Maggie Comes to Play--Part 2

Maggie and Lance spent a little less than 5 days with us in SoDak.  I had to work, but that didn't stop us from playing at night.  During the 2nd half of their trip we traveled to Deadwood, played at Flags and Wheels, left our mark in Art Alley, shot potato guns, and made it to Hill City. 

It was quite difficult to find fun things to do since every place in South Dakota was closed due to the state's off season.  However, Deadwood never disappoints.  We watched a Christmas musical and spent some time at Saloon No. 10...which is a part of our passport!  Yay, two birds with one stone!

A Deadwood Christmas Show

Saloon No. 10!

Flags and Wheels lovely hairnets.  If only I could have taken a picture of Maggie driving like a grandma.

Flags and Wheels is such a stress reliever.  Racing around a track can be exhilarating.  I thought I was slow.  Maggie was insanely slow.  It was quite funny until I plowed into the back of her race car.  Plus, we ran around the laser tag arena like 8th graders.

Ready to roll.

Laser Tag!  I killed it in a dress!

 

Enjoying coffee and breakfast.  Maybe this was the reason I was a tad late for work...

Adding a touch of home to Art Alley. 

The city is trying to get rid of Art Alley.  I'm hoping that will not happen being that our LA mark is precious!

Prairie Berry delights. 

I've always been a fan of Prairie Berry, but now I'm equally in love with Alpine Inn.  Lunch serves German cuisine.  Dinner serves steak!  It's kind of cool to not have any choices for dinner.  But then again, you get to choose between over 10 desserts.  We ate everything and I'll make sure to bring the hubby here soon.  

My lovely date at Alpine Inn. 

The desserts at Alpine Inn are divine.  The steak was even better!

Maggie comes to Play--Part 1

Maggie and Lance finally made their way to South Dakota after spending some time in NYC.  We finally have visitors from my side.  

Apparently, everything is closed during winter in South Dakota...this city/state actually has an off season and Mags and Lance decide to come at this time.  It was a bit challenging to find new things for them to do, but we made sure to jam pack their week.  Tip for the future: have guests come during the summer time.  Winter is lovely with snow but almost everything is closed!

She's here!!!  I even made a snowman just for her!

Kang San!  The best food ever!

First stop for Maggs.  ICE skating!

This is what I looked like much of our time out on the ice.

While I worked, the kids played on the frozen ponds. 

The presidents!

Please note what's flying toward Maggie. 

Wall Drug.  It has everything!

A Northern Christmas

Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock.  What a magical time of year to spend in the North!  Having snow on the ground with temperatures reaching in the 20's everyday (if not colder) makes for a different kind of Christmas experience. I actually get to wear cold weather gear in December.  Imagine that!

Tyler and I went downtown for the Tree lighting extravaganza.  The town had their tree lighting ceremony in Main Street Square.  People were everywhere.  Santa was taking orders.  Skaters were twirling or speeding by on the ice rink.  Parade goers were set up on the sidewalks.  Carolers were singing and Tyler and I were enjoying the cold.  

It's Santa!

Let there be light.

Super stoked for Christmas season.

The Parade of Lights was a neat parade, but I have to say it was a disappointment.  No beads or candy were thrown.  In fact, nothing was thrown.  The people on the floats just waved.  It was a bit awkward.  Do we wave back???  Do we just smile???  Are we supposed to throw something to them?  Who knows!

Every float was filled with lights.  Tyler and I got a bit too cold and wanted to enjoy the parade from indoors.  We decided to watch the parade from inside Botticelli's, a delicious Italian restaurant.  

The view of the parade from inside Botticelli's.

I have quickly become obsessed with the snow.  It has snowed here pretty frequently and I just love the way it looks falling from the heavens.  My students are pretty excited too.  Plus Billie goes crazy when the ground is covered.  I keep getting hit by snowballs.  I'm always unsuspecting.  Tyler likes to catch me off guard...throwing snowballs at me while I'm doing laundry, watching tv...you know, just hanging out inside!  He makes such a mess!  It's pretty funny.  I'll see if I'm still laughing come January.  

Snow can't stop the hubby from grillin!

Our playground covered in snow is always a pretty sight unless of course I have outside recess duty on a snow day.  It's weird telling kids to stop eating the snow.  Brr!

Geez!  The wind chill makes it feel like 10 below.  I'm cold!!!

Our babies are all grown up. 

It wouldn't be a southern household if we don't enjoy a little banana's foster from time to time.

Our baby tree!

My CCD class made these advent wreaths.  I had to figure out how to make a wreath without using fire.  No one wants to let 1st graders play with fire!  No one!

I attended an Enlisted Spouses Christmas meeting where we played games and exchanged gifts.  The below picture was part of a game where you had to arrange 5 boxes in order of how many jingle bells you suspected were in the box.  I won!  However, that's not the reason I'm including this picture.  When I was a kid, Santa decided to use numbers to designate presents to my siblings and I.  This helped us not recognize Santa's handwriting.  I was #2 being that I was the 2nd child born.  When I saw these boxes numbered 1-5, I began to cry.  Every Christmas morning, we'd find presents scattered around the floor with different numbers on them.  Seeing these boxes with numbers on them made me miss home even more.  
 

Rush game!  Ice hockey is the big thing here being that it's the only sport around.  Unless of course you count rodeos.   

Merry Christmas!!!

We've Got a Tree

We've got a tree, we've got a tree, we've got a tree, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Tyler and I are celebrating our first Christmas together with a real tree from the Black Hills.  After buying some supplies, ax included, and purchasing a tag to chop a tree down ($10, yay!), we headed to the Black Hills to find our Christmas tree.  Unfortunately, LSU football kickoff was in 2 hours so we just stopped at the first sign of trees.  Next year we'll be sure to go north and find a nice tree.  This year we settled on a Charlie Brown tree...the biggest Charlie Brown tree I've ever seen.  

 Being that we didn't want to miss our favorite Tigers play, we stopped at the first sight of possible trees and walked a bit to find the perfect one.  It didn't take us too long being that we didn't exactly know what we were looking for and the fact that we were in a time crunch.  So much fun scouting the area for the best tree.  Tyler and I had an unspoken competition to see who could find the best tree.  We actually spotted the best at the same time...although Ty will tell you otherwise. 

Tyler hard at work.  Isn't he so dreamy?

I'm still pumped about snow...notice it on the ground???

Yay!  We have ourselves a tree.

I think I made it a few steps before telling Tyler that he had to take over.  Pulling a heavy tree uphill is not something I do on a regular basis. 

Cutting down our own Christmas tree was a fantastic experience and reminded me of my childhood.  Putting the tree in the house and realizing it was too tall also reminded me of a story my mom shares with us every Christmas.  Apparently, their first Christmas tree was too tall.  My dad took it outside and chopped the top off...NOT the trunk.  My mom cried.  My dad was in the dog house.  I knew better than to chop the top off of this beauty.  So did Ty.   There will be no Malcolm mistake this Christmas. 

Being out in nature and finding ourselves a tree really was a cool experience that I suspect we will do year after year.  Only $10 for any tree you find in the boundaries of tree cutting.  We plan on getting an even bigger, fuller tree next year.  Bring on Christmas 2013!