The one with the final leg home

On Sunday, we said good bye to the hotel and Sioux Falls. This probably saddened Eleanor. She had really grown to like our Suite. She liked the two rooms, the closet, the toilet to play in (ahhhh!), she had taken her first stand up shower, and she climbed over all the furniture that she could... the footstools, the chairs, whatever she could!

We packed up and headed to Granite City for their breakfast buffet. Eleanor was midly interested in the food but I always enjoy their caramel rolls. Matt had a special omelet made - he enjoyed the alfresco breakfast.

Afterwards, we went to the aquarium and the butterfly house. The aquarium was a little lack luster but eventually she got the hang of seeing the fish in the water. We had a little with the touch/feel exhibit but the highlight of the excursion was the butterfly house. All three of us thoroughly enjoyed it. There were so many butterflies and they'd attach to you and fly around. There were also little birds running around. All Eleanor kept doing was pointing when she spotted them!

We left there, fueled up and headed north to Fargo. We did have a stop in Watertown at the Terry Redlin musuem. I had seen it once before but Matt hadn't. We wandered all three floors of the exhibits and I also scoured the place for a changing station... with no luck.

We got back on the road just in time to hit a storm at Sisseton before getting to Janice's house for the night. Eleanor had had a tough day so supper was a bit rough that night and she headed to bed early. That gave the adults time to talk that night.

After breakfast, lunch, and a gab session the next day, we headed back home. We didn't have too much trouble with our little passenger until we were about 40 miles out of Bismarck, At that time, I was required to move to the back to keep her company. I think she'd been sick of all the car time and all the miles. I will say, I thought she was a real trooper for the trip!

When we got to Janice's there was all sorts of teddy bears on the floor.
Janice: Will she think these are okay to play with?
EER picks up bear, hugs it, takes it Janice.
Janice takes it.
EER walks back to pile, picks up dog, hugs it, takes it to Janice, chattering the entire time.
Janice takes it.
EER walks back to pile.
Janice: What is she doing?
ALR: She's playing, she likes it.
EER trades small bear for large bear with Janice. Continues on.
Janice: How long will she do it?
MJR: Oh, you could have this for the next 30 minutes.
EER turns around points at dog in Janice's lap and chatters on.

The Tuesday after we got home, Matt and I went to work, Eleanor went to daycare. This was the picture we got midway through the day... she couldn't even make it through lunch. Vacays are rough.

ALR: Did you have a good time? Are you glad we went?
MJR: yeah, but...
ALR: Yeah, but what
MJR: It's not the same traveling we used to do.
ALR stares at him
ALR: You can't be serious... were you expecting it to be similar?
MJR: It was just harder.
ALR: Harder? What do you mean?
MJR throws hands up in the air: you and I had one bag, that we shared, together... she had 6 and a cooler!!