Black Hills Camping

At the end of June we took a week long family vacation to go camping in the Black Hills. We had been planning the vacation for months, talking about different options and decided that we really wanted to do a vacation with just our little family. We've driven through the Black Hills many times, but we've never really been able to really explore the area, so we thought it would be the perfect location. It was a week of camping, fishing, hiking, activities, dirt, s'mores, no make-up and dirty faces. It was one of our very favorite vacations of all time!

 We arrived in Rapid City late Saturday evening. Just enough time to do some grocery shopping for the week. let the kids run and stretch out their legs for a bit, and get a bite to eat. (Denny's is even worse than I remember, but the kids sure thought it was great)

We stayed in a couple different places during the week. The first three days we had a small cabin, the next four days were in a tent. We were grateful to be in a cabin Saturday night- it was much better than trying to set up a tent and get organized in the dark.  The cabin situation worked out great. It was pretty small- maybe 10x14 feet. There were two basic wood bunk beds, so Jacob & Caleb took top bunks and Matthew took one bottom bunk and Jeff and I had the full-sized other bunk. Emily was in a pack 'n play and everyone had their sleeping bags. The cabin also had some shelves and a small table, and even a small fan. It wasn't elaborate, but it worked great and we loved it.
Sunday morning we were up early and headed into town for church. It was a really nice meeting and we ended up being in the same ward as some friends that just moved from our old way, the Snyders. It was fun to see them.
When we got back, we spent the rest of the afternoon having lunch and doing some exploring of the area. The boys were in heaven spending an entire week out in nature! They quickly put together a list of all the animals they found and kept it going throughout the week.

 We didn't want to do any serious hiking with it being Sunday, but we did go for a nice walk together and saw some really beautiful scenery. The kids were all over the place exploring and collecting things. Matthew of course was all into the sticks, he loved the Black Hills because there were so many and had quite the collection at all times. Emily loved picking the wild flowers. The boys were pretty excited when they saw some deer along the trails.

 We did finish off the night with a campfire and the kids' requested- hot dogs and s'mores. We roasted corn on the cob and had a fun night together. It made me laugh to see just how dirty the kids were after just one day of camping, but boy were they excited. I really can't believe we're at a stage of life where we really have this big family and our kids are so old. I love doing these things and spending time together.