Eichten family: South Dakota Trip

During MEA break, we took a trip to South Dakota. We left on Tuesday night and spent a night with Grandma in Wabasso. On Wednesday, we went to the Pipestone National Monument (where they quarry for pipestone to be used in peace pipes) and then headed the rest of the way to Sioux Falls. We spent a couple of nights in a hotel where the kids enjoyed swimming, and we also visited a science museum. We spent a morning at Falls park and had fun looking at the waterfalls. We went to the top of an observation tower so we were able to see the whole park - it was a pretty cool sight. Here are some of the pictures from different parts of the trip:

Ron and the kids at Pipestone Monument:

The kids lead the way on the trail in Pipestone:

Ron and I in front of the waterfall at Pipestone:

The kids at Pipestone:

Wind Turbines outside of Pipestone - there was a long line of these and it looked pretty cool to see them all together:

Tyler thought it was cool to have a town in MN named after him :)

At the science museum they had this exhibit where a ball in the sand made a whole bunch of designs. The kids (Mom and Dad too) had fun looking at it and seeing what the next design was going to be:

The kids helped Ron build the block bridge and thought it was cool how it stood up on it's own after being put together:

One floor of the museum was dedicated to a bunch of interactive exhibits and we spent most of the day on this floor. The boys had a really good time playing dance, dance revolution, the wheelchair races, seeing how fast they could run, the rock wall. They had two favorite exhibits: the animation computer and the interactive computer that put you on the screen during a sports event. The boys created the following video at the animation station. You put a "scene" down and take a picture. Then you move/add props/animals into the scene and take another picture and keep doing this until you have the scene you want. I think the limit was 100 pictures and the boys did about 83. The museum wasn't very crowded, I think we saw about 15 people all day, so they were able to spend as much time at each exhibit as they wanted which was great.

Tyler and Nicholas on the rock wall:

Here's the exhibit where you stand in front of a green screen and they put you into the sports scene on the computer. You look pretty silly doing it but it was fun to try and block the shots or get the ball to go where you wanted it to go. If I remember right the choices were basketball, hockey goalie, soccer goalie and volleyball. I tried to upload a video from this exhibit, but the computer keeps freezing up so I will try again later, but here's a picture for now: