Day 8: Laura Ingalls Wilder Tour

We toured Ingalls family sites in De Smet, SD, including the house that Pa built, the school that Laura attended, the Ingalls homestead near Silver Lake, and many family graves. During the tour, Willa's first loose tooth fell out in an original house where Laura lived! She was SO excited. The girls had a great time reenacting what life would have been like for Laura, seeing where she lived, and running around under the Cottonwood trees that Pa planted!

 

It was amazing learning about one horrible winter where they lived only on bread. They ground the wheat in these coffee mills. They ran out of fuel to burn so they burned straw knots. They barely survived.

Laura and Carrie attended school in this building!

We also visited the Ingalls Museum in Walnut Grove, MN, and the site of their dugout at Plum Creek. 

 This is Ma and Pa Ingalls.

Then we drove home! On this trip, we saw license plates from 35 states, plus Washington D.C. and three Canadian provinces. The girls collected the following stuffed animals: horse, buffalo, baby mountain lion, and mammoth.

Jia's favorite part of the trip was staying at our cabin. Willa's favorite things were losing her tooth in Laura's house and seeing the buffalo next to our cabin. I'm so glad they got to experience nature up close and that they enjoyed it so much!