cat named pig

Sioux Falls happens to be within excellent road trip distance from Minneapolis: the drive is long enough to feel like you’ve really gotten away wish you were dead because the kids won’t stop asking if we are there yet OMG I thought that was a just a comic strip cliché I didn’t think kids really said this WHY DID I HAVE CHLDREN? But it’s not too far to drive for a weekend visit with friends. (If said friends have to insist on living there, and not here in Minneapolis where we think they belong.)

Anyway, the friends in question — Sara, Ryan, and Siena’s BFF Avery, of blue-painted-butt fame — moved to Sioux Falls in June and got a dog named Bindy shortly thereafter. Which means that pretty much every day since June, Siena has asked me, “Mama, what do you think Avery and Bindy are doing right now?”

In other words, we had to get out there to visit them.

The trip was perfect, aside from the drive*. The kids played, Bindy tolerated all of their “affection,” Matt and Ryan watched sports and Sara and I drank wine and said things we thought were funny. Pretty much the usual for all of us. Oh, and there was food. Lots of it. We ate ourselves silly and then had more snickerdoodles, just because they were there.

BFFs and hat models.

At the actual falls of Sioux Falls. Matt and Ryan were back at the house watching sports while Elliot napped. I guess the World Series was on or something.

…..

* I’m not even kidding about the “Are we there yet?” business. We pulled into the parking lot to get cash from the ATM five blocks from our house, and Elliot clapped his hands in excitement and asked, “Are we in SOUF DATOTA NOW?” OK, so that one was funny, but when he and Siena had repeated that question a billion times each, it became less amusing.