First,

we saw the official escorts, the sheriff and State Troopers, then came the three buses followed by about 200 motorcyclists, probably the Patriot Guard. Thank you for serving and protecting. Then we went home and read the Constitution because it was Constitution Day.

Friday morning

the SD National Guard 211th from Madison was returning home after a year in Afghanistan. The buses would drive a prescribed route through town and the townspeople were asked to line the streets to welcome them home. We headed toward town but our volunteer firefighters and some others from our tiny town were at the intersection of our Avenue and the highway into town. So we joined them there!

Afterwards,

the girls traded silly bandz and C was just plain silly.

Scavenger Hunt

We went to the nearby state park with our home school group for a fall scavenger hunt. We took pictures or made notes of the items we found so as not to disturb the plants and animals in the park. Well, except for C's new best friend, the toad who hiked quite a distance with us until we found his "cousins". Oh, and the crab apples we ate.

Random Photos

from the resort property. If you look closely to the left of the closed butterfly you can see a ladybug!

The lovely

resort where we stayed and the view from our balcony( if you look real close you can see the lake).

I had to share the beach only with the ducks,

geese and seagulls.