South Dakota

We stayed in Rawlins, Wyoming for the night and woke up the next morning to drive to Rapid City.  Prior to leaving Salt Lake we had a DVD system installed in the van. We've always had the portable ones in the past, but they come with their own issues.  Wires, volume not loud enough, kids needing help setting it up, "someone just hit the wire with their foot/arm and now the we have to start the movie over!" And so on.....

Not to mention it had become tempermental and only worked when it wanted to. I was really sick of dealing with it so we found a great deal on KSL and had one installed with 4 wireless headphones.  I LOVE IT! It was the quietest  drive ever. They kids were awesome in the car.  They pretty much watched TV, played their IPod or read.

First Stop-

Wind Cave National Park!

Wind  Cave is one of the worlds longest and most complex cave.

It's the third longest cave in the United States and Fifth World Wide.

As we were waiting to go outside to the cave, the kids explored the museum inside.

We brought jackets and wore our hiking sandals.

Inside was amazing!  I've never been in cave as large as this one and we only

got to explore a small fraction of it!  It's HUGE! 

It's over 136 miles!

While there were lots of cool things, it is most famously known for it's box work.

Popcorn

You'd wind through tunnels and then suddenly find yourself in larger rooms.

 After the Cave we drove around the park. 

We got to the hotel and it was too late to let the kids swim,

so we promised them we'd go in the morning.

 We walked across the street and had dinner,

grabbed an ice cream at the convenience store

and called it a night.

The kids woke up ready to swim!

Our hotel had a water slide and the kids were pretty excited about that!

After swimming we made the 30 minute drive to Mount Rushmore.

Even though this is my second time seeing it,

I still find it amazingly cool!

The kids did too!

Especially after learning a little about how long it took to create.

The girls took pictures with their IPod's so they could text their friends and show them what they were up to!

We walked the trail that allows you to get closer to the monument.

For some crazy reason, even though it was less than a mile round trip,

Carter decided he was done and didn't want to walk anymore.

So, there were a few tears.

It was  a bit surprising considering he is usually up for anything physical.

I think he was just hot and tired. 

But we just kept walking and he rebounded quickly as soon as we reached the exhibit

about half way into our hike.  His walking had  a purpose now.

The kids enjoy watching survivor shows with dad and here they got to see some real life

hunting equipment, and tools that they've seen on the survivor shows.

They even tried to make fire! 

It didn't work and that was okay by them. 

They've seen on TV how hard it is and now they have first hand experience

 that it is much more difficult than it looks.

So they clowned around a little......

We continued on our hike and made our way closer to Mount Rushmore.

We stopped for a presentation and learned all about the tools that were used during the construction.

Nadya was selected as a volunteer from the audience.

My Twinner Boys!!

We left, ate lunch and made our way over to the Crazy Horse Monument.

We treated the kids to a snow cone first.

I've never had so much syrup in a snow cone!

It was super sweet and we all had colored mouths!!!

After we watched a movie about the Crazy Horse Monument and walked around a bit.

Later that night we made our way back to Mount Rushmore for the night time ceremony.

We rode the elevator on our way in and Carter was talking to a couple of people inside.

One lady had a rather fancy camera and an older gentlemen joked with me as we were leaving the elevator

about how we probably never have a quiet moment with that one.  (Referring to Carter, our chatterbox)

We laughed and said, "No, not really!"

During the ceremony we found out that we had a special guest in the audience.

The last living Mount Rushmore worker was visiting today!

He stood up and we clapped.

Then we realized it was the older gentlemen from the elevator and the lady with the fancy camera

was probably there to document it!  Very cool!!!!!!!

Mount Rushmore is beautiful, but even more so at night!!!!!

My picture does not do it justice!

The next morning we were leaving for Minnesota, but had to make one last stop.

Alex had been researching the places we were going on our vacation earlier at home

and stumbled across this place!!!!!

The Alex Johnson Hotel!

So Cool!!!!!!

Alex told us that 6 presidents have stayed there before and some guests claim it's haunted.

So, we had to stop.

If only for the picture!

Next stop------ Minnesota....  But if you ask the girls, you'd hear "MALL OF AMERICAAAAA!"