The BIG move

We started on our journey to Minnesota on Sunday the 14th.  We left my parents house at 10:00 am, I had the car packed and ready to go early so that we could take our time saying goodbye.  We headed up I80 towards Park City and of course hit road construction halfway up Parley's canyon.  I thought this in not a good start, but it was really the only construction we hit the whole way, lucky us.  What can you say about driving through Wyoming, but it was flat and dry.  I have to say right now that my kids were SO good.  They are the best travelers, no one complained in the car and I think I heard "are we there yet?" only a handful of times in the three whole days.
We stopped for a visit at Martin's Cove on our way to Casper, which was where we stayed the first night.

 It was okay, it would have been better if we had been able to stop on a day other than Sunday because most of the stuff is closed and they don't let you take the handcarts out on the trails.  Normally all of these little shops are open for you to explore how pioneer life might have been, but because it was Sunday no such luck.

 But we did get to tour the visitors center and hear the story from one of the senior couples that is on a mission there.  It was really cool to hear stories I hadn't heard before while on the tour.

Our hotel in Casper didn't have a pool, bummer, but we got in fairly late anyway so it was okay. But here is a cute shot of the girls in our room.  And I have to say that this hotel was wonderful compared to the one we stayed in the next night, and they were both Quality Inn's...

Those two are so dang cute!

The next day we made our way to Mt Rushmore, along the way we stopped at a rest area that had a playground and the kids got a much needed break.

Mt. Rushmore was pretty neat. There wasn't a whole lot to do there, but we were wanting to get on the road soon anyway so it worked perfect for us.  

Before heading the the monument we stopped for lunch in Custer.  We ate at The Purple Pie Plate, the food was good and the pies even better, but our server was bit of a ditz.  

Then we made our way across the state of South Dakota, again, not much to say there, flat and boring at least it wasn't dry, green very green and lots of corn fields.  It became the running joke in the car to say look another corn field because that was all there was too see.  Kinda like the moose in brother bear playing I spy when all they can see is trees.
We spent the night is a small town in South Dakota, I mean really small, we had to take a dirt road to get to our hotel, which as I mentioned earlier left a lot to be desired.  This place did have a pool which we take advantage of, but the water was ice cold so we didn't swim long.  We were up and at it early the next morning because we new that the sooner we left the sooner we would be home, our new home!
After most of a day of driving, FINALLY we made it to Minnesota and I all I can say it man is it GREEN here.  Pictures really don't do it justice but so very different from Utah.  Our new home is nice and big, bigger than the house we left, but it will definitely take some getting used to.  This is view out my back windows upstairs....

The trees and underbrush literally come right up to the grass.  We have a few squirrels and birds that like to hang out in our backyard.

More pictures to come, but my internet is so ssssllllooooooowwww I can hardly stand it.