So I decided to take a quick trip down to rapid city, South Dakota with the kids last weekend. Just for the night. It’s about a five hour drive one way, so not too bad when you have a good enough reason to go. And I did. First, my husband was on a vacation with his brothers to New Mexico and I didn’t want to feel too bummed about being stuck at home. Second, it was going to be sixty degrees there on Sunday and that basically set it in stone. Third, I haven’t been anywhere besides Minnesota since august and I was a bit desperate for a change of scenery.

First I had to find sitters for the dogs. Our Boston terrier went to stay with his literal parents and siblings, like he always does. I’m so thankful for them! And our puppy went to our neighbors. I was quite stressed about that as I’ve never left him and had no idea how he’d do. They said he was just fine though, so crossing my fingers he really was!

Then there was the house cleaning and packing and it was just chaotic. We left early Sunday morning, grabbed my caribou in watford city, and continued the trek. I hit some icy roads for a bit after Theodore Roosevelt National park and that stressed me out to the point I decided if it was any more like that, I was going back home. But it cleared up, thank goodness. I’m done traveling until there’s no chance of icy roads anymore btw.

The drive to South Dakota is so boring. I mean it is so boring. There’s only a few gas stations, a couple tiny towns. It would basically be the worst route in the world to break down on.

The kids did fairly well on the drive, as they usually do. When we made it to rapid city in the afternoon, our first stop was target. I had to change the two youngest, feed the baby, and it took us a good half hour to get out of the car and into the store. I parked at the way back of the parking lot because it was so nice and warm out that I figured we were going to soak it up as much as we could!

Target was target. Bought a bunch of snacks for the evening, a couple new books, some new shoes for a few kids. Seasons come up so fast and it’s like they don’t even fit their fall shoes anymore! I had given the kids their weekly allowance to spend on the trip and they were enjoying that!

We stayed at the Hilton garden inn because none of the unique cute places are open yet for the season. It seems April they start opening up! In my search though, I did find a new place to stay for our early summer trip!

I spent the evening putting coolant in my expedition, I discovered it was low. And you know, like i mentioned about breaking down on that drive, figured I’d better sort that out. We saw a gorgeous sunset from the parking lot of fleet farm anyway! Then we went and grabbed me a Starbucks and back to the hotel! Lol. Had not been my plan for the evening but better than breaking down on my way home.

I brought the kids down to the pool for a while, which was all they were excited for on this trip. I’m serious. I asked them what they wanted to see in rapid city. Like maybe Mount Rushmore, the dinosaur park, or art ally (which I’ve always wanted to see). And they said just swimming at the hotel! 😂 All the boutique motels and cabins we usually stay in don’t have pools, so this was a huge thrill.

After the pool, we ordered pizza delivery from our favorite place, Blaze Pizza. I can never get over how good that place is. So we chilled in our room then eating pizza and watching the history channel. I kept hearing the kids saying how this was the best night ever!

The next morning, I packed up and we headed out! First things first, got a coffee from Harriet and Oak. Then we picked up a dozen bagels from Black Hills Bagels for breakfast. I asked the kids what they wanted to do so we could see at least one thing before we went home, and they decided on the dinosaur park. And after driving halfway up there, discovered it was closed until the end of April. So we decided on art alley, which was a flop because my four year old was terrified of it for some reason and wouldn’t go past the beginning.

By then it was getting close to time to head back home. I’d promised them a trip to five below to spend the rest of their allowance and that was another huge highlight! I placed a crumbl cookie order, we picked that up, and hit the road. I stopped in sturgis for another coffee for the road and off we went.

The drive went decently until I hit that same section of icy road. There was now signs up saying travel alert, reduce speed. Oh was it bad. The wind had picked up overnight and now instead of just ice, it was snow over ice. I cannot even describe how stressful that was. I had just seen a reel recently of a semi sliding out of control and knocking cars off the road. And there are so many semis out here! But we did make it. The last hour the kids were no longer pleasant and I just desperately wanted to get home. The funniest thing about this trip was that we literally didn’t do anything we couldn’t have done by going to the city just 2 hours away.

And anyway then after all that stress, I got sick this week. So now I’m just back to waiting on spring weather! We are so close. So so close. I have never felt like I needed it as much as I do right now.