Checking Things Out

With Daddy in his final year of medical training (this is year ten, post college, if you've lost count!), it is time to start checking out our options for the next step. We've been talking about where we'd like to live/would consider living for a long time, and it feels exciting and a bit scary to finally be able to focus on that. Last week, we took a little road trip and headed west about 4 hours to Sioux Falls, SD to check out a private practice group. We had heard great things about Sioux Falls, and it fit our criteria of a mid-sized Midwestern city with good schools, low crime, low-stress commute, etc. You get the idea, and could probably sense a pattern if you thought about our current and previous home locations in Lawrence, Columbia, and Rochester. We decided to take Jilly along for the ride, so that she and I could visit SD for the first time ever together (OK, that's not the real reason we took her, but it sounds nice doesn't it?). The radiology group set us up with a very nice suite in a great hotel, which meant Jilly had her own room to sleep and that Matt and I weren't forced to go to sleep when she did. We were also very blessed to have some old friends graciously offer to keep Jillian so that I could accompany Matt to the post interview dinner with the staff and their spouses. I worked with Kelly in Columbia several years ago while her husband was in residency there, and they have since relocated to Sioux Falls. Jillian had a fantastic time with their 3 kids, and it was fun to reconnect. A HUGE thank you to the Dierks family for keeping our wild one late on a Friday night!
Just before we left, Jilly accompanied Matt on a quick trip to buy a new pair of pants (or to "buy Daddy pants" as she has been talking about ever since). She did not return empty-handed. Daddy kindly let her pick out her very own travel bag. Here she is packing to go...

While Daddy was interviewing all day on Friday, Jilly and I had the job of scoping out the town of Sioux Falls. And just what, I ask you, is more important than the quality of a mall? I think that says a lot about a town, so we hit the stores after a leisurely breakfast at Panera, where Jillian nearly ate an entire adult-sized bagel with cream cheese (I hid the last quarter of it, in fear of the inevitable constipation that would probably ensue from that much bread in her little system!) We gave the mall two thumbs up after seeing that it had all the necessary stores. Jilly especially enjoyed Spencer's (no, I don't usually shop there, but I was lured inside by some Elmo backpacks in the front of the store)...she giggled at all the little lights floating around the room.

After the mall, we headed to The Butterfly House to check out a local attraction. It was a beautiful, tropical indoor garden full of busy butterflies fluttering about. I was a bit nervous as we entered because the lady (after taking my money) said, "Watch where she steps and don't let her touch any of them!" I wasn't sure we'd escape without causing harm, but Jillian was great after I taught her to blow the butterflies kisses instead of touching them. Here she examines a bush for butterflies. Can you find the 2 in this picture? (hint: one is yellow/black, the other is brown)

Though she succeeded in not harming any butterflies, she did seem bound and determined to leave the path for greater exploration. I did my best to keep her out of the mud/plants...

..and from jumping off the bridge into the water. She tried climbing it, squeezing between the rails, and even lay down on the bridge to try and fit underneath.

We soon headed for lunch and thankfully, a nap. After staying up hours past her bedtime for two nights straight, she melted down Saturday morning on our real estate tour. We attempted to look at 5 houses, and thought Jilly would enjoy roaming about them. She did not. After two houses worth of some pretty major fussing, we made the executive decision to keep her in the car watching Elmo while we looked at the houses in shifts. Not ideal, but it sufficed. We took a quick stroll through downtown before eating at a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant (with cranky pants still not happy) and then hit the road for home. Thankfully, we got a short bit of respite when Jilly finally zonked out for a short hour. Nothing melts my heart like a sleeping babe.

Jilly was so out of sorts from the travels by the time we got home, that we put her to bed at 6 p.m.....without a bit of protest.