This year for Meadow's birthday she decided she wanted to have a sleepover.  Before her friends arrived we let her open her gifts from us.  Theo got her some figures from her favorite book series, Warriors. I got her a Soot Sprites ramen bowl and Totoro chopsticks. Uncle Colin wished Meadow a happy birthday and I made sure he knew that she got the message. Another gift from me arrived just in time for her birthday. The Studio Ghibli Unofficial Cookbook. We've been watching all of the Studio Ghibli movies on Max. It's kind of her thing this year. After Meadow's friends arrived she opened their gifts.  A Totoro lamp. (Can you guess what Meadow's favorite thing is these days?) And a Apprentice Academy book. Meadow planned the whole night for her and her friends. Including a Pin-the-tail on Jiji game.  Things got pretty crazy. I guess we ought to have told Meadow that the Jiji needs to be a bit bigger. You know we got another Sebastian Joe's ice cream cake.  Birthda...

   

Day 8 The start of the third leg of our trip was going to be hot.  Thankfully we had a long drive across the entire state of South Dakota. We stopped for gas in Phillip, South Dakota and decided to eat in town. Next to our lunch spot, The Retro, was the sign shop that makes all the billboards for Wall Drug. Nothing spectacular, but everyone got to pick something from the lengthy menu. And we were off. I had shoots in Bismarck and on the Lake Traverse Reservations. Originally the plan was to shoot first in Bismarck and then on the northeast South Dakota reservation, but things got flipped around.  We thought we would have time to go back to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. 

  I thought we would skip Wall Drug this time since we've seen it before but Scott was gun ho on going.  Come on. You can't go to the Badlands and skip the world's greatest tourist trap. First stop ice cream.  We thought we would have lunch here but after seeing the prices decided we would cook something at the park instead. But first we had to take a couple tourist pics. When we we decided we were coming here I was expecting it to be 90's and hot. Did not think it would be rainy, chilly and foggy.  I always make Brooke look cool. She on the other hand always finds a way to take a pic at the most awkward possible moment. Either that or I'm just really awkward. Earlier this year, I asked Theo where he wanted to go on vacations this year. He said he wanted to backpack camp at the Badlands because he was sad he didn't get to go yet. This is all for you buddy.

Day 1 Normally Scott does his annual New York Mills trip the last week of school, but this year it got pushed to the week after.  That meant the family could tag along. We returned to Spirit Lake Resort & Motel in Menahga. Nice rooms, super affordable and now home to a sweet ice cream shop. I read that there was a playground next door. I guess this was it.  Come on you got a beautiful private beach right next to the bigger city one. They have way more fun by water anyway. 

Our house is really starting to come together now.  With the kids rooms complete we could move Meadow's art supplies to her bedroom. The porch is no longer a storage space and an actual livable space.  When I'm productive, I tend to finish odds and ends that I've been putting off like this porch thermometer. Can you tell the kids are excited for their rooms? The picture rail looks awesome in Theo's room. The kids are loving having their own spaces. We need to get some shelves for all of Meadow's collections.  I think we have some collecting dust in the basement. I'll get to it in, well, probably fall. Theo really wanted a Zelda rug for his video game themed room, but we weren't sure the quality would be very good for one of this size. Fun fact, we almost got this rug for our living room. Had hoped to replace the kids sconces, but due to the old capped gas lines that are hidden under the current lights, that'll have to wait. Now let's see which kid ke...

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