Abby's First Random Roadtrip!

Early Saturday evening we drove to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Neither Will nor Abby had been to South Dakota before, so it was quite the adventure. South Dakota became Will's 42nd state and Abby's eleventh.

This 3.5 hour road trip was actually a trial run for the 8.5 hour road trip to St. Louis we will be making in two weeks. Remarkably, Abby was asleep within minutes of the road trip's beginning.

But she was awake soon enough. We discovered that the Doodle Pro is a necessary road trip item!

We also discovered that candy and tattoos work too!
We finally made it to South Dakota. We stopped at this rest stop just across the Minnesota border. I told Abby that it was her first rest stop. She asked me what a rest stop is. I told her on our way into the restroom. She looked around and commented, "Well, this is a nice little restroom!"

We stayed in one of our beloved Marriotts and Abby enjoyed the morning paper.

Sunday morning we started our Sioux Falls sightseeing at the Great Plains Zoo and Natural History Museum -- as you can imagine, Abby LOVED it!

Abby takes her zoo friends for a spin!

Abby and I rode the carousel, but when our ride was finished, she begged for a second ride on the carousel with her daddy. Needless to say, Abby got her wish!

We actually had a difficult time getting Abby to leave and we got conned into buying Abby yet another stuffed animal!

In between the zoo and our next stop -- the science museum -- we all had a bit of a meltdown and stopped for lunch. Abby refueled on one of her new found passions -- BACON!

Abby and Cheetah were supposed to be striking a scary T-Rex pose, but neither look particularly scary!

Cheetah and Abby practice flying a hang-glider.
Will and Abby were attempting to land a space shuttle, but I kept hearing very loud crashing sounds!

Abby recently announced that she wants to be a paleontologist. We quickly discovered that South Dakota is a great place for a young dinosaur scientist in the making! Will and Abby built a triceratops and dug for bones.

I love this picture of Abby!! I'm holding a salamander and trying to get her to touch it, but as you can see, she wanted nothing to do with it! She did eventually touch it and was interested in how smooth and cold it felt.

On our way out, Abby found a beautiful piano and proceeded to play a song for Cheetah!

Our last stop was at the Big Sioux River water falls that Sioux Falls was named for.

We found Sioux Falls to be very road trip worthy and had a wonderful time. But alas, all good road trips must come to an end (although Cheetah doesn't look very tired)!