One of the goals we had for the summer was to read all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. We have been enjoying the books so much that we decided to visit the real homestead in DeSmet South Dakota, The Ingalls family had lived in many different states and traveled nearly 2000 miles in the covered wagon before staying in DeSmet until death. We had low expectations going into this trip but we were all blown away by the homestead. It's hard to describe but, we were in the middle of reading "The Long Winter" and many of the activities were directly related to this book and how they survived 7 months of blizzards. Among the attractions were a sod house, covered wagon rides, a one room school session, a 3week old foal running wild, rope making, corncob doll making and horse riding. We were able to spend the night in the bunk house and even without a bathroom had one of the best nights rest.
Spending time with our littlest cousin is always fun but she is at a great age right now and totally fun. They played together and really enjoyed being together.
