Back in September, actually September 18th, one month ago we took a little family trip out to Walnut Grove., Jason mentioned it out of the blue and we had no plans for the weekend so we took a day trip. I've read the books so many times and we've also read the series to Piper two or three times already so it seemed fitting that we visit. I think we picked the coldest day to go, it was in the upper 40's. We should have waited a couple more weeks until it was 80 degrees again.
Doing the silly tourist thing
The girls got an up close view of a train rolling through town.
I wish I climbed in with them, Piper was surprised by how small the wagon was. I guess I kind of was too, from the TV series it seemed so big.
This was probably the funniest moment of our day, we drove by some sod house replicas outside of town and Piper took one look and said "what a dump". Jason and I couldn't contain ourselves. She was really confused and thought the top of the corn was the ground, she said it's so short Mom, they must have had to crawl through their houses. We probably should have stopped so she could have gone in them.
At the museum, they have small replica type houses set up on the grounds that you can tour, it was pretty cute!
There was a collection of 1800's dolls, the girls spent quite a while checking those out.
School Master Kocina calling his pupils to attention.
Piper really soaked up the experience, I could see her imagining stories from the book.
I was actually surprised by how much attention they paid to the musuem part, of course it was short lived but they really took an interest in a lot of the pictures and artifacts. Reagan took notice of some old pennies they had in a display case and was really upset that she couldn't claim them.
The musuem has been visited by many of the TV series cast members including Melissa Gilbert (Laura).
We did our own recreation of the photo from above in front of the fireplace.
In the church, I had her sit as still as she could as Laura wasn't allowed to fidgit.
Inside a sod house, Piper was still surprised by how small everything was.
I think I want one of these jails for our yard, it would be a nice time for time outs, I mean a nice playhouse of course.
See, playhouse, look how much fun they are having.
The wildflowers were really pretty, not that there are many flowers in these pictures.
After the museum we drove out to Plum Creek where the Ingalls' original sod house was actually located. The people who own the land didn't realize they had this piece of history until someone contacted them (I don't remember the year) and told them. They were very gracious to restore much of their land to the original prairie grasses and open it up to visitors who wanted to come walk the property. I can only imagine how many cars they have driving through their driveway each year.
Standing by Plum Creek looking at the owner's farm, it was very pretty.
Last but not least, the mound of dirt and depression that once was Laura's house. If I owned the land I would want to conduct an archeological dig to see if there are any old artifacts burried down there, you never know, it would be cool.
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