My siblings and I recently took a road trip to visit relatives in South Dakota and Wyoming. On Saturday, we went to Spearfish, SD, to visit our grandfather. On the way, we decided to shop for purses (for me, since my purse was covered in stinky gasoline... see previous post) and knickknacks (for SundanceKid, my brother, and ChangelingChild, my sister). However, nothing was open. This baffled us, because it was 9:45 on a Saturday. Surely, some shops would be open! But alas! No. We had to wait until 10AM... apparently everything opened at 10AM in Spearfish. So we decided to walk around downtown for 15 minutes until stuff opened. So we walked the entire downtown and back in 15 minutes (downtown Spearfish is maybe 5 blocks long). On the corner was a Little Free Library. True to Western US tradition, there was a children's book about cowboys, which I took to give to WildBoy and WildGirl.
We passed a shop that looked very promising. It had weird stuff in the store window... such as a Jesus toast and some funny decorations.
When the shops opened, we first went into a pawn shop and mosey'd around, and ChangelingChild bought a weird game called Sneak King. Then, we went back to the shop that had the cool things and looked around. I found a purse and a cute but incomprehensible shirt.
SundanceKid found the perfect mug for him and his coffee. (It said, "Fuck Face"). I also got some yummy orange spice lip balm. For anyone visiting Spearfish, SD, I would highly recommend "The Junk Drawer" for awesome and quirky items.
After shopping, we went to visit Grandpa.
After that, we went shopping (again!) at Walmart. Going into a Walmart is so fun with New Yorkers. They are not used to cheap stuff, so they are like kids in a candy store.
SundanceKid immediately proceeded to try on all the things.
ChangelingChild bought a Steven Universe blind bag. Honestly, going shopping with my siblings is remarkably similar to shopping with my kids. Go figure!
On Sunday, my aunt and tiny, adorable cousins came over and we built a snowman!
Well, actually, we TRIED to build a snowman. It came out as more of a... snow phallus.
So, to fix that problem, we decided to make it into a snow woman. My aunt gave her a very... unique... face, I gave her curves, ChangelingChild gathered snow and finishing touches, and the tiny cousins found branches and rocks for her arms and face.
The cousins were very enamored with our snow woman. Maybe a little too enamored. Tiniest Cousin went up and put his hand on her breast. Little Cousin, his brother, was very amused and said, "Take your hand off her protrusions!" Protrusions? Well, OK. All the adults laughed at that. Tiniest Cousin, undeterred, started rubbing her breast, and said, in his sweetest 7 year old voice, "She's so beautiful!" All the adults were laughing uproariously by this point.
SundanceKid made our snow woman a snow baby and a snow dog, and then we had a wonderfully fun snowball fight.
SundanceKid had to go see the real Sundance Kid statue that's in Sundance, WY. Because, Sundance. So, of course we had to take silly pictures with it.
Early Monday morning, we had to head back to the Twin Cities and get back to real life.
But on the drive back, we saw some gorgeous views. No matter where I live, South Dakota will always feel like home. I was born there, I grew up there. When I want to connect to my roots, I go back and visit. There's something very rugged and comforting in the rolling hills and the endless horizons.
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