South Dakota

A bit of a delay in getting this posted. Here's what I wrote Sunday night...

Hello from South Dakota! I don't know that I'll have time to blog aside from tonight and since we're leaving SD early tomorrow morning, it seems fitting to update now. This weekend was really fun but is already a bit of a blur. I'll summarize from the beginning...

Our flights to Omaha went well. Kyle was a charmer to all those around him and did really well with the 12 hours of travel we did that first day. He loved looking out the plane window and was conscious of everything and everyone around him. Mr. Curious kept us pretty darn busy moving, looking, listening, dropping toys, etc. Its been a peanut operation just trying to keep everything that belongs to us with us from place to place. Kyle is a good flyer and we're so glad for all the positive experiences we've had. It is A LOT of work, though and we're always so glad when we get to wherever we are going!

When we finally arrived in Sioux Falls, we were greeted with a houseful of family all having arrived around the same time. Kyle got passed around along with my cousin's new baby girl who is 3 weeks old. It was a good night. Then, Saturday morning, my friend came to see me and meet Kyle. We got to go out for coffee and just sit and talk without any interruptions. Usually we talk on the phone with our little ones keeping us pretty busy and are often exhausted. :) So this was awesome and much like old times. When she moved back to Germany after college, I thought I 'd hardly ever see her again, aside from our weddings. Turns out, we're averaging about once a year! :) Our time together passed all too quickly and now I'm sitting here thinking... Was she really here? Did I really get to see her? So glad she made the effort and the 10 hour drive to see us. (Wow!!)Thank you, friend! :)

Then, that afternoon and into the evening we celebrated my grandfather's induction in the the state's Hall of Fame for his basketball career. News stations and reporters were there to capture the event and pretty much all of the older adults in my family were interviewed and later seen on t.v. that night. My sister and I were both on t.v. too! The main newspaper, The Argus Leader, covered the story with a front page article. Out of 19 inductees from the 1930's to present, Gramps got the spotlight of the whole article. It is so cool to see my humble grandpa get recognized. He'd never talk about it otherwise, so I think people like that deserve their few minutes of fame!
Here's a link to one of the news stories: http://www.ksfy.com/home/video/89340827.html?video=pop&t=a
and another story here:
http://www.keloland.com/videoarchive/?VideoFile=032710thune&ld=98352

It seems like we just got here and are leaving quite early tomorrow morning in order to drive back down to Omaha to catch our plane to Chicago. Although the trip was a quick one, we had so much fun. Thanks, mom and dad!