Thursday, August 21, 2008

Go West, Young Kids

We stopped in Jamestown for lunch, and Aaron got the idea to visit the World's Largest Buffalo. Since neither of us had actually been to visit, I was game. And I honestly had no idea it was so big. I know this sounds very silly, since it IS the WORLD'S LARGEST, but it truly is really, REALLY BIG. Ben didn't really know what to think of it, but after I assured Leah that it was "just a statue" she was okay with it.

Our trip across the state went very well, mostly because we stopped 5 times during the 6 hour drive. Leaving Fargo, here are our stops:

1) Valley City for gas - kids ran around.
2) Jamestown for lunch & photo opp above.
3) Bismarck Kmart - finally bought my bike helmet, & a wading pool for Grandma & Grandpa's
4) Hebron to visit my Grandpa Henry, who fed us dinner AND dessert


5) Belfield for gas again. At that point, we only had one hour of driving left, and the kids had fun watching for cows, beehives, and the Badlands.

Thanks to these pit stops, we didn't even have to break out the big guns of minivan entertainment: the DVD player. I like to save that lifesaver for when we REALLY need it,usually towards the end of a trip, because it's really hard to turn it off once it's on. Kind of like the whining that precedes it.

Which always ends abruptly, video or not, when we pull into the grandparent's driveway. Yay for grandma, grandpa, and a big house and yard to explore!

4 comments:

Noel said...

It looks like you avoided the frontier dentist office by the biggest buffalo and consequently avoided traumatizing you and your kids for life.

We are just back from a 5 day, 3 state end-of-summer vacation which included family in SD and SW MN as well as Fort Snelling, Stillwater, and the Como Zoo in the Twin Cities. If we had been able to stay another night, I would have lobbied to visit the Minnesota State Fair which opened today (another signal of summer's impending end).

Aaron said...

The Jamestown Buffalo is only about 15 feet tall. The kids are still pretty short.

Noel said...

Locally circulating rumors as to why there was no Saturday Slacker post:

(1) Family is lost in the Badlands.
(2) Family has gone far enough west that they passed the end of the internet.
(3) Lyz was captured by a band of gypsy painters and is not being permitted to contact the outside world.
(4) Lyz and Aaron are spending some quality time together as a couple with an extended prairie dog hunting trip.

We are fine in Fargo. Winds aren't blowing 40 mph any more. College students are back. Mosquitos are back.

Noel said...

Another theory has been proposed for Lyz's disappearance. She bought a bike helmet in Bismarck and may have gone off-road biking in the Badlands. Because she has only trained in flat Fargo, she may not have the strength to return to the top of any hill she rode down. Searchers using Google Earth are now focusing on bottom lands...