Feeding Wild Burros, Indoor Waterpark, Badlands, South Dakota Days 3,4,5

 The third day I made everyone get up extra early at 6 am so we could actually get to the Visitor's Center really early and hopefully get tickets.  We were rewarded for our extra early morning and got tickets!

Right before the tour was to start we lined up outside the cave entrance and waited for our tour guide.  

Inside was pretty.  We did manage a family picture.  I was a bit embarrassed since I didn't realize my flash was on and blinded everyone on the tour as I took this picture:

There were many different formations.  I really liked the frostwork:

There is also something called boxwork as well. It was pretty cool since this is not a common formation anywhere, but here.

As we finished up the cave tour we were rounding kids up.  Half the kids went back into the visitor's center and the other half went up to the stairs by the front door.  Aaron went after the kids that had gone up the stairs and I went after the kids that went into the Visitor's Center.  When I came out of the Visitor's Center I saw Aaron talking to someone.  As I got closer I saw and recognized the people he was talking to.  It was our friends, The Yardley's, that lived in our neighborhood and also happen to be our Ministering Brother.  What are the odds of that happening?!  They were just driving through hoping to get cave tour tickets and then continue on to Denver, Colorado.  Unfortunately, they weren't able to get any cave tour tickets so they were just stopping for a quick picnic lunch before they continued on to Denver for the rest of their spring break.  After we ate a quick picnic lunch we headed over to drive the Wildlife Loop Trail.  On the way we saw quite a few buffalo:

They even stopped the car in front of us while they licked the doors.

At the end of the Wildlife Loop Trail there are some wild burros.  They have descended from old pack animals that were used over 100 years ago and then left to fend for themselves.  They were pretty friendly and looking for any type of snack.  We had some apples they loved gobbling up all while leaving a huge messy saliva strings all over the inside of the door and our clothes.  It was fun feeding them, though.

Sarah and Noah were grossed out and also intrigued by them.

They really liked the car next to us as well:

Sarah took this picture of three heads in Josh's window and one burro head in my window:

Matthew taking a turn:

Aaron was not interested in feeding them, however, when they were right up next to his window I rolled it down and Aaron was not very happy with me, but it was hilarious!!

When we were out of apples we rolled up our windows, but they made sure they left a snotty mess all over it hoping for some more food.

We then drove on and saw a bunch of wild mountain goats.  

There were a lot of different herds of buffalo.  All the black specks are buffalos:

Along the trail we stopped by a small picnic area to get out and stretch our legs.  Matthew wasn't too excited to get very far away from the car, but he was with us.

There was a small pond the kids had fun throwing rocks in:

It was fun to walk around:

We did see an otter and watch him move around for awhile:

When we got ready to get back into the car is when we saw the huge mess the wild burros had made all over when they ate the apples.  Gross!

On the way back to hotel we did stop by a car wash and even that didn't get all the chewed up apple chunks off the side of the car.  Oh well, it was fun feeding them!

The next morning we thought we would take advantage of the indoor water park.  There were 5 different hotels that connected to this water park and ours was one of them.  We got up early and got to the water park at 8 am.  There were three adult water slides, 4 kid slides, a lazy river, a small pool surrounded by basketball hoops and a large hot tub.  The kids had fun swimming and riding the slides.  Aaron and I made sure we rode down all the slides with the kids.  We shared tubes with them and it was fun.  Matthew was a little scared to try the big whirlpool slide.  Our rule with the kids is that have to try it at least once.  If they don't like it they don't have to do it again.  Matthew was willing to try the slide once sharing a tube with Aaron.  They started down the slide going forward, however, after spinning around in the whirlpool their tube got turned backwards so they went down the rest of the slide backwards.  When they hit the pool below, Aaron sunk and flipped Matthew off the tube.  Matthew was fine, but he completely freaked out and was screaming.  Aaron was able to stand up and see Matthew was not having it, so he took Matthew out.  The kids were getting a little bored with swimming so we decided to take a break and come back later since we had all day passes.

We got dressed and drove over to Wall Drug which is a HUGE tourist trap.  On our drive we did listen to General Conference.  When we got to Wall Drug, it was fun to walk around the many different shops for a little while.  

Afterward we drove over to the Badlands National Park and finished listening to General Conference.  

We hiked a little bit.

It really reminded me of Canyonlands National Park to be honest.

We got to see Mountain goats which were really interesting to watch.  They walked around on the ledges without falling.  It was quite entertaining to watch.  

It was interesting to see the rams so close up!

After spending a few hours at the Badlands we went back and finished out the night swimming at the indoor water park until it closed.  The rules became more lax as the night went on at the water park.  Sarah, Josh and I were able to share one tube and ride it down the tube slides.  That is a little against the rules, but the teen lifeguard didn't care.  We went down the slides SO FAST!!  It was fun.  When they closed we went back to our hotel rooms and packed up to leave the next morning for home.

I also forgot to mention that around our hotel was a mile long gravel walking trail.  Matthew was super excited about that.  Every evening Aaron and I would take turns walking with Matthew around that loop.  Here is one picture from a time Aaron went with him:

We left early and I wanted to get home sooner than later.  Most of Wyoming has a speed limit of 80 miles per hour.  So I was doing a little over 80 miles per hour when I got pulled over.  As it so happens I was in a 70 mile per hour zone--DOH!!  I did end up getting a ticket and Matthew made friends with the police officer while he was trying to talk to me.  Anyway not fun way to come home, but what can you do?!

During the drive we were able to listen to General Conference which was nice.  

When we got home the Easter bunny had come and hidden the kids' Easter baskets.  They had fun trying to find theirs.

It was nice to be home again!!

Braces, Broken Springs, Cracks on Ice, Frozen Lakes, Hiking, Spring Break Road Trip South Dakota Days 1&2, Lots of Critters

A little over two weeks ago the kids started their Spring Break vacation from school.  To celebrate I scheduled Josh to get allergy shots early Tuesday morning.  Since it was early morning afterward Josh and I got a quick Chick-Fil-A breakfast together.  When I got home it was then time to take Sarah to start her second round of braces.  The kids didn't think those two activities were very fun for Spring Break, but what can you do?! Here's the before:

Here's her name on the 'Braces On' Board in the orthodontist's office:

Here's the new metal mouth:

When we got home from both appointments we needed to start packing for our road trip we were taking the next day.  However, someone lost a shoe and as we were looking for it someone lifted up the couch to check under it for the missing shoe.  That is when something went 'pop' and then this metal spring then fell on the floor.  That's always a sign of high quality furniture, right?!  At least that is how I am trying to make myself feel better about it--haha!  

I had to work that afternoon/evening, so before work I made sure all the kids were packed and ready to go.  I made a list of everything that needed to be done before we left the next morning for me to do when I got home from work that evening.  I then left for work and Aaron came home from work and without being asked started crossing off my to do list items.  By the time I got home I was pleasantly surprised to find that a lot of my to do list items had already been done for me by Aaron.  I told the kids we would leave the next morning whenever I woke up.  I woke up at 3 am, but we didn't get on the road until about 5 am.  Insomnia is the worst!

The kids were on Spring Break so we wanted to go somewhere, but not too far and not too expensive so we decided on Mount Rushmore.  We have actually been there, but it was about 12 years ago and Noah and Sarah weren't a part of our family at that point.  Well I guess Sarah was because I was pregnant with her on our last visit, but for all intents and purposes Noah and Sarah had never seen Mount Rushmore before.  We were going to stay in Rapid City, South Dakota which meant we would be driving through most of a desolate Wyoming on our drive out there.  However, before we left the house we found out that Mount Rushmore was actually CLOSED which was the main reason for our trip. It was closed due to wildfires around the area.  We debated whether we should still go or not, but we decided to chance it anyway.  We left on the long 10 hour drive early that morning.  We did break up the drive to make potty stops and for lunch.  We ordered hamburgers for lunch, however, it wasn't until everyone, but Sarah, had finished their burgers that we realized Sarah was having a hard time eating.  She had just gotten braces on the day before and her teeth were pretty sore.  We ended up ordering her a shake which is a lot easier to eat.  Then the super fun thing happened when we went to get back into the car and discovered that someone had been chewing gum in the back seat and had gotten it all over their seatbelt and shirt.  I thought we were past this stage.  The gum was super sticky so we couldn't just leave it.  We had to spend another 30 minutes icing the seatbelt down with ice cubes to chip off the hardened, frozen chewed gum.  The shirt was a total loss and we tossed it in the trash.  That is when we made the rule that no one is to ever chew gum in the car EVER again.  Anyway, we did eventually make it to South Dakota.  

We got to the hotel and checked in.  We usually like to stay at an AirBnB, but their prices were pretty high and it was a lot cheaper to rent two rooms at the hotel.  We wanted adjoining rooms, but that fell through so we just got two rooms next to each other.  Aaron and I stayed in one room and the five kids stayed in the other.  Matthew got his own bed.  Josh and Daniel shared a bed.  Sarah got her own bed and Noah got the cot.  Here was their set up:

After getting situated in the hotel there was a pizza place right around the corner where we got dinner.  We didn't realize the personal pizzas were going to be so HUGE.  Luckily, we had a fridge in our hotel rooms so the everyone brought back their leftovers and ate it for dinner the next day.

The next morning I wanted to get an early start.  We wanted to go and see Wind Cave.  They had just started cave tours after being closed for two years.  They had only opened a week previously and we wanted to make sure we got tickets.  The Wind Cave visitor's center opened at 8 am so we needed to be ready to go by 6:30 am to make the hour and 20 minute long drive to get to Wind Cave to get tickets.  However, everyone seemed to be tired and drag their feet in getting ready and eating breakfast.  On our way to Wind Cave we had to drive a few miles on a dirt road.  That's where we got to see some wild turkeys:

We got them to gobble at us a few times and spread their tail feathers.  It was pretty cool.

As we entered the Wind Cave National Park we drove by so many flat plains that were covered with Prairie Dog holes.  They were everywhere.  Here was one watching us drive by:

We also got to see some antelope along the way, too:

As well as some mule deer and white tail deer as well:

When we got to the Wind Cave Visitor's Center at 9 am (an hour later than we were hoping for because everyone was dragging that morning), there was a LONG line.  And wouldn't you know it, but the two people ahead of us in line got the last cave tour tickets for the day--DOH!!  We were a bit frustrated, but what can you do?!  We decided to spend the rest of the morning at Custer State Park.  It is such a beautiful place!  We drove around and took in the scenery and saw lots of wildlife:

We stopped by Stockade Lake which was mostly frozen over.  The kids had fun throwing stuff on the ice.  It was a bit eerie to listen to the ice shifting and cracking while we were there, though.

We then drove over to Sylvan Lake.  Matthew HATES hiking, but there was supposed to be a flat mile long hike around the lake which we didn't think would be too bad.  Here's the kids at the beginning of the hike:

Sylvan Lake was frozen solid as well.

There were some big cracks in the ice:

We were looking around at the frozen lake when Aaron yelled, "Oh my goodness there is a HUGE crack on the ice over here!"  When we looked we just saw Aaron showing off his plumber's crack. I have censored it, but he was not wrong about another crack on the ice--haha!  What a dork!!

The trail was snow/ice covered.  Matthew wasn't very sure about that, but he still came along with us.  

Noah stepped off the trail to make a snow angel and lost his shoe in the knee deep snow.  It took Aaron some time digging in the snow to get it back out.  Here's Noah putting his snow covered shoe back on:

Daniel decided to make a snow angel along with Noah:

Aaron decided that would be a good time to white wash Daniel in the snow:

Daniel got him back with a huge snowball:

Noah got a hoodie full of snow as well:

Along the trail there was a small, narrow part through some rocks you had to climb through.

I am sure this trail is super easy when there is no snow, but the snow and ice made it a bit hard to navigate.  We had to crawl up this icy part to get to the other part of the trail.  However, the kids did slide down it a few times for fun.  They even got Aaron to slide down it, too.

There was a cool hollowed out tree stump along the trail.  Josh wanted to pose for a picture inside the stump.

There was a lot of snow to play in:

Another part of the trail was ice covered. Normally there were stairs you climbed down on, but they were completely covered in snow and ice so we just slid down that part on our bums.

At this point Matthew was absolutely DONE with this trail and wanted to go back to the car.  However, the trail is a loop so either way you would go there would be icy parts you had to climb or slide down.  Matthew was NOT happy about that at all.....

There was a small tree growing in the middle of a rock.  It was pretty cool to see:

Along our hike we did see a Marmot climbing around on the rocks:

There were some climbing parts the kids all had fun hiking up:

After finishing our hike we ate our lunch of sandwiches from our cooler and drove around some more.  It is a really pretty area:

We drove on the Needles highway.  Part of that highway involves going through the Needles Tunnel.  It is a one way, very narrow tunnel carved through the rock.  You have to make sure there is no one coming from the other direction because there is no way to pass each other.  The tunnel is so narrow you can touch both sides of the tunnel rock through the windows of our van.

The kids had both windows down as we drove through the tunnel and ran their fingers along side the rock as we went through.

After driving the Needles highway we checked and saw that Mount Rushmore was now open.  Wahoo!  We drove over there to check it out:

A lot of Mount Rushmore was under construction.  The Monument itself was fine, but the Visitor's Center and pathways were all torn up.

Due to the wildfires in the area they had the trail around the base of the monument closed.  We did check out the museum and watch the informational film about the building and carving of Mount Rushmore which was interesting.  We then decided to try out the infamous Vanilla Ice from the recipe of Thomas Jefferson in the Carver's Cafe onsite.  It was a bit pricy so we only ordered two cups and we all shared it.  It was a pretty tasty recipe!!  

On the way back to Rapid City we did stop by the Crazy Horse Monument as well.  We decided not to pay to get in to see the monument since we had seen it 12 years ago and weren't too impressed by it.  We felt like it was a money grab so we didn't mind if we just skipped this one.  We did get a picture of it as we drove by, but you can't tell what you are seeing.  

Here's what an internet picture of it looks like--haha!

We stopped by the small city of Keystone on our way back and picked up a few souvenirs.  Aaron did text Josh this article and didn't say anything.  Josh read it and was pretty excited about the possibility of growing facial hair on his mission.  It wasn't until afterward that Aaron told him it was April Fools--haha!  I must say that photoshop job of a goatee is pretty good, though--haha!