South Dakota - Day 1

So, the plan for SD was to be on the road by 7:00am so we could beat the traffic going down town as well as hopefully have sleepy boys.  HA HA!  At 4:30ish our smoke alarms start going off.  They are all connected so if one goes off, they all do.  The house is SOOO loud!  We couldn't find the one that had a low battery or anything... so Russ makes a Wal-Mart run for $25 worth of 9V batteries to switch them all out.  Luckily, he switches our bedroom one and found that the light was flashing (MISS by mom - I didn't see it).  After it was changed there was no going back to sleep so we finished getting around.  Ross and Steve had slept through the alarms (Steve is very hard of hearing and didn't have his hearing aids in but I have NO clue how Ross slept through those!) so we got them up and they got around.

My co-pilot

Like Father, Like Son ;)  This picture is a little deceiving though - Russ actually barely slept the whole trip.  He and Linda stayed up talking to each other and to me while I was driving and then Russ drove.  But I liked how Steve and Russ both looked alike while they tried to doze.

Ross playing on the iPad

Reid playing DS.  I got him a new game and he played it A LOT!

We piled into the van and headed one block to McDonald's for breakfast (Steve's request).  We went in and ate, let the boys play a few minutes on the play place and then hit the road by our planned time of 7a.  We made great time to Sioux Falls and were actually in town by 12:30ish.  We phoned the hotel asking for an early check in and went to an Applebee's nearby for lunch.

The train in the mall

Riding the Empire Express

The Applebee's was actually in a mall so after checking into the hotel, the younger two boys, Linda and I hit up the mall to play.  There was a little train that went through the mall as well as a small play place.
Russ' marine buddy, Casey Legg, is in Sioux Falls so he went over to meet him at a restaurant to chat for a while.  When he got back he took Steve to a gun store to browse and then came back.  We ate dinner at a Texas Roadhouse that was also next door.

After dinner, Russ and I took the three boys to a family fun zone.  We played a game of miniature golf (I won but Russ actually had THREE hole in one's), Russ road the go-karts with Reid and Ryan and then we played on their swing set for a while.  Russ and Ryan hit the go-karts first and Russ just took off driving.  When he finished the guy said "that was a once in a lifetime event."  Apparently Russ had done the course backwards and the two other drivers followed him.  So, then Russ and Reid had their go-kart turn and they drove the track the forward direction (which I think was a little easier on one turn).

Ross was pretty cute playing golf

That's Russ and Ryan coming around the track backwards :)

And Russ and Reid getting started on their turn

I tried to keep the boys happy by pulling out new games, toys, candy, etc every hour or so.  We had a large bag of soft beef jerky and Ross kept asking for more by calling it "car bacon."  It seemed to work, the drive was very smooth.  I had bought a license plate game where the pieces are attached and you just flip them over as you find the license plates.  Ross kept calling it a puzzle and wanted to play it but it didn't take us long to decide it was an adult game :)  (More on that later)