South Dakota Part 2

Here we are at Mt. Rushmore, visiting our friends (George, Tom, Ted & Abe). We are in front of the hall of flags - which has every state flag in alphabetical order (because that's the best kind?) We took a nice walk around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, along with many tons of rocks that had been blasted off the mountain.




Our third day (Thursday!) we had a picnic lunch at a lake in the black hills state park, and the kids enjoyed skipping rocks, throwing rocks, and hunting for rocks. There are many different kinds of rocks in the Black Hills! (Amazing isn't it?)


After lunch, we left the beautiful Black Hills campgrounds and headed to Rapid City, where we visited Bear Country USA. This picture of a bear was taken from the passenger side of our van, with no zoom lens. This place is a wild animal refuge that you drive through, and there are over 200 black bears on the property, along with several other animals.


What happy family - but beware of the bears! From this bench we could see several baby black bears playing together.


These are "bear" faces - or grouchy faces, whatever...

South Dakota Part 1

The last week of June we took a trip with some friends (Burton, Kathy, Morgan & Ethan) to the Black Hills are of South Dakota. None of us had ever been, and since it's only a six-hour drive (even with 3-4 stops), we decided that this was the year to go.



The first couple nights we stayed at a private campground (Rafter J), which was super clean and lots of fun. The kids rode their bikes all over, played kickball with some of the other kids, and had some great camp food. (No - Ken didn't really burn his hand, he's just being a goofball!)



On the night we arrived (Tuesday) we took a short 10 minute drive to the Crazy Horse Memorial. When it is completed, it will be the largest sculpture in the world. As you can see, there is a lot of work left to do - even after 60 years of work so far.




The night we went there was a special night blast (one of only two per year) commemorating the birthday of the woman in charge (Ruth, who turned 81 that night). It was mainly pyrotechnics, but still cool all the same. The kids were a little worn out, but most of them made it through the blast. They also participated in some Native American dancing.



The next morning, we drove the other way (North) about 5 miles and rode the 1880 train from Hill City to Keystone. It went just north of Mt. Rushmore (which we couldn't see from the train). After lunch, we all went swimming in the outdoor pool, and enjoyed some yummy homemade ice cream.

Scout day at the Colorado Rockies

We attended a Rockies baseball game on June 16.
We all enjoyed hot dogs, cracker jacks, peanuts, etc. - baseball food is good!

It was scout day at the game, so Janae got to walk around the field with some friends from her girl scout troop.

Plus the Rockies won - which is always good!