self-taken shot, but here's my proof that we were there!

As any good trip would have, we did have a series of mishaps, but we just went with the flow and enjoyed ourselves. Our initial plane was delayed so we skipped our trip into downtown to see this -

Add it to my bucket list. Some day I will post a picture of me standing by this awesome sculpture of a cherry on a spoon.

More mishaps.

On the way home, we flew past this incredible lightning show in the sky. It was beautiful...and apparently dangerous enough to close down the Sioux Falls airport, so the pilot turned the plane right back around to MSP. Uh-oh. That was our only fear about taking this trip - Tyson was home alone with the kids - one of whom is dependent on her Mama for food. I called him to see how many bottles were left and he thought I was joking (one left, by the way). We were on the last flight of the night so if it was canceled...well Lisa was ready to rent a car to get me home to my baby.

Back inside the airport, our fellow passengers camped on the ground at the gate while Lisa made a comfortable bottle pumping station for me. In the bathroom. Too bad I couldn't FedEx it out to Baby Lydia...but no need! After an hour of nervously laughing at our situation, the weather cleared enough for the pilot and crew, who also wanted to get home as much as we did, to whisk us up and away.

I had a blast, thank you Lisa! I want to go back! 

But it sure was nice to get home. :-)