Six-State Road Trip: part two

Our Grand Forks days were great! Tanya and I covered all the bases for our preferred brand of fun: frog-catching, tree-climbing, ice cream on the front steps, ukulele sing-alongs, and homemade cookies. The kids got along pretty well, especially outdoors, and were super photogenic. Between the summer foliage and the shining red and yellow hair, these photos are precious.

We spent one day at Turtle River State Park, where we all waded in the muddy river and caught frogs to our hearts' content. We had bucketfuls! We even made bank-side pools for the critters so that Harry could observe them more closely, though he cried every time they hopped away.

Catch that frog!

On one of our final days, we had a lovely day in park with this amazing Birch 'family tree' just calling out to be photographed. 

The princess and the frog

Never underestimate the importance of sunscreen

We then wandered down to the river, getting buried in mucky mud up to our ankles, to look for more frogs. We found a few, to Harry's delight.

The beautiful reds!

The cute blondies!

Ah, the mamas.

Eventually, we were on our way back to Brookings again for our last few days. An afternoon at the kids' museum, adventures on the bike trail, an array of interesting musical instruments, and some old reel-to-reel movies created a memorable end to our trip.

In the kids' museum

The famous T-Rex

Just like old times

On the bike trail

Picnicking

Have you ever played a didgeridoo? 

Practicing on the Kyrgyz mouth harp, the ooz komuz.

Grandpa dug out the reel-to-reel films of Tanya and me as young kids, which the boys loved watching. Misha was fascinated with the inner workings of the machine and tried to create his own.

Onto the show!

Young Tanya and me with Papa

Young Tanya and me with Mom

All too soon, it was time to drive home again. Luckily, we were warmly welcomed back by Kent and Connie in Oklahoma to make our trip a little easier. We spent the night, and in the morning we got a wonderful tour of their land - by Gator.

Pecan trees

I have many more beautiful photos from our first visit to Kent and Connie's, but due to an inopportune glitch in my photo drive, I cannot access them. However, the kids (and me!) were delighted to get the chance to milk real goats and watch them prance around their pens. We even got to try goat's milk, as well as Connie's secret pancake recipe.

Somewhere in southern Oklahoma, we stopped at this scenic overlook 

and then we kept on going until we were home. Josh was happy to see us!