ṣöṳṯḣ ḋāḵöṯā

Days 1-3

Our big vacation this year was planned around the McMillan Family Reunion in South Dakota...

Here we are off! We couldn't have packed any more in our car. And Jake let me drive the first leg, through the mountains, so he could take in the scenery!

We left the mountains and found some pretty sweet looking storms!
I miss a good Kansas storm!

However when it got dark, we were driving some back roads in Nebraska...and as much as I enjoy a good storm, I would much rather be snuggled up at home. It made for a very long night. It definitely didn't help our time. We didn't get to our destination until 215am. I had planned on napping a lot in the car, but I was not going to leave Jake the only one on guard. We mostly had downpours off and on... we could tell we missed some wind, as there was a lot of debris on the roads as the aftermath. Talk about a fun way to start vacay!

The next morning in our hotel... Riley was just waking up, but I thought is was funny seeing them sleeping in identical positions. We literally got less than 5 hours of sleep...the breakfast had been picked over and we may have been grumpy...so we were off the small town Perkins for a good meal. Have a mentioned I don't do well off little sleep? My body needs its rest.

After breakfast, Jake was super excited the take us to the Corn Palace.
Ummm...what?
It's a real thing! And it even brought President Obama to Mitchell, SD.

This was a gymnasium in the Corn Palace... and all of those large pictures are made with corn.

Maybe Riley was a little too big for this exhibit.

The outside theme changes every year. This year's theme was "Rock of Ages"
Again...that's all corn!

It's literally like "color by numbers" with corn!

After a morning of running around Mitchell, it was off to Jake's cousin's house.
I didn't know this was really a one day reunion...so imagine being ready for the camera after 4+ hours of sleep. There was not enough R+F to have me ready for this!
Jake's grandpa was the reason we gathered...he is 94 years young!

All the siblings with Dad.

Siblings and spouses.

Rochelle, Steve and Amber.

You know who these people are.

I did hog this baby. Thomas is the happiest baby ever, and I took total advantage of him...even during nap time!

Melissa and Danika.

Ken and Sally.

Ed and LaRonda.

Jesse, Thomas, Amanda, and Jackson.

Our hotel had a mini national monument...not as impressive as the real thing.

Alicia, Dave, Logan, Evan and Leah.

Sunday was really Father's Day...but it was Riley's 14th birthday. Now you see why we did 'Fake' Father's Day... 

Back downtown... since the reunion wasn't 2 days like thought, we had some time to kill.

Here we got to visit a Prehistoric Indian Village.
We even got to see where they are doing a live dig on site.

Mexican for the birthday boy!

Fourteen years old???

It was back to the Bamsey home to spend time with family.

Riley being "torchered" by girls!! 

Cherry Berry was Riley's choice for birthday dessert.
Reece and Jason became instant buds...so he came with us and joined us at the hotel pool before we said our final goodbyes and were off to our next leg...