Black Hills Camping Tuesday

 On Tuesday morning, we packed up our gear, said goodbye to our awesome little cabin and headed to our new campsite. We thought it would be fun to stay in a cabin for a few days, but we definitely wanted to do some tent camping as well.

 Our new site was just up the road from the lake in a nice, quiet location. The boys immediately got started on clearing the area and setting up the tent. The kids were pretty excited. It was hard to keep Emily out of the tent while the boys were working. We enjoyed a yummy lunch after everything was unpacked and organized in the tent. The watermelon was a big hit- especially since we didn't want to store it and let the kids eat as much as they could hold.

 Tuesday ended up being a record-breaking day for heat. We topped out at a whopping 108 degrees. With those conditions, we had some plans in mind for the day that involved water! We headed out to nearby Evans Hot Springs to enjoy the hot weather. We saw lots of animals along the way again.

 Evans Hot Springs ended up being a pretty cool place. They had both indoor and outdoor swimming areas. The indoor area had a giant pool and a few different sections including smaller kids areas, slides, and a really cool section of the water that had a set of rings running from one end of the pool to the other. We kept watching people try to successfully swing the 8-rings without dropping into the pool but didn't see anyone being successful. They designed the pool to have a more natural look to it and even used real river rock on the bottom instead of just concrete.
The boys loved the slides and spent tons of time going up and down all the indoor slides. Emily didn't surprise me at all when she kept wanting to go down the slides with the boys. This girl loves that type of thing and has no fear.

 It was warm enough that we decided to move to the outdoor pool that wasn't as crowded. I usually don't like getting in and out of the water because I get cold, but when it's 108 outside, it feels great! Once again, I lost track of how many times the boys went down the slides. Caleb had to take a break for a bit because he banged against a wall on one of his trips down and ended up with a bloody nose. It didn't take long before he was right back in. Emily loved jumping to Jeff in the water and Matthew was happy as could be just swimming around.

 I love this shot of Matthew and Jeff. The look on Matthew's face is priceless!

 After a while of jumping in the pool to Jeff, Emily decided that she'd like to join me on the warm cement.

 On Sunday when we went for a walk, I managed to trip on a rock while crossing a stream. I was holding Emily and the camera so I didn't brace my fall- rather just tried to keep Emily from hitting anything. In the process, I banged up my knee pretty good against a rock. Two days later, this is what the bruise looked like.   Believe it or not, it got even worse and it was pretty sore for a good few weeks.

My little sunbathing beauty. This picture makes her look so old! Another thing fun about the pool was their radio. They kept playing all sorts of fun music. Emily loves music and she loves to dance. It wasn't long before she had quite a crowd of admirers. It was pretty cute watching her dance to the music.

We stayed until closing, it was definitely a fun way to spend a very hot day! We headed home with most of the kids catching at least a decent nap after the busy day.
We got back to our campgrounds just in time to put together our tin foil dinners and enjoy a yummy dinner around the campfire complete with s'mores for dessert. The kids were all ready for bed early.
I think another one of my favorite memories from this trip was sitting around the campfire with Jeff after we put the kids to bed. We usually sat out together each night talking after the kids were asleep. It's nice to have some alone time together especially when there are no distractions- no dishes, picking up, homework or computers/internet, etc. I loved having that time together.

Black Hills Camping-Monday

 On Monday morning, the kids were up bright and early to start the day off with fishing. Jeff and the older boys got the poles and bait all ready to go, and we headed off to the small river that ran not too far from our cabin.

 I had to pick up my fishing license and get a couple other things from the local market so Emily and I walked up and joined everyone a bit later at the designated spot.

 The boys had caught quite a few fish, but most were disappointingly small. I think the area gets fished pretty frequently. The boys still had fun catching fish even if they were small.

 Emily was a crackup with the fish. She insisted on 'holding' every single fish the boys caught. She loved them and I had to convince her that kissing them wasn't a good idea. I also like this photo because you can see our new friend Forrest. We met him on Sunday in the campground. He lives up in the Black Hills in his family cabin all summer long. He was quite the character but super nice and gave us all sorts of tips on where to fish, what bait to use, places worth visiting, etc. The kids loved seeing some of the fish he had caught and had stuffed including some giant trout and pike.

 Before too long, Emily and Matthew had had enough fishing and were disturbing the water by throwing rocks, so I took them back to camp with me while Jeff and the older boys stayed to fish for a while longer. Matthew and Emily helped me make lunch for everyone and then enjoyed making castles out of pine needles.

 Later that afternoon we headed into town and made a visit to the Reptile Gardens. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but this place was amazing! I think it was definitely one of our favorite stops during the week. I have never seen so many different varieties of snakes, lizards, spiders, alligators, crocodiles  etc. The place was started by an avid scientist/biologist with an intense fascination with reptiles. As a result, many of the species at the Gardens were the only ones in the entire United States, and some of the rarest in the world. We went late in the afternoon and because of the overcast weather, we practically had the place to ourselves. It was awesome!

This huge crocodile from Australia was almost 20 feet long! These creatures were amazing!

Emily wasn't too thrilled when we saw exactly what Jeff was giving her an up close and personal encounter with.

 I could have spent a couple hours just looking at all the different snakes. They had all sorts of information on the rarity of each species, location to be found, speed, diet, and most important-exactly how poisonous each was. Some of these snakes can kill a full grown person with just a tiny drop of their venom. The kids loved the giant boa constrictors, pythons, and anacondas.

 All the spiders, lizards, frogs, scorpions, and other crazy creatures were pretty intersting as well. One thing I definitely learned is that I don't want to be exploring through a ton of areas in Australia. Many of the crazy poisonous snakes & lizards are found ONLY in Australia. They have tons of dangerous animals. I guess that's why it's called the outback.

 The kids loved this giant tortoise exhibit. They had two of these amazing creatures and allowed everyone to come in and pet them. I wasn't so sure at first, but they really are gentle animals and the kids loved feeling their rough skin and smooth shells. It was so funny to watch them walk around.

 They also got quite a kick out of the prarie dog exhibit that allowed them to be right up in the cage. We saw millions of these guys during our week long vacation, but they were sill pretty fun to watch.

 We had to make a quick stop at the 'park' as well, Matthew thought this dinosaur ride was the coolest thing ever.

 We finished off our visit with the alligator and crocodile show. It was so funny, at first when we walked up to the exhibit, we were convinced they were all fake because after 10 minutes of watching, not a single animal had even moved. We soon learned that they are just very good at holding perfectly still. The animal keeper came out soon after and put on a pretty good show. I was actually covering my eyes during a good part because I was convinced he was going to get himself killed! He'd push them and prod them around. He gave a demonstration of how to hold their jaws, and lastly came out with a big bucket of chicken to feed them. You should have seen those animals moved when they saw it was feeding time! I have a hard time watching when I think someone is doing something crazy! Luckily he didn't die or get attacked, and he finished off the show by letting the kids pet a baby alligator.

We decided to just have dinner in Rapid City that night, since it was pretty late. Jeff decided to introduce the kids to the world of buffets and we took them to Golden Corral. I have some issues with buffets, but three boys with big appetites thought it was just about the coolest thing in the entire world. Unlimited foot and desserts? They were in heaven! At least they had a great selection of fruit and salad bar options. Everyone was pretty dead by the time we got back that night. The boys have to be super tired to fall asleep like this! I would definitely call that a successful, busy, fun day!

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.

Final Summer Track Meet

 The kids were excited to go to another summer track meet the second week in June. It would be our last since we would be out of town the following weeks. As luck would have it, it rained most of the day. It finally cleared up right before the scheduled time, but by then they had already canceled the meet. We had talked a few of our friends into coming- the Jensens and Vests- and since we all made it to the high school, we decided to just stay and play anyway.

Emily had a whole group of kids that followed her around and helped her run around the track. They were all so sweet to her and it was so fun to watch them. I'm impressed how many times this little 2-year old made it around the track!

The boys set up a few of their own races as well. They sprinted their little hearts out and then took a few walking laps when they couldn't run any more. That soon turned into a game of climbing up a wall near the fence and jumping off.These boys have such a good time together, they are in the same classes at church, scouts, and even some sports teams. The older boys are all very close in age, but Jacob is definitely the tallest.

It didn't take Matthew and Sarah too many laps before they headed over to play in the sand pits. There is just something about sand and kids- you can't keep them out of it! We stayed for as long as we could before we had to pack up and head to Caleb's baseball game.

Every time we go anywhere, Matthew loves to collect sticks. Whether it's the neighbor's house, the school, the park, baseball practice, etc. Matthew usually ends up with a pretty impressive stack of sticks that he begs to bring home. When we told the kids to head to the car, I glanced back to see how Matthew was coming and this is what I saw:

 I about died laughing when I saw what Matthew was carrying. Somewhere along the highschool track field he had found this giant branch- practically a small tree. He thought it was the most amazing stick ever! He came around the fence, so excited, barely able to carry the thing and asked me if he could bring this stick home with him. Sorry Matthew, the tree has to stay at the school. We got a pretty good laugh out of it. This boy is so funny.