Storybook Island

We didn't do a whole lot of touristy stuff during our lovely ten days in the Black Hills.  Having spent the first 12 years of my life there I'll never really consider myself a tourist.  It may not be exactly home any more, but I'm still at least partly a native.  That being said, there are some really great touristy things to do (even for the natives).  One of our newly discovered old favorites is Storybook Island in Rapid City.

I've been waiting and waiting (okay, only for 2 1/2 years) for Michael to be old enough to enjoy Storybook Island.  It's a free park themed around--you guessed it--stories.  Nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and a little bit of Disney thrown in for good (or not so good) measure, etc.

Most of the pictures from the day (all photo credits to my dad) look like this... 

...and this...

...and this...

not as angry as I look, promise

...as I tried to get a very busy and energetic M to stop and pose for a picture so I could relive my childhood (and get a great blog post out of it).  He was too busy running everywhere and enjoying the park in his own way, imagine that.  But despite the lack of total cooperation Dad did get some great shots.

okay, he didn't take this one--obviously someone else did... but it was his camera so he still gets credit

my handsome pirate men

Michael's second cousins, Katie and Emily, came with us.  We all enjoyed their company, and my goodness was it nice to have someone a little smaller to chase after Michael through the child-sized spaces!

Here is Emily going down the slide in the house that Jack built...

And here I am going down the same slide about a quarter of a century earlier.  The house has had a couple coats of paint since then, and obviously safety standards have changed a bit.

When Michael saw this picture he was convinced it was a picture of him, and we had quite the conversation before he acknowledged it wasn't Mitenal, it was Yittle Mama (we'll go with it).

I tried desperately to get Michael to give Pooh a kiss so I could post these pictures together.  I guess he wanted to be more like Aunt Dene'...

I finally decided to take whatever I could get, and it wasn't worth ruining Michael's fun at the park just to get my perfect little blog pictures.

He did end up cooperating for the picture I wanted most of all...

Two and a half year old Michael...

Three year old Mama...

It doesn't get much sweeter than this :)

The park was definitely smaller than I remembered... Alex took great pleasure in reminding me that I was the one who had gotten bigger.  Yes, thank you dear.  Michael was just the right size to enjoy a lot of it, although I think he may have ended up feeling rather like Gimli at Helm's Deep:

By the by... does any else think it extremely cruel to name a bear who lost his home and family in a fire "Smokey"?  That never occurred to me as a child... but seriously folks.

The highlight of the morning for Michael was undoubtedly the train ride.

we even wore our Thomas shirt... how appropriate

That was our Storybook Island adventure.  Liam cooperated by sleeping pretty much the entire time while Grandma graciously did laps around the park with the stroller.  Coming next summer: pictures of both of them playing :)