This is a blog of pictures and updates about our family, posted by Mama Tara.
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Medora Trip
Last Thursday Brynn and I stayed at Weckerlys' so we could head out West to Medora with Tessa, Elise, Ben and Ollie on Friday morning. We weren't quite sure if we'd have enough room in Tessa's vehicle for everyone, and with the long drive, we thought Clara would have a better time at the lake with Dad.
I had wanted to get back to Medora again, and thought Brynn would enjoy it out there, so we were thankful for the opportunity to tag along with Auntie and gang.
I think the last time I had been to Medora was possibly when I was in junior high, and I was wondering how much it had changed.
It seemed like a pretty quick drive and before we knew it, we were in a very different-looking part of our state. Brynn seems mystified by the buttes, not quite knowing what to call them since they clearly aren't mountains.
Our first order of business was lunch, so we grabbed some pizza.
Tessa took her kids mini golfing, and Brynn and I opted to explore around town a bit.
After the Weckerlys were done golfing, we met back up again and Ben and Brynn braved the zipline. It looked absolutely horrifying, but they said it was fun.
Everybody's fav, the shooting range.
After a little wait for our motel rooms to be ready, most of us cooled off in the outdoor motel pool while Brynn rested in our room.
We were all excited to get to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in hopes of spying some prairie dogs, buffalo and wild horses...of which we were able to see all three.
The prairie dogs were so funny.
My sissy is one of my most favorite traveling partners. It never seems to fail us that we inadvertently end up wearing at least one outfit matching during our trips together. Great minds think alike!
My Brynnie girl.
It was a beautiful evening to be in the park.
Of course it is very dry out there, like everywhere in North Dakota.
I had always wanted to do one of the old time photos that you can get done in Medora and Brynn was game to do it with me. It was really fun. Brynn wanted to hold as many guns as we could. Haha.
On Saturday morning, Tessa had booked a trail ride that just the girls and I ended up going on together. There were a few kittens running around the place and we couldn't help but snuggle them. This little gray one was so precious and cute. We all wanted to take it home with us.
It fell asleep in Brynn's arms. So sweet.
The trail ride was fun, but my bottom was sore from the saddle for about three days after!
After we were done with our ride, Auntie came to pick us up and we checked out the Cowboy Cafe for breakfast which was a hit with everyone. (I recommend the Belgian waffles.)
We found Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt.
In the afternoon we went on a horse-drawn wagon ride around the grounds of the Chateau de Mores and then toured the house.
Afterward we found some ice cream. Brynn tried the huckleberry and was hooked. It was really tasty.
More swimming. I ended up falling asleep on my lawn chair by the pool, but it was nice to relax in the afternoon.
Before long it was time to get ready for the pitchfork fondue and the musical following that. I had been to the musical before, but not the pitchfork fondue, so I was excited to try it.
Loaded up and ready for fonduing!
All the food was excellent. Brynn ate herself into a bit of a food coma.
I'm not usually a huge fan of musicals, and neither is Tessa, so when intermission rolled around, we were polling the kids to see who might be ready to duck out. Most of us were pretty bushed after a full day of fun, but Ben really enjoys the musical, so we ultimately decided to stick it out. I think everyone was glad that we did since there was a magician in the second act that the kids thought was really good.
We had to hit the Cowboy Cafe up again before heading out of town on Sunday morning.
Here's a little highlight reel from the trip:
Thank you, Weckerlys, for letting us tag along! We had the best time!
Clara made a countdown chain to her 10th birthday. We baked a red velvet cake for her family party and chocolate cupcakes for her friend party. She looks so tall in some of these pics! Izabell's boyfriend, Neil, and Clara share the same birthday, so they all went out for lunch on their actual birthday on the 2nd. And then Neil had to get a tour of the Clara Express. Dana was in charge of getting balloons for the party and I sent him to Dollar Tree which apparently doesn't fill latex balloons, only Mylar. Dana "just knew" he had gotten the 'wrong' ones, and called me in a fit of rage over it and then followed up with this photo. haha. It all worked out just fine for Clara's ninja themed parties and I was able to pick up a few more black latex balloons from Cash Wise on my way home from work. Clara had already started partying at Prairie Joy's birthday party the night before, so I think she was short on sleep. I couldn't find her when I got home on F...
Brynn and I were very excited to embark on our mother-daughter trip to Chicago this week. We had gifted Brynn part of the trip as her sweet 16 birthday gift. We flew direct out of Fargo on Wednesday. We stayed at the Grand Plaza apartments on State Street in a VRBO rental. We loved it there! The building had an outdoor rooftop pool, library, gaming/movie room and gym on the 9th floor. This was us looking down from our 50th floor balcony. I refused to go to the edge of the balcony. Blech. (Photo credit: Brynn on this one!) Here are a few pics of inside the apartment that I hawked off of the VRBO listing. We got our things settled and ran next door to a Jewel Osco grocery for a few things and then got ready for dinner at River Roast along the Chicago River. It was very good and beautiful weather. I think Brynn said this was her favorite place that we ate at. Our waiter Jorge brought Brynn a carrot cake when we said we were celebrating Brynn's birthday on the trip. We came back to the...
S'mores on the deck... We got Brynn's team tennis pics back. They turned out great! I had to get a couple of pins and magnets. I should have taken a pic of Hubert and me spectating at one of her games last week as Hubert was sporting his pin. :-) We three girls played last week during a nice evening. Clara's class is doing an alphabet countdown to the last day of school. J was joke day. And Clara loves to share jokes with her teacher. She made her own joke book to bring. Cindy took Dad and me out to lunch for our birthdays last Thursday. It was such a fun time and Dad and I each got a cookie skillet for being the birthday kids! So delish. We went to Granite City. Always good! Dana and I went to Sartell, MN on Thursday night and arrived late. We stopped over at the after party of the groom's dinner for our friends getting married on Friday. I snagged their kitty for a snuggle. Roger and I were the photographers for the wedding which was beautiful. We had such a good tim...
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