South Dakota

We just got back from a small family vacation to South Dakota. We decided to go on a road trip up to see Bruce's parents. Shaden's first road trip!  He was awesome!       

                                  

Chris had never been to Mt. Rushmore and we thought it might be a good time to make the drive up. We invited Chris' brother, Nick, to join us and it ended up being a really fun trip. Our group consisted of six adults and Shaden so we had to take two cars. My mom was so nice to let us use her car, because our car is small and would have been a tight squeeze.

On our way up to SD is was pouring rain in Colorado, but was nice and sunny once we hit Wyoming. On that first day we arrived at Sharon and Vernie's and relaxed. Bruce, Vernie, Nick, and I walked down to the creek near the house.

                                      

On the second day up there Bruce took us out into the woods and taught us how to shoot some of his riffles and hand guns.

 

It was fun and loud. 

I hit the target at 100 yards three out of three with a 22-250. 

Bruce wasn't feeling so well that evening and Chris was pretty tired after the long week he had so Mom, Mick,Nick, and I took Shaden on a little walk up the canyon. It was really pretty and we got to see little waterfalls. We met a couple coming down as we were going up who said there had been a cougar on the trail about three weeks ago, but we didn't see any. Thank goodness!
On our third day Bruce was feeling much better. We had a full day of adventures. We went to a Blackhills Gold Factory and took a tour and learned how they make the jewelry. Very interesting! They make jewelry trees and each piece is hand crafted. Then we went to the Cosmos. It was a weird little tourist place where they take you into this cabin that is built very off and you end up standing diagonally.

                                            

It was fun to feel very much off balance. 

                                    

After we went into a small town and had ice cream and watched a guy pull taffy.

                                             

Next we wen to Mt. Rushmore and took a billion pictures. :) 

We wandered around in the little information center then walked around on one of the trails at the bottom of the mountain.

After getting some food we went on an ATV ride on Bruce's friend's land. It was a lot of fun. We got to go up to the top of this huge hill and when we reached the top we could see for miles. By then it was dark and getting late so we headed back down and got to drive back on the ATVs in the dark with the headlights on.
By then Mom and Bruce were exhausted so they went back to Sharon and Vernie's while the rest of us stopped at Perkin's and had pie. Being awakened by the pie we stayed up and played a card game (which Chris cheated at).
The next day it was time to head back home for Chris, Nick, Mick, Shaden, and I. Chris had to be back for work and Mick needed to get home to pack for college.
You probably didn't need that many details but there it is. We had a good time. :)