South Dakota

Because our trip to Chihuahua went fairly well and because plane tickets to South Dakota are ridiculously expensive, we decided to drive to my cousin's wedding in Chamberlain, SD, in November. That trip was about 1000 miles each way. Daniel added Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota to the list of states he's visited! We stayed in 5 different places in 6 nights! Daniel would ask things like, "Where are we going to sleep tonight?" and "Does Nebraska have beds?" The first night was in Oklahoma, and on our way in to the city, he said, "I'm not really sure if Oklahoma has toys." Always sweatin' the big stuff!

Daniel did pretty well on the drive. I spent almost the whole time in the back seat with him while David drove. Abuelo & Abuela gave him an early Christmas gift - a VTech mobigo - that helped a lot to keep him busy for at least a little bit of the trip. We also spent a lot of time reading books, looking for letters on signs, and singing. Don't get me wrong - Daniel didn't love being in the car for that long. He kept pointing out the window and saying, "Is that out there South Dakota?" He asked fairly frequently while we were driving through Kansas, and we kept saying, "No, baby, that's Kansas." Finally he yelled, "I don't like Kansas!"

He was also kind of confused about how everything worked in the car. I had packed dinner and lunch for us the first day. When it was dinner time, I told Daniel that we were going to eat dinner in the car. He thought about it a minute and then asked, "Did we pack a microwave?" Later when I was peeling an orange for him, he looked at all the orange peels and said, "Did we pack a trash can?" Though it seemed like we had packed half of our house, we actually hadn't brought those few things!

Daniel got to meet Grandma Fox and many of our other relatives from that side of the family for the first time on this trip. He had been looking forward to meeting Grandma Fox, but that may have been because he thought she was actually a fox! She enjoyed coloring with him and sharing blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

It was insanely cold while we were in SD - as in 2 degrees with a wind chill of -15 degrees, as in Daniel would literally scream every time we walked outside. So we spent most of our time indoors. Daniel liked chasing Grandma and Aunt Darcie up and down the stairs and through the halls at the hotel as they exercised. He also liked playing by the pheasants in the lobby. He got to see his first live pheasant at Grandma Fox's house!

The only major meltdown was during lunch one day at the hotel. I judged his sleep schedule incorrectly, making him stay up later than he should have, and he ended up throwing a pretty good-sized fit in front of my family as I carried him upstairs. So fun! I think that's about the time Grandma Fox stopped saying that he was so "well-behaved." Ha!

The wedding was also fun. There were two highlights for Daniel - getting M&Ms aka 'those pink things' from Grandpa and eating a cupcake. He went a little crazy for those sweets...

We were so happy we got to see our family and hope we get to do it again soon!