Random June

 The kids had a fun birthday party for a friend in June. It was such a cute birthday party and all the kids loved the Star Wars lightsabers that Marjorie made for all of them.

I'm always amazed at how hard boys are on clothes. I don't know how many pairs of jeans we go through during the winter months, and it seems like someone is always needing shoes. Jacob has gone though a couple pairs this school year. I was hoping these ones would hold out till the end of the school year. With some help from superglue and some hot glue, they just barely made it!

I love all the seasons, but I especially love how green and beautiful it is during the late spring and summer. I love the green grass and trees and all the plants and flowers. I love having a yard filled with beautiful things.

Black Hills Camping- Friday- Going Home

Friday morning we were up pretty early and got our campsite all packed up. It went pretty quickly and the kids were actually really helpful with everything. It was sad to see the end of the week and our fun family vacation, but anytime you're gone for a week-especially camping- it's always nice to head home knowing you can finally get everyone clean & smelling good, and the car cleaned out. We had a nice trip on the way home, stopping to see the Badlands on the way. The only bummer was that I had gotten a bit of a headache and didn't have any ibuprofen, so I thought maybe I could just take a dramamine and that it would help with my headache. Well it helped with my headache, but it also knocked me out cold. I didn't realize it's pretty much the same thing as benadryl, and I react pretty strongly to benadryl. So I spent a good part of the drive home sleeping. Sorry Jeff! I did finally become coherent enough that I could finish driving the last 2 hours of the trip, but I definitely learned my lesson! :)

I'm so glad we were able to take the trip together as a family. It really was one of the most fun weeks we've had and we will always have so many fun memories to look back on. We sure love our kids and love being able to spend time with them.

Completely enthralled playing with their pet snake.

Getting 'charged' by this buffalo. We stopped to watch it and soon realized it was coming right for our car. I was getting worried and told Jeff to drive now! Jeff and the kids were all laughing at me.

 I'm amazed Matthew slept so well throughout the trip, pretty much every morning I would find him sleeping like this. He just couldn't stay straight in his sleeping bag!

Black Hills Camping- Thursday

 Thursday was our last full day of vacation in the Black Hills. We started off the day with a visit to Wind Cave. We packed a lunch and jackets for everyone and set off. We took a tour through the cave that took about 1 1/2 hours. It was pretty amazing! It was a little scary going down into a narrow, dark cave, but it was also so cool to see all the amazing rock formations and hear the commentary by our tour guide.

After our tour through the cave there was a park ranger with a big assortment of cool animals and things to show the visitors. Matthew was especially fascinated by the stuffed prairie dog. He was sad that he couldn't take it home with him. Gross.

 After eating our lunch at the nearby park, we headed off to visit the Mammouth Site. It was a pretty fascinating place as well. We did a little tour through the building with our tour guide speaking to us through telephones- the kids thought that was pretty fun. It was neat to see all the different skeletons they were working on.

The kids got to do some 'digging for fossils' after the tour through the museum. Matthew and Emily especially thought that was fun.

 We got back to our campsite that afternoon and headed to the lake for a last attempt at fishing. Sadly, that fishing wasn't that great during our trip, but the boys still had fun. 

If anything, it was nice to just enjoy the beautiful scenery at the lake. Combined with perfect weather, and it was a pretty good combination! Matthew and Emily obviously didn't have a ton of attention for the fishing, so I played with them on the shore of the lake with Jeff fished with the older boys. It was starting to get a bit chillier as the evening progressed so I didn't put the kids in swimsuits, but I should have known that wouldn't keep these two from practically swimming anyway. They were soaked and had a blast!

We had our final campfire that night, enjoying as many s'mores as possible before calling it a night. 

Black Hills Camping- Wednesday

Everyone woke up early on Wednesday, having all gotten a great night's sleep in the tent. I was grateful for that! We did a pretty easy breakfast- cold cereal, hot oatmeal, and hot chocolate.  I love seeing the kids' bed heads and faces at breakfast. I love that you can be so kicked back when you're camping. I didn't wear make-up or really do anything with my hair all week. It's great.

We did get everyone cleaned up and looking nice for our day of sight-seeing though.

We added bighorn sheep to our list of animals seen during the trip. There was a group of 8 that just casually crossed the road right in front of us.

Our first stop for the day was to the Crazy Horse monument. You can see it pretty well from the road, but we wanted to go through the museum and see some of the other things as well. Once we watched the movies on the people & family actually working on the monument, we were glad we supported them.

The next stop was to Mount Rushmore. We stopped by quickly about 5 years ago during a cross country drive to Philadelphia, but we hadn't actually been inside the memorial. It was a great place to visit and the kids enjoyed it as well. Later on that evening, Matthew was asked by someone who the presidents were on the monument. He replied, "George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Teddy Ring-The-Bell." We all got a pretty good laugh out of that one!

From Mount Rushmore, we headed to Custer where they have a cute little place to eat and sight-see. We stopped for lunch at a fun little place overlooking the street where we also managed to watch some old western reenactments. After lunch we walked the streets looking at all the different stores and sights. We let the kids choose one little toy from a store, and also a piece of taffy from the taffy shop. They loved watching the taffy being made!

Our last stop for the evening was to Sylvan Lake. We had fun playing on the shore and admiring the beautiful scenery. It really is a gorgeous place.

We took the scenic Needles Highway on the way home. You don't often hear about the beautiful scenery in South Dakota, but it was absolutely breathtaking!

When we got back to our campsite, Jeff and the older boys headed out to do some fishing. Matthew and Emily stuck around to help me with dinner. We did shish-kabobs that turned out delicious. It was fun having the younger kids with me. They are such cute little friends. I loved it when I caught them just sitting together in their little chairs by the fire. They have a lot of fun together.

When Jeff and the older boys got back, we had dinner complete with s'mores for dessert again and called it a night. Everyone definitely slept well after the busy day!