* *The Kirkwood Castle*

Yes, we are back from Wisconsin. We have just been too preoccupied with summer fun to blog about it. We had a wonderful trip. 5 days out there, 2 full days there and 5 days back. We traveled through WA, ID, MT, ND, MN, WI, SD, WY, MT, ID, WA. Can you get all that, because I'm not writing them out. The kids did great, although before we even got through all of Montana Evan was asking if we could go home to play the Wii. We stopped in a few fun places on the way out there, like a neat little zoo in Billings, MT. We went lots of little places in Wisconsin, like my Grandma's old house and the school I attended for a few months each time we traveled through. It was very hard to see my Grandma. She was not the lady I remembered at all. Old age and illness take away so much and what replaces that is not very good. But after we left, she had her second chemo treatment and is doing much better. On our trip home, we stopped by one of the most amazing sites in America. The Corn Palace! What? you may say. Well it is a Palace made out of corn, of course. The world's only one. Seriously, it was so funny. They even had a picture of the Space Needle on the outside, MADE FROM CORN! (pics below) Actually, the neatest things we saw were the Badlands and Mount Rushmore. Evan especially loved "The Faces." It was amazing to see them and learn the story behind why and how they were made. Just amazing. By the time we hit Washington again, we were all ready to be home. It really was just wonderful to be able to spend so much time together. Once we got home, though, we just lounged for while. Now we find ourselves doing back to school shopping! Wow. Nothing on our house. :( The market is really slow. In the future, I will try to keep up a little better. -P-

This is our first night when we drove to Spokane.

This is one of the many corn fields we saw. Miles and Miles in S. Dakota!

Some of the hundreds of caution cones we drove passed. All of I-90 is under construction!

We found out we have long, lost, rich relatives!

Zoo Montana in Billings

An albino peacock at a free zoo in Wis.

We rode up a ski lift and came down an alpine slide. It was great.

Anna had to ride with me, but Riley was old enough to go on his own, not that he would go fast. We now call him 'The Slug'

Anna at a rest stop.

Evan started saying, "Look for the blue signs that say Rest Area" because that is what we told him every time he asked to go potty.

The Badlands in S. Dakota.

They were amazing

One of the marked graves in the Little Bighorn National Monument Park.

And this is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, S. Dakota. Most of what you see is corn.

The corn Space Needle

The Corn Mt. Rushmore. I really don't know why we even stopped for the real thing after this.

Oh, yeah, this is why! Just incredible.

We did it again. Another blown tire coming back through Montana. Happened two years ago while coming home from Wyoming.

North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck, N. Dakota. Wonderful museum and it is free to everyone. We did leave a donation. It was really neat.

First sign we saw that has our destination on it.

Grandma Bea with all her great-grand kids.

We love you Grandma Bea.

I thought I would take you through what a typical trip to the cabin is like.

This is the gate that tells us we are there.

This is the sign that cousin Tom made for the cabin. Now everyone will know which gate is ours.

This is the path that leads to the cabin.

This is the big canopy of trees that always is there to welcome us for the weekend.

This is the meadow of "wild flowers" we always need to mow before we can play baseball.

These are the children that are excited about coming here for WEEKS

before we are even ready to come.

This is the beginning of a good game!

This is one of the many cousins that are always ready to play.

This is sunscreen that needs to be applied to keep the weekend happy.

And this is happiness.

These are the creatures that are everywhere to be found.

Some just like to hang out with Anna. They become her best friends.

And for this trip, these are the fire works that we set off to celebrate the freedom that we have in this country to be able to have this kind of joy and happiness.