The Rest of the Trip...

Last Saturday brought a fantastic trip to parts of Sioux City that we've never visited before. Funny how you never seem to do any of the tourist stuff in areas where you live (or have lived). We toured a place that had the stages of the cross and a life sized wood carving of 'The Last Supper'. The kids sat at the foot of the enormous 'Mary' statue and were as intrigued by the little bugs crawling on the ground as they were by the large metal giant towering above them!
Morgan was dazzled by the stained glass.

Cade, on the other hand, was more excited to be the tour guide and used the map to lead us around the grounds.

After our walking tour we decided to check out the Lewis and Clark exhibits along the river. We started with the Riverboat museum. Yes, that is Kyle posing in the background of the first picture while the kids pilot the ship.

Now Captain Cade...

and finally Captain Morgan.

Morgan was pretty pleased to be Grandma's tour guide!

We headed out through the gift shop with one final pose in the fancy hats.

Next we headed toward the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, which is basically a hands-on museum where the kids got a small taste of the skills necessary to be an explorer. They each got their visitor's journal to stamp in at each station.

They practiced the life of a night watchman and got to find out whether they had the skills necessary to be a part of the exploration. Grandpa discovered he wasn't so sure he was cut out for watchman duty.

Here they are posing with Lewis, Clark, and the dog named Seaman.

And with the smaller version of the same thing inside...

But no trip would be complete without a stop at the park and a game of tag on the equipment. The rules of the game kept changing, as per Morgan and whatever seemed to put her at an advantage at any given point. Kyle did end up catching her a number of times- but for some reason it never seemed to 'count' in Morgan's opinion. My parents enjoyed this immensely (possibly it reminded them of another bossy young lady from their past).

Grandpa and Morgan took a little time to test out the teeter-totter.
After all the fun we headed back to my parent's house to rest before the birthday celebration that evening. The kids got to play with their 2nd cousins- Abbie, Ian, and Tori along with having cake and ice cream. Boy did they sleep well this night!


Morgan was determined to stop at Great Grandma's house as we headed home Sunday afternoon. Seeing Great Grandma was the added bonus to her first purpose, seeing the kitties! At one point she managed to pick up 4 at one time!


Once we loaded up in the van for the trip home, we discovered we have one more reason NOT to get a cat- Morgan broke out in a rash all over her face from playing with kitties. Had the camera been within reach- I would have gotten a nice close-up to remember the moment, red and blotchy! Too bad, looks like all 4 of us have allergies to cats. One more blessing- a really good reason to say no when Morgan keeps asking for a kitty of her own.