4th of July and Aberdeen, South Dakota

 We have been seeing signs and posters advertising Gackle's fourth of July celebration since we got here.  So needless to say, we have been looking forward to it.  We started the day off by packing and getting things ready to go camping over the weekend.  We then took the kids to the craft day at the Lutheran church by our house.  They had lots of cute patriotic crafts for the kids to make.  After that we headed to the craft/bake sale.  We got a few things including Jason's favorite German dessert, Kuchen pie.  North Dakota has a strong German influence and so we have been sampling all the German food we can.  Last weekend in Bismarck I even tried cabbage rolls (they were ok).  Jason's mom makes good German food and I am determined to have her teach me.  Anyway, we came home and everyone but Ollie took a nap.  Then it was time to get ready for the parade.  Miller Honey had a "float" (there weren't any actual floats, just cars that were decorated).  Ollie rode in the Miller Honey truck.  

Getting ready for the parade.

 Family fourth of July pic.  I really should have bought my kids cute, matching, patriotic outfits, but as you can imagine the shopping out here is limited, so they represented American super heroes :)

Me and Jason watching the parade.

This guy used the firehouse to squirt people, it felt really good.

 Miller Honey donated this truck to the City of Gackle a few weeks ago, it is now the cities newest fire truck.  It broke down right in front of us during the parade, haha.  They had to push it off the road.  Anyone else want an old truck from MHF?? 

 I'm pretty sure the parade was the best thing to ever happen to Max.  He was able to run out into the street without me freaking out, and he got tons of candy (which I later gave to our friends kid).  He had the best time.

 The parade went down Main St, turned around and went back down.  We grabbed Ollie the second time around so he could enjoy some of the parade.  There was SO MUCH CANDY, and not a lot of people to get the candy.  Miller honey threw out honey sticks, very appropriate.

 After the parade we headed to Valley City for a BBQ some friends from church were having.  It was a lot of fun and nice to get to know people from the branch better. 

 The family hosting the BBQ has 6 kids, so their house had all sorts of fun things for the kids.  Fourth of July also happens to be their favorite holiday so they had TONS (five large crates) of fireworks.  Here is Ollie with his cute little friend Havyn.

Fun with a sparkler.

 What you don't keep your glow sticks tucked in your pants??  Reminded us of Napoleon Dynamite.

  We took our camping trailer to the BBQ and spent the night in it so we could get going in the morning to Aberdeen, South Dakota where we were camping for the weekend.  Aberdeen is a really family friendly town that we have seen advertised a lot and it's only 2 hours South of us.  We stayed at Wiley park which is pretty much the coolest campground/RV park.  Storybook land which is one of the main attractions in Aberdeen is part of Wiley park as well as go cars, bumper boats, miniature golf, biking trails, a lake, and lots of playgrounds.  We called earlier in the week hoping that we could get a spot but not really expecting anything to be open since the place is booked most of the summer.  They had an opening for Thursday night and said we could try one of the first-come-first-serve spots for Friday night.  When we got there Thursday the people in our spot had not checked out so we went about our day.  When we got back later in the afternoon, one of the first-come-first-serve spots was open so we took it and we were able to stay two nights in the same spot.  

 We knew the weather was going to be cold and rainy on Friday so we decided to head to the Aquatic Center on Thursday.  At Jason's triathlon a few weeks ago, I met a girl from Aberdeen who had given me some tips for what to do.  She recommended a restaurant (she couldn't remember the name but said it was something tropical).  When I found the Palm Garden Cafe I figured that was it.  It was delicious. I was so glad we went.  It was also a chocolate shop and their sea salt caramel and caramel pecan turtles were divine.  

I told Jason half way through lunch that I didn't want to jinx us but it was the best dining experience we have had with the boys in a really long time (they are usually really, really difficult). 

 We headed to the Aberdeen Aquatic Center after lunch.  It was a really fun.  I think I have mentioned before that our boys take some time to warm up to water and that was the case here.  It was a little disappointing because there was so much to do, but eventually they had a good time.  There was a lazy river, tube slides, a huge splash pad and a large swimming pool with multiple diving boards.   

This is the only picture I got, and it is a cute one.  I love this boy!

 In the evening we made a pizza in the camper, and put Max to bed at 6:15 because he had stayed up really late the night before watching fireworks.  Ollie and I went on a walk and got a treat.  

 We took Ollie's bike so he could ride around the campsite.  He loved it.  This night he rode by another guy on a bike and said "Hi Sir, I'm riding a bike too".  It was really cute.  That night there was a pretty big thunder storm with lots of rain, thunder and lightning.  We always get rained on when we camp, and up until now we have tent camped, so we were very thankful to be in our trailer.

Since our children are early risers, we had to occupy them in the morning so they wouldn't be rude to other campers.  We took them to feed the ducks/geese. 

We then played on one of the 6 playgrounds.  Jason took this picture of his three kids :)

Going down the slide with Ollie.

We killed some time in the morning by walking around the seriously lame mall, we went to a cowboy store, the Hitch N' Post and got lunch at a yummy BBQ place (we are suckers for good BBQ).  Then we came back and I attempted to get Max to nap (I was unsuccessful in case you were wondering), while Jason and Ollie went to an RV store nearby.  When they got back we headed to Storybook Land.  It is a really cute, free, little theme park.  There were nursery rhymes and fairy tale creations all around the park, as well as a few rides.

I loved this mural.

Riding the carousel.

Here a few example of the kind of stuff they had.

There was a lot of attractions that had to do with the Wizard of Oz (which Jason has never seen, I am still not over that).  Ollie outside Dorothy's Kanas home, in the corn.

Max kissing a munchkin.  He loved having little statues that were his size.

Here is another time when Ollie asked me to take his picture.  He was pretty proud of himself for climbing up there.

Sliding out of the "Little Old Lady Who Lived In A Shoe".

Ollie and Humpty sitting on a wall.

The boys loved the train.  It went for a mile loop around the park.  They even have a little zoo there with deer, reindeer, buffalo, and llamas.  We didn't have time for the zoo but we saw all the animals from the train.

After that we walked back to our campsite and got dinner ready.  It was pretty windy and Jason was pretty proud of his fire set up, good thing he is an Eagle Scout :)

Another picture request from Ollie, silly kid.

Max went down again at 6 that night, and Ollie about 7 so Jason and I had nice long evenings.  Each night we went on long walks around the campsite.  

The next morning the boys played together on my phone.

On our final day we had hoped to rent a surrey, and ride the go carts, but nothing opened until noon and we were planning on heading back around that time. We definitely plan on coming back so we will have to do those things next time.  We did go back and ride the train one more time.  I love Max's chubby little hand on my leg.  The ride was pretty empty since we went on the second ride of the day.  

It was a great weekend.  We love our camping trailer and look forward to our next trip in it...Mt. Rushmore!