Family Vacation, Homeward Bound, Part 10

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

We got up early and headed HOME! I miss it. We stopped at Martins Cove, in Wyoming, and had a picnic lunch. Then we walked through the visitors center. They have a quote from Langley Bailey up on the wall.

 It was very moving. I can't imagine what they had to go through. I am very grateful to them for their love of the Gospel and their perseverance.

 We had fun pulling the handcart around the little loop they had.

 We even found a toad.

 Then we were ready to hit the road again.

 We had 5 more hours when we left Martins Cove.

I feel we were very blessed and protected the whole trip, and we had perfect weather most of the trip and that we were able to travel safely. Truly Blessed.

The kids were great.  All that stress for nothing. This has been a great trip.  I'm so glad we were able to do this as a family.  Good times.  I hope they remember it and have good memories of it and of the time we spent together as a family.

Family Vacation, South Dakota, Part 9

Monday, June 29, 2015

This is what happens when the kids get in our bed, they kick us out!

 The van was acting a little funny so we drove back to Rapid City to get it looked at.  I accidentally took the scenic route...oops. On our way back we saw crazy horse again. This was the only picture I took of it.

 When we got back we went to the Flintstones Park.

 The first thing we did was ride a train that took us to this fun little place.

 Then we walked through Bedrock.

 We saw a lot of homes, cars and characters.

 Deno.

 I love my Family!

 Bensen had fun, but he is screaming in almost all of the pictures.

 Or running away.

 He wanted to be doing everything the older kids were doing.

 It's hard being little!

 Mt. Rockmore.

 Here's the whole street. They had a theater that was playing old Flintstones cartoons.

 We rode in this fun car.

 The park was fun, it had old school playground toys.

 They had a little show where these characters sung and played instruments.

 Just as we were getting ready to leave it started raining.

 We went into the gift shop hoping to wait out the storm, but it kept on strong.

We braved the rain and went to dinner at Pizza Works. Running from the car to the restaurant we got soaked! 

Bensen was so crazy.  He kept throwing his food on the ground, and screaming! The pizza was pretty good though. It stopped raining while we were eating.

When we got back to the Campground we went and played some mini golf.

 The kids had fun running around.

 Me and  Mike kept score, I believe he let me win by one. He's so sweet!

 We tried to do a couple of things, but everything closes early here. We ended up letting the kids swim for a little bit, before it closed at 7:30! What pool closes at 7:30...really?

But the kids had fun and Mike was a good sport again and got in with them.  He is such a good dad!

After we got all showered off we went to bed. Jaycee had to go to the bathroom in the night. She kept trying to put Mikes shoes on, then when we got outside she tried to sit down on the side of the van.  I had to keep telling her to hold it! The bathroom was a good distance away.  It was funny and aggravating all at the same time.

Family Vacation, South Dakota, Part 8

Sunday, June 28, 2015

We stayed at the Flintstones Campground.  On our way in we saw Crazy Horse, which was pretty cool. We have a cute little cabin we are staying in. We unloaded some of our things and then headed out to see Mount Rushmore.

 We took the scenic route.  We saw a lot of deer and prong horn.  We stopped at the visitors center.

 On our way to Mt. Rushmore we drove through several of these tunnels. If you look really close behind us you can see Mt. Rushmore.  This was our first look at the Monument.

 We had fun getting there.  It was very beautiful.

 Everything here was shiny! The rock was granite that had mica in it, which made it glitter!

 Another view of Mt. Rushmore.

 More pretty rocks.

 Bensen liked the view.

 Wesley is standing under the Utah flag.

 We all loved Mt. Rushmore!

 We walked through the visitors center.

 Mike took Jaycee and Wesley on the Presidential Trail.

 It was pretty awesome!

This is what the monument was supposed to look like.

 Here's Bensen waiting for Jaycee and Wesley to come back.

 Then we continued on with the scenic route. We found George's profile.

We wore Bensen right out.

 We stopped at The Needles.

 They were amazing!

 We drove through a couple more tunnels.

 Some of the oddest rock formations in the US...so said the sign anyway.

 The background Mountain was called the Cathedral.  I wanted to get a picture of our trusty Van.

 Then we decided to do the Wildlife loop.

 We saw deer and prong horn.

  Bunnies, prairie dogs, wild turkeys, and bison.

 We even saw donkeys all lined up in a row!

When we got back we all went to bed, except Mike, He stayed up and did laundry so we'd have clothes to wear tomorrow.

It also stormed all night.