Pedal Pull Nationals 2010

September 24th & 25th...

Jared qualified for the Pedal Pull Nationals in Mitchell, SD so the four of us hit the road Friday afternoon. We left Morgan with the grandmas... much easier for everyone and the grandmas enjoy getting to spoil her. Here's a recap of our mini vacation.

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Driving through Windom... the flooded ball park and football field. It was almost gone by the time we came back the next day.

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More flooding along the way...

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Chloe HAD to have the big pop all to herself while they watched a movie (there was only a few sips left but she held onto it for quite a while). I love how comfy she looks with her feet crossed.

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And of course Jared had to have his picture taken since I took one of Chloe. Check out those pipes! (He was hot so he took his shirt off... but he has his massive blanket on his lap... what a goon)

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We made it to the hotel before 4 and hit the pool right away.

The pirate ship in the water park at the hotel...

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Water fight!

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Chloe thought the water was too cold so she just had Keith carry her everywhere. She preferred splashing Daddy from this fountain thing. And she liked dipping her toes in the hot tub. She mostly just watched all of the crazy kids.

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The water slide was the highlight for Jared. He went down it over and over until they closed the pool at 10pm. Then he was bummed to find out it didn't open until 9am (the same time we needed to be at the Pull for registration).

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SO much fun!!!

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We took a break from the pool so that we could go eat and check out Cabela's (right down the road). Keith thought I was a dork for whipping out the camera but I told him no one knows us so who cares! ;) Chloe's new thing is making the bear sound so she was doing that to the big polar bear... Too cute!

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Jared was a little leery but we convinced him that they were all definitely dead.

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Mocking the massive catfish...
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We had to make sure we knew where we were going in the morning so we drove past the Corn Palace. It looked pretty neat all lit up.

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Jared was pretty pooped out from all of the swimming so Chloe decided she would help wake him up by bouncing on his chest.

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The kids got to sit on some of the pedal tractors before it started

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This is what Jared's might look like someday

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I thought they had a mini rod on display until I walked over and actually looked inside... it's a pedal tractor!

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One of the trophy tables (there were 2). He REALLY wanted one to take home.

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Jared's class (from 11 states!)

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He's next! Look at that face... gotta love how excited he got!

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I took this while I was videoing so it's a little blurry. I was chanting, "Go Jared go, go Jared go!"

Jared placed 7th out of 22! He didn't get a trophy so he was pretty bummed about that but he did beat the kids from MN that beat him at the State Pull so that was good!

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The top 5 in his class. The little guy on the left got 1st with a full pull! He would've been the last one I would've picked to do that well.

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Keith took a picture of me with the kids... see us standing by the street light?
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Jared was still bumming that he didn't get a trophy and Chloe didn't want to get out of the stroller so this pic cracks me up. We're on vacation, people... this is supposed to be FUN! =)

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There was a car show going on right in front of the Corn Palace so we strolled around checking it out. There were Hot Rods and Rat Rods and everything in between. Jared really liked this particular Rat Rod.

All in all... we had a great time and are really glad we went. If he makes it again next year I'd like to make more of a trip out of it and maybe go to the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore. We'll have to see how harvest goes... ya just never know! It worked out really well this time because of all of the rain. We got over 5" at our place so the fields were way too wet to even try anything. It was nice that Keith wasn't in a big hurry to get back so we were able to take our time and enjoy!