On Tuesday, we took a side trip to Walnut Grove, Minnesota. When we were first planning this trip, Emma really wanted to go to Walnut Grove and when we realized it was only two hours from De Smet, we figured it would be a great side trip. We headed for Plum Creek early on Tuesday and made it there in time for a picnic lunch and celebration of Emma's ninth birthday.
The girls were excited when we told them they could put their bathing suits on and go swimming in Plum Creek just like Mary and Laura did. Recently, Ella has developed a strong infatuation for water and whenever she sees water in any form, she gleefully yells out, "WA-TER! WA-TER!" It was a dream for her to grab handfuls of water from Plum Creek.
After our visit to Plum Creek, the location of the Ingalls family's sod house, we went into the town of Walnut Grove and visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum. This museum had a lot of memorabilia from the Little House on the Prairie television series, which was based in Walnut Grove. I don't think the girls were that interested, but I found the old copies of TV Guide and People magazine with Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert to be entertaining. Cristina really liked the replica of the cabin from the show. She asked me to get it for her for Christmas.
Outside the museum were old jail cells from the town. I'm not really sure how it fits in with the Ingalls story, but Charlotte looked right at home in there!
Ella had fun playing with this old Little People farm. I vividly remember playing with this same farm when I was a kid. They just don't make them like they used to - choking hazards and all that jazz!
After Plum Creek, we headed back to De Smet to enjoy dinner around the campfire and walks around the property. I'm pretty sure this would have been the perfect picture of me and Ella if Brian hadn't put those hot dogs right in front of my face!
The scenery was so amazing. I really wished I had a better camera to capture the views. You could see for miles on the prairie. We stayed up late on our last night here and watched the stars come out. We scored major points with Emma and Charlotte for letting them stay up past bedtime.
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