Spring Break

For Spring Break this year we took a trip to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore. It had been quite some time since we had taken a family trip, and we were all itching to go see somewhere. We left Saturday morning around 7 a.m., and Jane slept all the way to Cheyenne, where we stopped for gas and a nursing/potty break. The next leg of the drive took us to Lusk, Wyoming, where we hopped out and had a picnic lunch at a park in town. The next stretch took us all the way to Mt. Rushmore, where we arrived around mid-afternoon. We saw some cute mountain goats along the side of the road as we ascended to the top.

Mount Rushmore was much closer than I expected it to be. I envisioned gazing at it from a great distance, with a gorge separating us and the presidents. I was startled at how close they looked (although the picture doesn't do it justice). 

We got ice cream cones and ate them while we made our way down the long walkway.

We took a scenic path that wound around closer to the base of the mountain, giving us different vantage points for pictures.

That night we stayed in Keystone, the town right by Mount Rushmore. We walked around hoping to find a nice place to have dinner, but we discovered that all the restaurants in the town are closed when it's not the summer tourist season. The ONLY restaurant open was a place called Bar-Lee's. It was a special parenting moment for Justin and I as we sat our children down for dinner at a bar! 

Sunday we drove around in the morning taking in some scenery. That afternoon, we drove to Rapid City, which was about 45 minutes away, and checked into our hotel for the next few nights. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn, which has an indoor waterpark called WaTiki attached to it. We swam that afternoon and then had dinner at the Outback.

On Monday, we drove to Custer State Park and hiked up toward Harney's Peak. At the top of the peak is an old fort that would have been fun to see, but unfortunately it would have been a bit too much for the kids. We hiked as far as we felt they could hike back and then turned around. We saw some beautiful scenery and wildlife along the way.

The kids discovered a small cavern on the way back to the trailhead.

After our hike, we headed back toward Rapid City and stopped at a place called Reptile Gardens. It was a great little reptile zoo with turtles, alligators, snakes, and other animals. We saw an amazing snake show where we learned lots about different types of snakes and got to see the instructor handle them.

They had some fun house mirrors that we all got a huge kick out of.

The kids were not allowed to put money into this machine for fear they would turn BIG.

Justin got some good animal close-ups.

There were tons of huge snakes in the terrarium.

 They also had some cool prehistoric fossils, including this from a giant tortoise.

 We had a blast at Reptile Gardens, and it will definitely be on our list of places to see when we go back again someday.

On Tuesday, we went to visit Wind Cave. We drove about two hours to get there through beautiful forest and plains. We saw a few buffalo and deer along the way.

 When we got there, the tours were all full, so we drove about 45 minutes more to Jewel Cave in hopes of making it in to one of their tours. Those tours were also full, but we were able to get tickets to go down into one chamber of the cave and listen to a tour guide talk about the cave. We rode an elevator down, and as soon as we got off the elevator, Emme freaked out and refused (kicking and screaming) to go into the cave. Emme, Jane, and I went back upstairs while the rest of the tour group went on. Justin got a few pictures while they were in the cave. I was a little disappointed to miss the tour, but Justin said it was a lot of talking and standing around in a relatively small space so I think Emme would have gotten bored even if she hadn't been terrified. The cave tours are another thing on our to-do list for the next time we visit these parts.

The kiddos had fun in the gift shop afterward.

That afternoon we returned to the hotel and swam at WaTiki for the rest of the day. I ran into an old friend from my freshman year at BYU, Jeremy Budge. He was on a work trip and had brought his wife and two little boys. I introduced them to Justin and we had a fun time catching up. 

Here is a pictures of how the kids slept-- 3 wide, parallel to the head and foot of the bed. It was hard getting them to fall asleep and stop bothering each other, but once they were out, they didn't stir until morning.

 Here are some more pictures from our trip (that I'm not going to drag and drop to the right days because it takes so long to do that).

Can you spot Cheyenne the eagle?

Benjy touching the giant tortoise.

Justin and the kids in a bubble in prairie dog town.

At the playland at Reptile Gardens.

On Wednesday we packed up and drove back to Denver. Jane was such a trooper our whole vacation. She slept so well in the car, and we only had to stop for her once or twice. We really couldn't have asked for a better trip considering the age of our kids! We had a great vacation spending family time together and making fun memories. It was an awesome Spring Break!