We recently took a road trip to Gillette, WY to visit my sister Shannon. She has 4 boys ages 8-16, so her house is pretty much Keegan's paradise! Aiden, 11, is a fellow lover of Legos, so he and Keegan got along splendidly. Keegs was admiring all Aiden's cool Lego sets, and I'm pretty sure he's even added a few to his Christmas wish list. Hope he's nice and not naughty! Asher, 8, and Keegan blissfully played for hours on end together. Whether it was on the XBox or outside building snow forts, those two were like peas in
a pod!
Shannon and her boys
Asher and Keegan
And let's not forget about our little Chiquita. Since there are no girls OR babies in Shannon's house, Kaia was ALSO in paradise!! The boys were super cute with her, playing endless rounds of Ring Around the Rosies or throwing her up in the air to her squeals of delight. Shan got in on the Kaia love, too. Kaia snuggled her to watch TV and even let her play with her hair, which proves that she LOVES her Auntie Shannon, since those are 2 things that she usually doesn't do! Even Attila got a little Chica love. When we got home from a long road trip, Attila picked Asher up and gave him a big hug. As soon as he put him down, Kaia ran over and hugged Attila's legs. It took him by surprise, but he picked her up and gave her a big hug, too. I have to admit, it tugged a little on my heart strings to see Attila with a little girl, since he has none of his own - so sweet!!
Austin and Kaia
If you know any of my sisters, you know we love to shop. Shannon and I shopped the heck out of her little town! We found some amazing deals at their consignment shop, (I got a sweet leather jacket for only $20!), but also made our rounds to some of Gillette's finer boutiques. We definitely did our duty to ensure that those shops stick around a little longer! I also introduced Shannon to some of the finer things in life, i.e. Pinterest and Mad Men. I don't know how she survived this long without them!!
Because we took our trip in the middle of the school year, we made sure to get a little education in by visiting Mount Rushmore. It's about a 3 hour trip to Rapid City from Shannon's house, so we loaded all the kids up, stocked up on yummy treats, and headed out. It was a fun-filled day with a visit to Chili's, Texas Roadhouse, a brief meeting with some Rapid City missionaries (they took our pics at Mt. Rushmore), a run-in with a snooty Visitor's Center sales clerk, lots of souvenirs and some loot from Bath and Body Works.
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| Kaia, pose with Aunty Shannon! Sweet! |
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| Now, pose with Mommy. I don't think so! |
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| Keegan managed to look glum in most of these pics, but I promise he had a good time! |
The only hiccup in the whole trip happened Saturday night as I was loading the car to be ready to leave bright and early Sunday morning. The car wouldn't start! I was pretty confident that I just needed a jump, and since it was FREEZING outside, I decided we could just jump start it in the morning before we took off. Well, that didn't happen! We ended up having it towed and in the end just replacing the battery. It delayed our trip home a couple of days, but the kids were happy to have the extra time. It's so nice to finally have some of my family on this side of the country! We'll definitely be visiting Wild,Wild Wyoming again :)
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The whole gang
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