Day 7: Laura Ingall Wilder Day!

Our last day of the trip was probably the highlight of the trip for me! I read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was little and have always wanted to go over to De Smet to her house. But it was always too far out of the way on our trips to Grandmas in Minnesota.

Luckily, I have a husband who loves his wife enough to take her there. The girls and I have been reading the books together as well so this was as equally exciting for them!

"This is like Laura's wagon!"

pumping water from the well

Pretty proud of their muscles!

Washing clothes by hand.....A lot more work!

Alexa showing Bren what clothes pins are for!

This great tour guide really explained the life of a pioneer to the girls. They were intrigued.

In another wagon!

The girls got to help drive the horses to the school.

My little pioneer girls. Bren wasn't digging the hat.

Great experience!

After a long day,we spent one more night camping at Lake Thompson. Beautiful lake and scenery. We got up early the next morning and finished the drive home! What a great family vacation! I am so grateful for all the memories we made! Already planning our trip for next year!

Day 6: Happy 4th of July

So, here I am...two weeks after our vacation and I haven't finished the blog. Typical Jacque. But I am going to get it done now because I want to remember our trip...all of it. We started the Fourth of July off by finding out there were no fireworks due to the lack of rain.
 So we decided to head up to Belle Fouche for their annual 4th of July parade.

Enjoying the Parade!

Lex showing off her goodies!

After the parade, we continued driving west to Devil's tower...in Wyoming! Crazy how this trip took us across the entire state of South Dakota!

I can't remember the name of this little town, but it look like it was straight out of the wild wild west.

Devil's tower

The girls worked on their photography skills

My little rock climbers

My little rock climbers after too much parade candy

Pretty cool. We got to see 2 groups trying to climb the tower. We found one man who was with one of the groups just watching. He had been sitting there for 3 hours and they had barely made it 1/4 of the way up. I guess he had quite a lot of wait time left!

We enjoyed watching all the prairie dog villages

The girls and I by a big rock :-)

Bren playing on a log---it was a 1.4 mile hike around the tower .....so we tried to break it up so it wasn't too much walking. 

So no fireworks on the fourth...it was a first for us. We did get to be neighbors to a couple from Canada that night. We had drinks and talked well into the night. They were hilarious...and it was fun to find out the similarities/differences between the two places. Fun fact: The two things that are "smuggled" over the boarder back to Canada are....beer and dairy products. A case of beer costs them around $50 in Canada. They had their camper filled with beer---I think they bought WalMart out! I told Chris he could never afford to live in Canada! :-)

Day 5: snakes and swimming!

We decided today was going to be our 'relaxing' day....meaning not a lot of driving. Chris took the girls to Reptile Gardens while I stayed back at the campsite to work on some on-line class work. (it worked out good for me since I'm not a big reptile fan anyways.) They had a great time watching some shows and petting an alligator.
This afternoon we went a waterpark full of slides, a lazy river and more! The girls had a great time....that is until we talked Bren into going down a waterslide with Chris. Somehow, their tube flipped and Bren ended up hitting her head....a few times. I'll upload a picture of her battle wound. Needless to say, the fun ended quickly and we got 'feel better soon' ice cream. now off to a lazy night of relaxing around our 'non' fire ( Rapid City is under a no burn). Hopefully there will still be fireworks tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.

 Here's Brenna's war wounds with the slide.

Chris' face just cracks me up!

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Day 4: Wind Cave and Horses!

Day 4! We started today right where we left off last night. We had drove by Wind Cave, but had decided it was too late to venture into the cave. Good thing! The tour lasted almost an hour and a half. Both Chris and I had never been in a cave before, so it was a neat experience for all of us.

Wind Cave is known for its boxwork. It is believed that Wind Cave has over 90% of all the boxwork in the entire world. Pretty cool!

Bren wasn't too keen of the cave--it was cold and dark. Luckily she had a nice daddy who carried her most of the way (especially down the 350 steps. Don't worry--there was an elevator up :-)

Lex and I "Caving" (spelunking is the old term)

You can't see it on their faces, but they were happy that the cave was too far down to have any bugs or bats in it!

Our tour was around 200 ft below ground-walking distance .5 miles. It is estimated that the entire cave is over 140+ with all of the pathways.

After that, we ventured down to the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary . Our kids love horse and thought this would be a fun place to see wild mustangs running. Wrong. Our "tour" consisted of a 2 hour long bus drive finding little batches of "wild" horses who are fed and watered on a daily basis. We were allowed out to take pictures and even get close enough to touch one. Not too wild. :-). The girls did enjoy ringing the bell, though.

There was a cute baby one the girls loved.

Here's the biggest batch of horse we saw. Our guide did tell us that the horses have 18,000 + acres to roam. Many of the more wild mustangs venture to the "wild" side of the sanctuary....where we didn't get to go. So...not a place I'd recommend for a stop on our next trip out here, but the girls did enjoy seeing the horses.

Day 3: Bear Country, Mt. Rushmore, and More!

Day 3! We decided to head to Bear Country. A friend had told us that this would be a great place to head with kids and she was right! The girls would jumping up and down in anticipation of this place. We saw elk, big horned sheep, and more. Below are just a few of our favorite animals/moments:

Alexa was in love with the wolves. These Arctic Wolves weren't very active when we saw them, but still very pretty. 

Chris spent much of the time making "shooting" noises at animals. This is what he would like to hang on the wall of our living room. Pretty sure it would be put in the basement so I didn't have to stare at it all day. (or it stare at me)

The bears were the best (guess that's why it's called 'Bear Country') This bear was lounging around on the rocks. Pretty sure the girls said something to the effect of "Looks like Papa." ;-)

This wolf ran right by us much to the delight of Lexi.

Best thing ever: we got to see feeding time! It was hilarious to watch these huge bears running full speed after this truck. It stopped just right in front of us so we got a great view of LOTS of bears.

just a small section of the amount of bears right next to us!

The bears chased the wolves away during feeding time. Once the bears ate, the wolves were 'allowed' back to pick up any leftovers.

The babies were especially cute. These wolf pups were playing in the water.

The bear cubs were fun to watch. Many were up in trees like this. A worker went in to collect pieces of garbage and they ALL attacked her. They hung to her legs as she tried to walk around. If she put one down, it would follow her just to attack again.

The sun was a little bright :-)

Our next stop was Mt. Rushmore. Pretty cool!

Group Shot!

We spent a lot of time walking the trails underneath the monument. Little known fact: Thomas Jefferson was suppose to be on the left side of Washington. But once they started carving over there, they noticed the rock just crumbled, so they moved him to the other side. We also enjoyed reading about the workers who created the monument. I just don't know how they hung on the side of a mountain with only ropes!

After that, we headed to Crazy Horse. We learned a lot about the Native American History at this historical sight. They have been working on this for decades. Little known fact: All of the faces of Mt. Rushmore would fit in the little space right behind Crazy Horse's face. That's how much bigger Crazy Horse is and why it is taking so long. Plus, for the first decade, only one man worked on this monument. It's going to be a 3-D monument--pretty cool if it ever gets finished in my lifetime!

This is what it is suppose to look like!

"I'm on top of the world!'

Chis and the girls rock climbing at Custer Park.

Found a herd of Buffalo!

 At the end of the day, we spent some time swimming and hanging out! Just a great time!