Chicago Part 2: Minneapolis

We left South Dakota on Friday May 23rd and headed for Minneapolis. As we were packing the car it was hot and humid! Like really humid. Carolyn had no sympathy. She just laughed as said good luck in Chicago.

We planned our trips out so that the longest leg was first and they got shorter from there. Minneapolis was still left long, but it WAS shorter so that helped. (to SD= 10.5 hours of driving, Minneapolis= 8 hours of driving)
As part of our trip we decided that we were going to stop at stops that sounded fun and not just drive straight through (minus Martin's Cove apparently. Still mad at myself about that one!) Along the way to MI, we stopped at the Bad Lands in SD. It was a wonderful detour. 

 The Bad Lands is like a mini Grand Canyon so obviously, pictures do it no justice at all. I mean the pictures are fine, but it was truly breath taking and it goes on for quite awhile. There are little pockets all over the place for miles.  The only downer, was that we did have an 8 hour drive in front of us so we had to kinda hustle through it. We weren't able to get out and hike any of the trails which was a bummer, but none the less, it was still beautiful.

 

  

 

 After the bad lands it was smooth sailing until Minnesota. I say that but South Dakota is equllay as exciting as Wyoming to get through. The only difference this time was that neither of us have ever been to this side of the sate and so it was at least new. A lot of prairie, thats for sure.
When we got to the Minnesota sign we were so excited. It is the only sign that we took a picture of because it was actually cool. 

 It amazed me how fast the terrain changed once we got into Minnesota. All of a sudden we just saw miles and miles of green and farms. Like pretty farms with giant cylos and horses running. We also started seeing all the water that is so very missed in the plains. It made the drive especially fun once it got pretty to look out.

 Worst part of the trip was the detour we had to take when we were like 15 minutes away from the house. There was road construction going on and we had to take a back country road which was beautiful but added on 45 minutes to our trip! It took 40 minutes to get through a 2.5 mile detour. Awesome right. I tried to capture the line of cars ahead and behind us. You can't really see except that the line went for miles. It was really annoying. We never saw the speedometer get about 5!!!!

 The other bad news about our Minneapolis road trip was that Ethan's phone started dying and we were using that as our map. I had to pull out the computer to recharge it in the middle of Minneapolis freeway traffic. Not that big of a deal because I wasn't driving but I love to be dramatic. Stories aren't fun otherwise.

 Although we had a few hiccups, we had this in the back seat so all was well! (yes she's listening to Frozen. AGH!!! I'm not anit Frozen but we were on like our 15th run through you know)

 

 

First glance of Minneapolis

 And we finally made it! We stayed in a bed and breakfast type place so we had a room and fridge to our selves and shared everything else. Not gonna lie, not ideal and super weird, but our "roommate" next door was a really nice young dude named Suresh, who was never home so we basically had the house to ourselves.  (the house was owned by natives who rented out two rooms to people like us. you had to be staying an extended period of time in order to get the room. Its safer than it sounds, but still pretty weird. Don't judge. We survived)

 

They had a cat which was lame, but Kelsey was in heaven. She chased that thing all over the house and would climb under couches and stuff just to give it a kiss goodnight. They also had a dog but since the owners went on a vacation, they took the dog with them. 

Saturday was dedicated to touring Minneapolis. The biggest city that I had ever been to was Salt Lake. All 4 blocks of it. I just couldn't stop looking at the horizon. It was beautiful. Before we left Provo, basically from the minute that I found out about Chicago, I started researching all the cities that we were going to stop in and tried to find the most touristy things I could in all of them.
It was a beautiful morning in Minneapolis and I was SHOCKED at how NOT crowded it was. I don't know if all cities are like that on a Saturday but seriously, we had the place to our selves. 

It was so beautiful. I just loved all the architecture and i couldn't get over the skyline view. 

 

 

some random bike thing that we saw EVERYWHERE

 

 

 the Target center

Across the street from the park with the spoon and cherry was this gorgeous cathedral. We didn't have time to go inside but since it was the first thing that we could see from our drive into the city, I was kind of in love with it the whole time. 

So Minneapolis literally has like billion parks every where. I don't know which one we were at but it was a hit. There was a park there with these awesome chair swings and Kelsey loved it. There was also this family there that totally spoke Wisconson (that's where they were from) and it was awesome. I tried to get it on tape but couldn't. I just loved the way they said, well everything. Funny thing about this family was the mom. We got to talking and I told her why I was in town and she was telling me why I was in town and my goodness! She didn't want to brag but "Man son is graduating from his MBA with a 4.0, he has a minivan and three kids, he has being married to his wife for 10 years, he runs marathons, and has a great job. Oh and his wife is a certified psychologist." Wow... it was a lot of fun.

 

these flowers were black. It was super cool

 

The whole trip, all Ethan wanted to do was play basketball in the city. We got to the park and there was a basketball court and he was off.  He was having a great time...

and then it got super exciting because then people started joining him and it was the exact crowd he was hoping for. 

After walking around the city (which seriously was DEAD. Granted we were in the government district on a Saturday but still), we decided that it was time to move on to the Mall of America. Okay if you HATE mall traffic DONT EVER GO TO THE MALL OF AMERICA!!! The traffic was terrible. I mean like awful, but we finally got a parking spot and then it was just really fun.

It really is as big as people say. The only way to describe it is to say that they built Lagoon, and then put a mall around it. Not even kidding. The pictures don't do the middle justice but it really does challenge Lagoon. Its not as spread out but the middle may have as many rides and attractions as Lagoon.

At the Lego store. These statues are all made out of Legos

Kelsey was hilarious at the Lego store. We were resting and thought she was enjoying the legos but then we looked over and she was CLEANING!!!! Other little kids kept pulling the legos out and she kept putting them back into the middle. It was hilarious, but hey, at least she got little kid interaction. 

After the Mall of America and a delicious lunch at Chipolte, everyone was beat. We went back to our house and took long naps. When we woke up it was time to explore the rest of city. We headed over to the Mississippi river and took a walk across. I do wish that we could have toured more of the city because there were so many museums and awesome things that we had to just pass, but it was still really fun. Minneapolis was a beautiful city and it had some very old parts to it only adding to the charm. We walked across the bridge in hopes of finding somewhere fun to eat but they only had bars so we had to leave. It made me kinda sad. We definitely we not the only tourist there on that particular Saturday. I was so excited and so jealous that I literally ran to get this video...

Favorite picture of the whole trip. Ehtan HATES taking selfies... obviously

This was called Old Ruins Park

Here is the best picture of the bridge that we could get. Now that I'm typing this I am remembering that there was a trail on the OTHER side of the river that probably would have been better. Whoops. It was beautiful none the less. 

This is a picture that someone else took

After the Mississippi we drove over to the campus of the University of Minnesota and just walked around. Again it was super dead, but we heard that graduation was that day. Their campus is gorgeous. This is a view of the south side looking into the city.

 and here is the Arts building

and here is the mascot 

For dinner we stopped at McDonalds and a frozen yogurt place. Ethan's favorite and my favorite things to eat. Ice cream and fries. Can you really go wrong.

We were heading back to our house to get Kelsey to bed and noticed that our house was right next to Calhoun Lake. Calhoun Lake is the Lake that you see in pictures like this:

On our way we passed Lagoon street and I thought of all my nephews in Utah

We really wanted to get  the lake and the city in the picture so we scratched bed time and headed over. Well we didn't' realize that we were on the other side of the lake so we couldn't even see the city, but it was still a beautiful sunset to a very exciting day. There was a park on the beach so everyone was happy.

Don't worry... I'm not done yet!
On Sunday we had to leave Minneapolis to get to Milwaukee. On the way out we decided to stop and see the capitol in St. Pail and in addition to that we saw the biggest BIGGEST cathedral I have EVER seen in my life. I couldn't get a picture that could do this building justice but my goodness, it was mesmerizing. So as we were driving away from St. Paul I decided to look up where the temple was in Milwaukee and I saw terrible news... there's a temple in St. Paul!!! We were like 5 minutes from it and we didn't even go. I was so sad, but on we pressed.

Aside from missing the temple (and church), we had a great time in Minneapolis. It was exciting to get going though. On to Milwaukee. 

Here's my Minneapolis impressions: Very green, VERY clean, and churches EVERYWHERE!! There were churches everywhere and they were all beautiful. 

Chicago Part 1: South Dakota

This whole trip is a beast and kinda blowing my mind. I just can not believe that this is actually happening to us and that we really are where we say we are and have been. I didn't know how much I loved my comfort bubble until now. It needs to be popped!  I still feel like I need to get permission to do grownup things, so it just seems weird that I have already gone to so many new places and states. That being said lets get to some pictures right!

 

 

 

We left for Chicago on May 20th from Bountiful Utah. Obviously we felt in too much of a hurry and had to turn around and get a bag of clothes, food, and books, but after that... we were on our way. this trip we finally decided that our CD's were especially lame and finally got an IPOD dock for the car. I mean, to be honest, our IPOD is pretty lame too, but the songs are at least from 2005 and sooner.

 We packed as light as we could, but things were still pretty tight. We only had to bring clothes, but we also have a kid so things just automatically multiply. With minimal toys, a pack-n-play, a booster, food, car games, some blankets,  and other random stuff, we were pretty packed to the brim.

 We left with plenty of time to get to our first destination, South Dakota, but about an hour into the ride, Kelsey started to realize what was going on and decided that she did not want to be there. We tried everything we could to keep her happy, but she wasn't having it. Luckily Little America gas station is not that far into the trip and has a playground so we decided to stop for about 30 minutes. With some wiggles out (and fruit snacks, cookies, and "Let it Go" playing 5 times in a row) we got her back into the car.

Don't be fooled, the headphones didn't work. We had to listen to everything she watched. I can confidentially say I strongly dislike Frozen right now

She fell asleep quickly and the rest is history. We had a great trip with no hiccups. When we hit mid Wyoming we hit rain and it rained pretty much the rest of the way, but something had to happen in Wyoming because the normal Wyoming is pretty boring. Oh and I was awake this time to see Martins Cove. I totally regret not stopping.

NOT Martin's Cove, but pretty

We arrived in Rapid City around dinner time and Alex made us a delicious orange chicken dinner with edamame (first time having them and I LOVE them). The night was spent playing with cousins. Kelsey couldn't stop following her "cosains" around. She was in heaven!! And the best part was, they WANTED her around. It was so much fun. Alex would read her stories and dance with her, Syndey played bears, Camryn talked to her and got her to say new words, Ainsley showed her things to do all day, and Zack let her do well anything. She loved Zack a little too much, but he's a trooper.

Ainsley did my hair while I was sleeping and LOVED how it turned out

The best part about Rapid City was that there was no plan. On Wednesday I think we just napped, did yard work, cleaned, and whatever we felt like. It was awesome. On Wednesday night while Alex was at Scouts and Sydney and Carolyn were at Achievement Days, we went on a bike ride with everyone else. Let me remind you, everyone less includes 6 people, 3 of which are 3 and under. It was pretty spectacular. The best part about the trip was when Kelsey got sick of holding Zacky and tried to push him out of the trailer. I wish I was kidding. I looked back only when Ainsley casually said, "Um Cami..." and saw Zakc's feet come out the front and Kelsey squatting to get more force behind her pushes. Thanks for the heads up Ainser.

Also, thanks to Alex, I learned Twinkle Twinkly Little Star on the cello. It was a bucket list thing to play a cello. I mean I'm no Yo Yo Ma, but he better watch out.

On Thursday we got a tour of the base and the coolest playground I have ever seen! We also got to see the Tigers area. The coolest part though, was while we were there, two B1's took off. I have never EVER heard anything so loud in my whole life. It was truly amazing. The air literally shook. SHOOK! It was awesome.

Zack can't get away so he was a pretty easy target 

After the base we went to Sonic for 50 cent hot dog day followed by more time with the cousins.  It was as nice as it sounds.

Everyone doing the cheese roll. Maybe Kelsey's favorite part of playing

 

 

Ainsley got hurt in the fun and showed me all about it. She was pretty upset. 

Kelsey got a fun birthday gift for the car from Grandma and Poppa Nelson. She obviously loved it

 

Thursday night we all got to go to Alex's soccer game followed by dinner at Beau Jues (I think) which is an amazing pizza/salad buffet. It was really delicious but the coolest part was that there was a band practicing some blue grass music. It just made the whole experience more authentic. 

Trying Sprite for the first time... 

It was so hard to leave Rapid City. Like so hard!  I love Rapid City and Carolyn and her family so much. It was so helpful to be able to talk to Carolyn too about my Chicago fears. We went on several runs and just talked about how great this was going to be regardless of my nerves. I am so grateful that I have older siblings. They are not only great examples to me and what I can become, but actually believe in me that I CAN become someone just as great.

South Dakota trip thoughts: Wyoming is super boring and flat. Not a whole lot to look at. Honestly it is more exciting when there is a rain storm because the clouds kinda add to beauty of the plains. As soon as you hit Rapid city and the Black Hills, it get GORGEOUS!! I love Rapid City. It feels super homey and I love being there. There is so much to do there especially if you like being outside.