The last of the Rushmore pics....

Here the men are hanging out around the fire, while we went off and showered! Good to see they got some bonding time in.Our second day, we went to a chairlift/alpine slide in Keystone which had a great overlook of Mount Rushmore. Scott and Camille on the way up...

Future Presidents...The top also provided many photo opportunity with the grandparents and grandkids!

Tyson and I ready to head down the slide... The we headed over to a [free] Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, consisting of life size, conrete dinosaurs that were a little ghetto but the boys thought they were really cool. Score!Our next free excursion took us to a park called Storybook Island, where they had tons of displays based off of Disney movies, cartoons, Nursery Rhymes...everything.
Tyson was in heaven and ran from one thing to the next.We came back to rest a little, while my parents did some more exploring up to Deadwood and Sturgis. Camille was a little hesitant when Luke took her, but he worked his magic powers and had her melting into sleep in no time.

That night we packed up and headed off to the lighting ceremony of Mount Rushmore. When we sat down, they told us they were going to hurry the session along to try and beat the storm that was coming. We looked around and didn't notice any storm in the sky. When they started showing the little film, these dark clouds crept towards us along with a tiny little sprinkle and lightning in the distance. We headed back up the stairs to make a quick exit if needed. They soon played the national anthem and slowly the lights came on. When the final notes of the song played, the rain started POURING and the wind picked up BIG time!! Every started screaming and running for the cars which were down a long path away. Mass chaos! Then the hail started coming!! I threw Tyson in the stroller (Camille was asleep back at the campground with Luke and 3 of Kristin's kids) and Scott took off fast pushing him and weaving in and out of people towards the car. I took off after him leaving behind Kristin and Tanner (her son) and my parents to fend for themselves (again, I'm sorry) I took a lot of grief for it but I was trying to catch Scott and Tyson and figured everyone knew where the car was. We all made it to the car SOAKED to the bone and laughing hysterically!! Funny memory for sure! Morning of Departure!

We had to get a picture of all the crew in front of our shared cabin. It was cozy but fit all our needs and I think for the most part we all slept well. With the exception of my early rising kids.The co-chairs of the planning committee needed a picture of their own of course. We did good sister!! And one last shot of the family before we left. We are looking a little tired and dirty, but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! Too bad our kids won't remember such a fun trip, but at least there are lots of pictures!

Now that all these are finally journaled, I can move on to other posts about our everyday life here at home and our new big purchase! (sorry about all the weird spacing..I can't seem to fix it)

Vacation Time!

This past weekend, we headed off to South Dakota to visit Mount Rushmore and all the surrounding attractions. My sister and co-planner of this vacation and her family went with us along with our parents. I've been looking forward to this for months! So our first day, while the weater was nice, we headed off to the mountain, only 12 miles from our campground.

State flags leading up to Mount Rushmore. Very cool. (Scott's in there too)Camille was a tired girl and eventually fell asleep. She wore a bib a lot of the weekend because she is quite the drooler. Tired boy Meltdown #1Meltdown #2He's happy again. Love the moods of a 3 year old. He happened to just be climbing rocks when I snagged this picture. I love how it turned out. It was a very fun start to our trip. I loved seeing such a cool monument.

Excursion #2

Our next stop on day 1, was through the Needles Highway where we went through 3 tunnels that are very narrowly cut through the mountain. One tunnel was surrounded by lots of cool rocks that the boys loved to hike around. The eye of the needle: This particular tunnel was 8'4" wide and 12' tall. We could touch the rock outside our car window. The family: Next, we went through the wildlife loop to view some buffalo and antelope. There were a couple herds right next to the road. I loved this part of the trip.
Toward the end of the loop there were some donkeys on the side of the road which I thought was random but stopped to take a picture anyways... (I was driving at this point) All of the sudden, one came over and stuck his head inside the car! I was flipping out and started to roll up my window but everyone said to keep it down. He was just sniffing around (notice the 2nd donkey looking suspicious) Then there were 2 donkey heads in my car. This was the drivers side and you can see how far I was leaning away from these guys. I don't think I can quite capture the sounds I was making while trying to avoid their mouths. We laughed about it all the way back to our cabin.We made a quick stop at Crazy Horse Memorial. I thought it was a waste of money. Only because you pay a lot of money to get in and you still don't get a close up of the monument. You had to look through binoculars to get a good view of it. And its only the profile. Now, the first weekend in June they let people hike all the way up to it which might have been cool, but we had just barely missed it. Tyson and Camille sharing the stroller, but not for long, don't worry.I thought we'd better document that we went there at least!