Weekend in So Dakota

THURSDAY: This morning I left early and made my way up I-29 to South Dakota for the weekend. It was about a 7 hour drive and I arrived in my hometown of Mitchell a little past 3pm. Once my parents got home from work, we headed to the Pizza Ranch to enjoy some salad/pizza & catching up. After our bellies were full, we headed back home to wait for the arrival of my sister, brother-in-law and nephew who were coming from Wisconsin. They arrived to the farm safely around 10pm and we all hit the sack early since we were exhausted from driving all day.

FRIDAY: I was awakened super early by the pitter-patter of little feet on the tile and as I lay in bed I decided that a 21 month old has entirely way too much energy at 6am! I chose to get up and enjoy breakfast with my family and vegged the rest of the morning playing with Tanner. My sister was in a wedding for the weekend so she left early to spend the day with the other bridesmaids and left Aunt Heather in charge of watching Tanner. We spent the day shopping with grandma, checking out the farm animals and playing with the new toys that grandma had bought for him :)

My brother, sister-in-law, nieces and nephew all arrived later in the evening and I got to meet my 5 week old nephew Lane for the first time. He was adorable and smelled heavenly - I just couldn't get enough of him :) I was amazed at how my niece Joslyn had grown and how much she is now talking. It made me sad that I don't get to see them all more often!

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out and watching Tanner & Joslyn become fast friends!

SATURDAY: Today turned out to be a cold & rainy day so it was spent inside entertaining the kids. We started our morning my enjoying made-from-scratch banana-nut pancakes made by my mom, watching cartoons with the kids and playing with toys and a few games. Later that day, we all got ready for the reason we all came home: Matt & Maria's wedding. My sister and Maria have been friends since grade school so it was wonderful to get to see her marry the man of her dreams.

After the wedding, we headed to the reception and enjoyed the evening. My brother-in-law and I ended up taking little Tan Man home early since he was wore out and my sister stayed behind with her friends. We of course managed to get a few pics before we left:

My sister Jen, brother-in-law Ben and nephew Tanner

My wonderful parents

Aunt Heather & my "Tan Man"

Me, my sister and Baby Trustem (24 weeks along)

It ended up being a beautiful day afterall...despite the rain and it was great spending time with the family. I was sad to have to leave in the morning :(