Trip to Watertown and an empty nest

We just returned from a trip to Watertown, SD for a wedding reception. One of my old roommates (Shawn) was married in January and they had a reception for he and his new bride (Lori) in Shawn's hometown. Shawn was the owner of the trailer that he, Jeff, and I lived in for two years. Our "slum lord" as Jeff put it.

We drove from Longmont to Mitchell, SD last Friday. 10 and a half hours in the car. It was a nice drive. The country is very green, which was good to see. Kaylynn was a good traveller. She slept some, babbled and sang some, and watched a couple of movies. I don't know what our parents did before portable DVD players. They probably didn't drive for 10.5 hours in a single day for one thing. One of our stops was at a rest area/visitor center where I-90 crosses the Missouri River. This picture was taken at the overlook there. After getting to Mitchell and checking into our hotel we let Kaylynn loose in the pool. She had a good time getting all of that pent up energy out.

The next morning we headed for Watertown, which was about 2 hours away. After swinging by the Corn Palace (I'll spare you the pictures) just so we could say that we saw it we were back on the road. Kaylynn was a little leery of getting back in the car, but we promised her that it wouldn't be for as long as the day before and Grandpa and Grandma Vogt would be waiting for her when we got there. That helped. After we got to Watertown and checked into the hotel we decided to go see the Terry Redlin Museum. We are big fans of his work, so this was a nice treat and something that we knew we would make time for as soon as we found out we were heading this direction. It is a beautiful building, as you can see, and the paintings inside were amazing to look at.

He does such great work that really takes you to a simpler time and place. It was fun to find the original paintings of the prints we own and of the prints that we'd like to own (most all of them). Kaylynn thought it was neat for about 15 minutes, there were no Elmo or Barney or Wiggles pictures after all, so grandma took her outside to run around the park and look at the geese. Her comment was that there was goose poop everywhere.

The reception was that evening, which Jamie and I attended. Got to catch up with some friends, do some dancing, etc. It was a lot of fun and we were certainly glad that we made the trip.

We left on Sunday and here's where the nest became empty. Kaylynn went to Minneapolis to spend the week with her grandparents (only a 4 hour drive this time for her), while Jamie and I did the 11 and a half hour drive all the way back to CO by ourselves. The car was quiet and we found ourselves missing the noise that usually comes from the backseat. The house is very quiet too. It's weird when you're used to having her running around all the time. But, she's having a great time in Minnesota and we'll be seeing her in a few days. I don't think the cats are complaining about her being gone though.