Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park

Today Ben, Grace and I drove 7 miles south of Mandan to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. General Custer and his troops stayed in this spot before moving on to Little Big Horn. The Custer house and the troops quarters are still there. They also have a Visitor's Center, a reconstructed Indian Village, some lookout towers on the bluffs of the Missouri River, and an old cemetery with wooden gravestones (that have been replaced and repaired through the years). We had a lot of fun...Ben really enjoyed it. Grace threw a couple of bratty crying fits for relatively ridiculous reasons, but I think she liked it too. I even saw a guy with a Hawkeye hat on! We Hawks are everywhere :).

We also stopped at the Veteran's Cemetery, which is near the State Park. My Great-Uncle Noble Peterson (Grandpa Stewart's brother who passed away in the spring) and his wife Betty are buried there. Noble was a great fighter pilot in the Air Force in WWII. The cemetery is beautiful!

Sunday

Today we woke up and took the dogs to the dog park. They love to get out and run around...being cooped up in this hotel room is not good for them. After the dog park we drove around town a little bit then went to the 'rocket' park. It's a park we've driven by a few times that has a rocket shaped playground. The kids played for awhile, then we came back to the hotel. Tyler took the little kids swimming, and Rich headed off for work. In the afternoon I took the kids to Ponyo....Tyler and Grace liked it but Ben almost fell asleep and it wasn't my favorite movie of all time :). Tonight has been quiet....we're just watching a Disney movie and getting the kids to bed early since tomorrow is school. Tomorrow is the appraisal on our new house, then they have to process that and get everything together so we can close....since it's Labor Day weekend next weekend we probably won't get to actually close until the 9th or so. 10 MORE DAYS!!!!

Oh, we also drove by the old Weather Bureau building they have in downtown Bismarck. It was the official building in the early 1900's where they'd take observations and record temps and stuff.

A day with our cousins

Joel decided to drive over with the boys today to visit us. When they got here we went down to the hotel pool to swim for a little bit. I think they liked the hot tub more than the pool, but once they all migrated over to the pool they had fun swimming all over. Noah and Eli have some cool life jackets, so they could swim all over the pool. After swimming we went to Space Aliens for lunch...that place is so cool! There are crazy aliens all over the walls and a (sort of lame) game room. The kids love it there. After lunch we went over to our new house...the realtor came over and let us through to show Joel and check a few things out. It was nice getting back in there since we only looked at it one time and that was pretty quick. The kids got to play in the back yard on our new swingset, they gave it a thumbs up! There is a little painting we'll need to do and some window treatments to buy, but everything looked good!
After the house we came back to the hotel so Noah could take a nap. Joel and Rich decided that was a good idea too, so I took the rest of the kids and the dogs to the park. We found a park with a playground, basketball courts, tennis courts, and a big field to run in. Tyler and Matt played tennis while the little kids played on the equipment. We left Tyler and Matt there to continue their game and came back to see if Noah was awake yet. Rich left for work, and Joel and I packed the kids up in the van and headed for the zoo. It was free day at the zoo (ack) so there were loootttttsssss of people there. We almost didn't go but Eli decided that he had seen someone pulling out of a parking spot so there was a perfect opportunity to pull in and go to the zoo.....so we decided to risk it :). It really wasn't too bad...everything in that zoo is spread out so it's easy to find a pocket without many people. We gave the tigers, bears, and spider monkey's a thumbs up....and Eli's favorites were the Prairie Dogs (of all things...we can see those for free in a field by grandpa jim's house LOL!). There were tunnels you could go through and see them underneath.
After the zoo we went to McD's to grab supper and brought it to a big park not too far from our new house. The kids played for awhile, then we headed back to the Old Candlewood. Joel got Eli and Noah's jammies on and they took of for Moorhead. How fun is it that they are only 2 1/2 hours away from us so the day trip thing is possible? I love it <3>

First day of school

The kids started school today. The first day of school pictures are awfully special taken from a HOTEL (sarcastically said). 13 more days until we get into our new house....it can't come soon enough.

I think everyone had a good day. Tyler was kind of tenative, but I'm sure that will improve with time. Matt buddied up with his tennis friend Willi so he was at least familiar with someone. Ben made friends with a boy named Kameron, and Grace has a new friend as well....she has a blue shirt and a ponytail, but she couldn't remember her name :). Everyone seemed to be able to find their way around and liked their teachers.

We closed on our Ankeny house this morning :(. Sad, but I think the new guy will be a good fit for 116. He's a single firefighter and seems really excited to be in our house, which makes me feel better.

Tomorrow we're off to buy a recorder for Ben...can't wait for the melodic sounds of the recorder (ha).

Wednesday

Today we went out for the morning and afternoon because Rich has been on midnight shifts and it's hard enough to sleep, much less sleep in a hotel room! Grace and Ben had Open House at their new school so we took their school supplies in and met their new teachers. Both are very nice, and I think they'll be a good fit for them. Grace has Mrs. Sanderson. She loves her new classroom and found her cubby, desk and mailbox. She has 2 Native American boys in her room...Gavin Little Bracelet and Tyray Iron Thunder :)....it will be great for her to experience different cultures. Ben's teacher is Mrs. Heaton...she seems really nice and Ben was thrilled. He found his desk and is sitting between two other boys. After the school Open House we ate lunch and dropped Matt off at the tennis courts. He wanted to practice his serve and slice. The other kids and I went to the Dakota Zoo. It's not a huge zoo and they don't have overly exciting animals, but it was a nice walking size and the kids had fun. I bought a family membership since it wasn't very expensive and the zoo is only about 2 miles from our new house. After hanging out there for a couple of hours we picked Matt up and came 'home'. The kids are going to bed early since it's a school night (YAY!!). Thanks to Grandpa Jim for getting Tyler's Jeep keys mailed back to him...we got them today so he can drive himself to school tomorrow :). First day of school pics coming tomorrow!

A few more random pics

We took pics of the kids in front of the wheat before we left yesterday morning. Unfortunately it was foggy and kind of dark so the pics didn't turn out great...oh well. The dogs loved it over there....they got to run free and were exploring all over the place. Lucy loved to chase and pounce on grasshoppers, and Tucker loved to run in and out of the wheat.

We've arrived in Bismarck!

We got to Bismarck August 18th so Rich could start at his new NWS office Aug. 19th. We can't close on our new house until Sept. 9th (arghhh) because the appraisal's are so backed up, so we are staying at the Candlewood Suites...all 6 of us, the 2 dogs, and Perry the fish. We have 2 rooms, which helps, but are already going a little stir crazy. Thank goodness for the hotel pool! The kids have been swimming at least twice a day every day. Matt started tennis practice with the high school team...the tennis team is 7th through 12th grades. There are 2 7th graders, a ninth grader, and high school boys on the team. He loves it though, and is learning quite a bit already. Luckily, the season is only a month long since the nice weather doesn't last long in the fall! The kids start school Thursday Aug. 27th. Tyler and Matt both have their schedules, and Ben talked to his teacher on the phone a few days ago. Rich has a couple of days off so we decided to head over to Grandpa Jim's to get ourselves out of the hotel. The wheat is all golden and ripe and they are starting to combine. It's a great time to be here..it's so cool to see all the combines in the fields!