Wow what a busy month we had! From Easter, regular day to day life, Bug’s birthday, and a roadtrip vacation, this month was packed to the brim! I tried to remember to take pictures of things, so I figured I would share some for my recap!
We finally finished the dining table makeover. The dining room is about 95% done now.I went to Michael’s earlier in the month, for something I can’t remember now, and ran into these mystery boxes. I bought one and wound up going back for 3 more. It was exciting and the kids really liked unboxing them. I got a lot of things that I knew I wouldn’t use, so I donated those things. We celebrated our youngest son’s second birthday with a Peter Rabbit theme party. We kept it very small this year, which was really nice!I finally got my pictures framed! The horse one I painted in the hospital on bed rest when I was pregnant with Bug. I got the Harry Potter diamonds for my birthday last year. My new hair cut! I got about 50% of my head shaved. It only took me 2 years of thinking about it to finally get it done.We drove about 5 hours to Valentine, NE on a Friday afternoon. Saturday, we hiked through the Niobrara Wildlife Refuge to find Fort Falls.We found a new found love for hiking during this trip. Pickle even stopped me and said, “I am just so happy right now.”Even though it was cold, it was nothing short of scenic. We also saw a lot of buffalo.This waterfall was much more simple to find. Even though it was nearly freezing temps, we still managed to get soaked out of excitement from being there.We were planning to make our way back home Sunday. Instead, Saturday, we decided to leave early and head to Rapid City, South Dakota! We stayed at a hotel that had a waterpark inside of it (I didn’t get pictures of our time there). It snowed off and on the entire time we were there. We discovered how beautiful of a state South Dakota is.I had never been to Mount Rushmore before. A lot of the entrance is under construction, but it was still pretty cool to see.It was during this trip I realized how little my kids know about Native Americans (and how much I still don’t know). We took the opportunity to learn as much as we could. We went to this museum on whim an hour before they closed. We sort of had to rush through it, but there was a lot of neat things to learn about; cowboys, Native Americans, geology, dinosaurs, and animals.This place was really cool! They had the biggest crocodile in the world, named Maniac. We saw two turtles fighting, a lot of snakes, lizards, and birds. We met Cheyenne the bald eagle that was saved from Grand Island, NE. We also had a lot of laughs with their fun mirrors. This was another on the whim stop, down the street from Reptile Gardens. Pickle had a serious field day here. By time we got to the register, we had a basket full of different candies.We spent the evenings [Sunday and Monday] at the waterpark. And then it was time to head towards home [Tuesday]. I took notice of the length of time it took for Bug to get irritable in the car on the way out. I mapped the way back home accordingly to be able to stop and get out of the car.This is a rest area, but the view is absolutely stunning. The dignity statue is huge and beautiful. While we were here, we met an older lady and her dog who were making a cross country move from NY to California. It also kept randomly snowing for a few minutes off and on, until the sun finally came out. We stopped at Gavin’s Point Dam. We had been here a few years ago so I knew it was a good place to stop to get out and stretch (and use the bathroom). It took about another 2 hours or so and we made it back home.I started this “tradition” of Monday Movie nights. Weeks tend to fly by and weekends are always jam packed with things to do. In an effort to try to slow down, these movie nights have been really great! We eat dinner (smorgasbords) while watching the movie.My little miss had been requesting a spa day for about a month. I was finally able to kick the guys out and make it happen. 🙂With all that fun, and a little bit of life in between, April 2021 was definitely a highlight of our year thus far.
Reclaiming My Sanity 