South Dakota

We decided to take a quick trip before school starts next week, so we thought we would take advantage of our proximity to Mt. Rushmore while we still live here. We took off pretty early Thursday morning and went up through Torrington and Lusk because Joel and I have never been on a lot of the roads over through there. The kids did pretty well, and by the time we got to South Dakota we were ready to have some fun! The first place we stopped was Wind Cave...

This is a picture of Boxwork, one of the main attractions in Wind Cave. 95% of the boxwork in the world is in Wind Cave. It was a very interesting tour. There are 132 miles of discovered cave, with more being discovered all the time. They did the classic cave thing where they turn out all the lights so it is completely dark with no light at all. The guide told everyone to turn off their cameras and watches and anything with a light on it, then as he was walking over to flip the switch he saw Will's shoes. He said, "Uh oh, put him in the back or something." Will's shoes are Lightning McQueen, with glow in the dark eyes! Ha! Joel picked him up and tried to hide his shoes, so they didn't ruin the experience. :)

After Wind Cave we continued on to Custer and checked in to our hotel. We weren't disappointed there, thank goodness. After settling in we went out to dinner, which was....... an interesting experience. :) Adam was being absolutely crazy! We couldn't put anything within his reach, unless we wanted it thrown all over the place! I won't include all of the details of the restaurant, but by the time we were done with dinner Joel and I almost couldn't stop laughing because things were just so ridiculous.

After dinner we went swimming at the hotel, and I think that was probably the kids favorite part. :) We bought some floaty toys so we wouldn't have to hold the kids all of the time since it's a deep pool. I'm sad I didn't get any pictures, because we all really had a ton of fun in the pool.

Friday morning we headed over to the main attraction, Mt. Rushmore. Here it is... :)

In a tepee...

We had a nice time walking along the trail, seeing a wild goat, checking out the visitor's center, and running around. I am the only one of our family that has been there before, and that was when I was quite young. So it was kind of like the first time for us all, and it was a good time.

After Mt. Rushmore we went to Keystone, which is only 2 miles away. We went to the alpine slide that they have there. If anyone has been down an alpine slide before, you will know that they are pretty fun! This was another first for us all. We had planned to have Jenna ride down with me, but they prefer that children over 6 ride by themselves. After some pep talking and reassuring, she did ride down on her own sled and Will rode with Joel. (Adam couldn't go, he is too young) No pictures of the slide, unfortunately.

After the slide we really didn't have anything else planned for the day, so after lunch in Keystone we headed back to Custer to let the kids rest. Adam had a nice nap, and the rest of us just layed low. Later that afternoon we went to the mini-golf course that was across the street from our hotel.

We ALL had a great time with the mini golf. I was especially pleased with my hole-in-one shot! However, I made up for that on the holes that took me a good 10 shots (or more!) to make it in! Joel hit his ball in the water once (luckily just in a little stream and not the large pool they had!), and Will banked his over into the parking lot. The whole thing was a hoot!

After dinner that evening we went swimming again, and again had a great time. We had a yellow inflatable sled type thing that Will could hold on to and kick around the pool, and he loved that. Adam liked the yellow sled as well, so we had to do some trading back and forth. Jenna had a great time practicing her swimming and cannonballs. :)

When we left this morning the kids were wishing that we could stay "for just one more day". I think what they really wanted to stay for was the swimming pool. :) We had an uneventful trip home. We stopped shortly in Cheyenne to do some last minute shopping for some clothes and shoes for school. It was nice to get home, as always. It was a fun quick trip that we all enjoyed. Hopefully we'll be able to have more of these little trips!