Vacation - week 1 (July 16-24)

July 24 - We all left our cabins, and the 6 of us started our 2nd week of vacation which I'll post another day.




July 23 (Friday) Randy golfed in the morning with Bob, Joe and Renee. While Alex, Max, Sophia and Henry went with Aunt Coco, Uncle Chris, and Kelli to Bear Country and Reptile Gardens. I think everyone had fun golfing and I know everyone loved Bear Country and Reptile Gardens from our family. In the afternoon Randy and I (the kids were still on their adventure) went on a scenic drive with Margaret, Bob, Dale, Audry, and Madison. You'll see we saw some wildlife on our drive. It was nice.







July 22 (Thursday)- The day started with most of our entire group visiting Devil's Tower. Then we split up, Aunt Coco and Aunt Donna were nice enough to take our 3 oldest so Randy, Henry, Sara, Eric, Oliver, Margaret and I could go to Aladdin, WY. Population of 15.The General Store/Gas Station/Bar/Antique Store had no running water - so we used the pump out back to rinse sippy cups. And although there was no water there was a lady who was nice enough to let us follow her until we got to the place to turn to see the old coal tippery. How would we know when to turn? The lady would stick her arm out the window! Then we visited the geographical center of the United States. Which was 13 miles out from Belle Fouche, SD in a cow pasture, which we had to go through a barb wire fence to get to and was marked by an official marker on the ground and an American flag. It was so fun! And beautiful. We thought a lot of Cletus, thinking he would probably have enjoyed our trek out to the Center of the USA. We stopped for a bite to eat at Hardee's and saw a drag queen, who was not trying very hard to fool anybody. We ended the day thinking of Cletus again and saw the laser show at Crazy Horse.




July 21 (Wednesday) - We visited Crazy Horse - it was amazing, and very interesting.
In the afternoon we went on a train ride, there were quite a few stressful moments for the 6 of us - our kids were grumpy, tired, hungry or a combination of that. But it wasn't all stressful, there were some smiley moments, too.


July 20 (Tuesday) -We saw Mt. Rushmore - very cool! Went to a place called Cosmos, a house built on a hill in such a way it creates a lot of optical illusions - was a very fun and silly stop. Alex was a good sport and participated a lot in the demonstrations.




July 19 (Monday) - In the morning Alex and Randy took the hike with a lot of Randy's family, up the mountain across from our cabin. I stayed back with the rest of our kids. In the afternoon Margaret, Sara, Eric, Oliver, Randy, myself and our crew went to Old McDonald's petting farm. It was a huge success - esp. for Henry, who loved petting the animals and riding the pony.

July8 - Finished the drive from Muncie, IN to Custer, SD (we started driving Friday (the 17th) at night). And arrived to our cabin.



July7- The wedding!!
July6 - Was the reheasal and dinner for my cousin, Emily and now husband Matt's, wedding. Sophia was the flower girl and LOVED wearing her dress and having Aunt Joni do her hair. She was so happy to walk down the aisle with her cousin and buddy, Kale (Nick and Joni's oldest son).