Over the River and Through the Woods...

...to Grandmother's house, we go.

I didn't mean to go so long between posts, but I've been pretty busy lately. Cody and I just got back from Sioux Falls, SD. We drove up there Thursday for a long weekend to visit my grandmother. I haven't seen her in at least 13 years so it was nice to finally be able to visit. We drove 14 looong hours to get there and the same to get back last night. Needless to say, we're pretty exhausted.

28 weeks baby bump

We got to do a little bit of sight seeing during the couple of days that we were there. Falls Park was a really neat area to explore. It was so pretty! The Sioux River and its falls cut right through the middle of the park and was surrounded by fun rocks to climb on. Good thing neither of us fell in the water while we were hiking along the rocks because that water was freezing! I will say, I think I did pretty darn good for a lady carrying a basketball in her belly.

That was most of the sight-seeing that we did. Aside from that and visiting with my grandmother, we did some shopping, eating, and of course, took a chilly stroll around their local zoo. I really wish we could've spent more time in South Dakota, but maybe we'll be able to go back soon. 

Road Trip (Part 1)

This is the kind of trip I never really thought I'd go on. I've always wanted to take a road trip across the country. So, I was beyond excited when Cody told me I'd be able to go and help out! The actual reason for this cross-country venture was to shoot a documentary style video in Yakima Valley, WA for a client of the Mabus Agency. The trip took ten days and we traveled a total of 6,250 miles! Yes, that's a whole lot of driving, but we definitely made tons of stops along the way. This post is for the first three days that we drove up to Washington.

Not a lot happened between Mississippi and South Dakota. There just isn't really any reason to stop... at least not on the route we took. Once we got to South Dakota, though, we made a couple stops. One being in the awesome (and scary if you're afraid of heights) Badlands. The road basically led us to the top at first, so we got out and walked across an extremely narrow rock path to peer down the cliff. Heights just aren't my cup of tea. I tried not to think about it and just walk quickly across, look down, take some pictures, and get back on safe ground! Then, as we continued down the road, it took us into the rocks where we could climb around and it wasn't so scary.

After driving a little ways further in South Dakota, we visited Mt. Rushmore. It had just rained which made the presidents look like they were crying or had some major allergy problems. 

After South Dakota, we traveled into Wyoming and made a quick stop at this crazy looking rock formation called Devil's Tower. It's about a million miles high and just completely, randomly in the middle of nowhere. I'd like to see someone climb that! Actually, I think some really do. Crazy people. 

That sunset! Oh my. It doesn't get much prettier than that.

We crossed a couple more state lines on the third day before finally getting to Washington. Our plan was to spend most of the fourth day exploring Seattle before driving to Yakima that night. More on that in the next post.

These really awesome, old trucks were in some small town outside of Spokane, I think. I can't remember what town, but they were too neat to pass up. This area of Washington and some of Idaho seemed to go back in time. Not just with the trucks, but with clothing styles and music, too. We even saw groups of people playing hacky sack! I had no idea that still existed, but kudos to those who are keeping it alive! 

I can't wait to show Baby Hickman these pictures and tell him/her the story one day. I hope he/she cares and thinks I'm cool.