Memory Lane!

While the kids and I were in Colorado we took a little trip to my birth town. When I say little trip, I mean a 7 hour car ride to Rapid City, South Dakota. The purpose of the trip was a "Fildes Family Reunion!" A blog to follow on the reunion. 

Anyway so Lucas, Macie, my parents, my sisters, my nieces and I made our way to Rapid City. This is were we are originally from until my dad got a job in Colorado and moved when I was in second grade. So I want you to think back to Macie's 3 Month Old blog. What is the one thing that Macie absolutely HATES. If you forgot it is to ride in the car. I know you are now thinking, you are taking this little girl in a car for 7 hours to and 7 hours from. CRAZY! I wasn't too sure how this was going to play out. I really didn't know if I should drug her, drug myself or just by some earplugs. It really was a toss up. 

Luckily, my little princess was PERFECT! I am serious. She slept the whole time. We timed the time of departure with her morning nap bottle and she fell right asleep in the car. She slept until we stopped for lunch. We stopped at a park for lunch so Lucas could play, she could stretch and wiggle and we could all get some fresh air. Then we gave her another bottle and she slept until we arrived into town. I couldn't have been prouder of her. Now I wasn't worried about Lucas. He LOVES being in the car as long as he has the i.Pad or a dvd player. He was entertained the whole time and even took a nap in the car on the second leg. They were perfect little children and I didn't have to drug anyone! Love them!

Here we are on the long road ahead.
Mind you I am trapped between the 2 carseats in the back of my parents car.
Not super comfortable, but I will do whatever it takes to get there!

My little man playing on the i.pad.
Really it is the best invention EVER!
I think all parents should put this as there only item on a baby registry.

My little miss sound asleep.

The only time she was awake for about 30 minutes of the 7 hours.
Luckily we had toys to play with!

Oh yeah... That is his stubborn pose.
He wanted the dvd player on his lap, but didn't want to hold it.
Then it would fall off his lap.
Repeat... A few times.

Finally we arrived at the hotel for the evening. We were going to take it easy that night since we had a busy couple of days ahead of us. And as all wonderful grandparents, my parents brought a surprise for Lucas. How else is he going to work on his game while we are out of town. They brought him a basketball hoop. Genius! 

Lucas played hoops everyday while we were gone.
He is so dedicated to his sports.

Can you tell how much he wanted to go swimming?
He was staring at the pool and saying, "Swim, please."
Of course I took him swimming... After dinner.

The following morning, we decided to drive by our old house. If you were to ask me what I remembered my house to look like and the memories that I had there. They really were picture perfect! We played for hours outside doing silly things, like digging for fossils in the hill, running through sprinklers, creating dance numbers to Madonna songs with our best friends who lived across the street, eating popcorn in the basement while my mom put curlers in our hair as we watched Golden Girls. Oh yes! Those were the days! So if you were to ask me if I lived in a modular home, I would have laughed at you. I thought our house was a mansion. It was such a shocker when we pulled up to this house!

See that deck.
We performed many a Madonna numbers on that desk for all of the neighbors.
Hysterical!

That is where we would dig for "dinosaur" fossils with our best friends Hope and Faith.

This is Hope and Faith's house where we played a lot of t-ball and nintendo.

Then we decided to drive by my grandparents' old house. This house has a lot of memories too. I would make homemade mac and cheese with my grandma and play black jack with my grandpa. Also, my sisters and I would rock in there rocking chairs while playing sega. Oh and one of the funniest memories is that my sisters and I would drink lots of soda, but only about half of the can. Then we would put the can back in the fridge, open a new one. This made my grandpa so mad. One day he said that we had to drink all of the open sodas before we could open a new one. So what did we do... Did we obey. Heck no. We watered the plants with the soda. Can you say, TROUBLE!

My grandparents' old house.

 One of my fondest memories of Rapid City was the Disneyland like park that they have there, Storybook Island. Now when I say Disneyland I mean take out your contacts, squint your eyes until they are almost shut and hold it there until it gets really blurry. That is how close it is to Disneyland, but to little girls at the ages of 5 & 7. It seems like Disneyland.

 In the summers they have children's theater camp. When I was about 5 and my sister, Shawna, was about 7, we participated in the camp. Fond memories of my little stint in acting. Good thing I didn't pursue it. I wasn't a huge fan of being in front of people. Then I made a career in being in front of little people.

The famous Cinderella bridge.
Similar to the castle in Disneyland... Don't you think?

Lucas had a blast there.
It was fun to see it through your own child's eye.

We swang on the the tin man (Wizard of Oz) swings.

We rode on the 101 dalmatian fire truck.

We played in Winnie the Pooh's treehouse...
A lot!

My little piglet with Piglet.

 Then we watched one of the shows in the theater. I should say we caught a glimpse because someone was talking through the show and it wasn't Lucas. Little Macie started to squeal and giggle... So we decided to leave before we got thrown out.

He was really interested in the show...

Until this little girl decided that she should be part of the show and talk through the whole thing.

Silly girl.

 So we went back to the treehouse and played a little more.

We visited Barney... For Grandma Johnson.
Lucas watches Barney ONLY with her.

Then we went on a few rides. These cars were hysterical... Well Lucas getting off the cars was hysterical. The little boy would push them so fast that when Lucas got off, he was so dizzy that he looked like a drunken sailor. He was trying to walk in a straight line, but couldn't. He was swaying from side-to-side. Too many beers at a frat party. It was so funny. I wish I had caught it on video. I was laughing so hard, I was crying. 

 Later that evening we took Lucas, Rylie and Piper golfing. Lucas had a blast. This was definitely HIS thing. He thought he was a golf hot shot. It was just too cute.

All lined up for his putt.
"Go in, go in. Yay!"

Golfing is hard work. Some times you just have to take a break and admire the scenery.

Lucas had a great time at the "Hotel, hotel... Holiday Inn." Just a little song we would sing every time we would pull up to or leave from. It was funny. He still is singing it. Makes me laugh. The best part of a hotel is the phones. Oh yes, we disconnected the phone. And just look at where you can hang one up on. Who doesn't hang up the phone on the air conditioner? Seems practical to me. He is just too funny!

Seriously... It does make sense. It fits so perfectly.

 I have to admit, as much as I was worried about the trip and if the kids (aka. Macie) could handle the car ride, they did great. It was nice to travel back to the old stomping grounds and take a little trip down memory lane. But is definitely hard work. After all of the play and travel, sleep is priceless.