Today, just for fun, we chose to attend church at the same location we had last week. Imagine that. Partly because Finn wouldn’t stop talking about “his teacher.” It was great! Then Deon had to finish up some work, and the kids had been begging to go to a water park we had passed (cheap-parks and rec). So while he worked, I took the kids. It was super fun, the water was warm, Jedi slept, so one less kid to…
We started our day off at badlands again. We hit up the visitors center to finish up our jr ranger badges and found an active fossil lab. Super cool. Can you guess which of my kids has aspirations to be an archaeologist? Next we headed to deadwood. We caught the shootout, which, honestly, isn’t worth rushing over for. And Deon nixed the gold mining, which frustrated me. But we ended up in spearfish, and had some great pizza, with…
Wall Drug. Yep, but I bet you just sang the Sesame Street song. Gotcha! Back in South Dakota. For miles there are signs advertising Wall Drug. It’s an enigma, an icon. And a little hard to describe. It was an old time drug store, and now it’s…the best tourist trap in the US? It has candy shops and cowboy art, a cafe to seat 530 and a South Dakota themed splash pad, an animated t-Rex and gold mining, a chapel…
Today we headed to scottsbluff national monument. This is a convergence of pioneer trails. The pioneers came thousands of miles through the same prairie scenery, so this was a welcome change of pace. Sandstone bluffs rose from the grasslands. (Little did they know they would soon see more than they wanted). Here is where our pioneer ancestors walked. Next, a site some of us had been waiting for, Carhenge. Nebraska is weird. Super cool though, both the story and…
Again, my inexperience with weather catches up to me…There is a severe heat advisory for 21 states right now. Nebraska, of course, is one of them. It was 108 degrees today. Ugh. We only made it to one national park, as we were sluggish in the heat. We hit Agate National Park. Super cool mammal fossils, and a hike to see some spiral burrow fossils in the hillside. And then, we went shopping. Because sometimes you need a break from…
Today, we were woken by cows. If you have never had this experience, you may not realize how LOUD cows are. I had no idea. I NEVER would have imagined. So, we are all up. Deon needed to work, and no internet access, so we drove to jewel cave national monument. Still no internet access, and no tickets for hours. So we secured tickets, and headed back out to Custer. We found a park so Deon could work and we…
Today was a crazy day! We had parked on forest service land, and Deon had some work to get done this morning before we headed out. So, I decided to take the kids on a geocaching hike. It is so beautiful here in the black hills. So, there is one super close. 1/10 of a mile away. So, we head out. It’s a really strenuous uphill, but we make it. Aunica is awesome holding Jedi’s hand the whole way up,…
We started out our Sunday morning with an early (ok, 8:15) wake up knock to ask if we were coming to church. Yep, hope you have room for us. That’s what we get for parking in the church parking lot! We had a wonderful experience this Sunday! It’s just a small branch, but the people we so kind and welcoming. Both my little boys went to class, so Deon and I could both go to class for the first time…
I know I’m not alone in this, am I? Sometimes we need a minute to adjust. Sometimes we need to blow off a little steam. There is one thing I know about my husband, as *awesome* as he is (and I really mean that), communication is NOT his strong point. It’s something he tries to work on, and something I know about him, and give him grace. But some moments are easier than others. So, I thought we would leave…
Today is our last day with the Ketchum girls. This is a hard day. We did start our day off at the pool again. I had a rough night with the baby, so I stayed in the hotel room and took a bath. We packed up and headed to Deadwood. The kids watched a reenactment of the shooting of wild Bill Hickok, while I was on the phone with the airline getting details sorted out. Then we went to the…