Kerry's bookclub has been meeting over 10 years. 2-3 of them have been in it from the beginning. This month it was at our house. They play games and eat and sometimes talk about the book they read. They take a picture each year, this is the before,
The kids headed back to school today. Kerry seemed more excited than they were. Tan is in the 7th grade and is very excited to have a locker. Colby is in the 5th and is not excited about anything. Sadie is in the 2nd grade and is excited about everything.
Our friend Ally got married yesterday. Here she is coming out of the Salt Lake Temple with "The Kid" (her nickname for him since he is younger than her.)
She invited Sadie to be in the reception line with her.
We are so proud of our little Sadie, who wanted to wear a shirt under the dress. She is such a modest little girl.
Kim and Kerry.
As excited as we were to get home, we stopped at Martin's Cove. They have a lot of missionaries and a few little buildings full of treasures to look at.
Guns and swords. Always fun to look at.
We also pushed a handcart around. Well, the kids did. Not for very long, they thought it was pretty hard. We drove across Nebraska and Wyoming. I can't imagine walking it pushing a handcart.
We went to Mt. Rushmore. It was awesome. There was such a patriotic feeling in the air as we learned about the sculpture and the four men honored by it.
In the artist's studio there is a plaster copy of the original plans.
Grandma Kathy and Ben came with us.
Yesterday we went to the park and had a picnic. The park was great and had lots of neat things for the kids to play on. Here is Tanner and Colby on a climby thing. 
The park also had a butterfly zoo-thing. I couldn't help remember the comedian Brian Regan's trip to a butterfly zoo-thing. Especially when the guide said, "I'll be here to answer all your butterfly questions." I thought "all of them?"
There were several kinds of "Mormon" butterflies. This is not one of them, but it was fun looking for them among the millions of bugs.
Today we began the day going to the "Corn Palace", which is a big building that is decorated by corn. Inside, all about corn. They love their corn here.
After we had an ear-ful at the Corn Palace, we headed to the "Badlands National Park". It was pretty cool. kinda like being on the moon. 
We are worn out from all this vacation, but still have two days left. =(
Before...
After. (is anyone really surprised?)
We decided that we were going to South Dakota (Nebraska and Iowa too.) to see Grandma Kathy and Ben. We began Thursday night and thought we could make good time driving all night. Driving at night is fun because there is less traffic and cooler temperatures. It is also good for the kids to sleep most of the trip away. Kerry had everything packed and arranged and we were off. The drive was good, but days later we are still tired, so I am not sure it was a great idea.
We stayed the night at the Marriott. Went swimming, the mall and the movies. The next day we went to Winter Quarters and it's great visitor's center. Here the kids are packing their wagon. (They made sure to bring 'toys', 'sugar', and 'guns'.)
They dressed up and took turns checking out the sleeping births of the boat.
Pulled the handcart. (much easier inside a building than out.)
Colby and the model SLC temple.
The Winter Quarters temple. (Kerry and I left the kids with Grandma and did a session. It has been my 'high' of the trip so far.) The temple is a 'mini' one, where you have to have an appointment. It was very nice, but very small. 
We headed to Council Bluffs.
Checked out Brigham's plans.
Practiced planting corn.
The replica tabernacle. 
