I can't believe Kami is in kindergarten! She has been waiting since last year to go and was thrilled when her first day finally came. She is thriving and enjoys going everyday! I asked her what her favorite thing was, totally expecting her to say recess, and her response was technology! Who knew?
Over Labor Day weekend, we packed up the family and headed to South Dakota. My brother was riding in a horse show, so we decided to go up and watch him and add in some touristy things we've been wanting to do with the kids. On our way up, we left early and headed to Mt. Rushmore. It's been since the late 80's since I was there last and it's changed so much! As we were driving into the parking lot, Brennan got really excited and yelled "Look at the president faces" and Kami said "Those faces make my face laugh". There is now a great walking path which takes you through the artists studio, and if you time it right, you can listen to a park ranger talk about Mt. Rushmore...unless you have small children that don't allow you to listen:) Maybe next time.
If you look closely at the mountain, you can see Crazy Horses face. The monument isn't finished yet and probably won't be in any of our lifetimes.
Mt. Rushmore with all the state flags.
After Mt. Rushmore, we headed to Rapid City where my brother was riding. It's a great place for kids. In between my brother's rides, we took the kids to various parks. The first day we went to Dinosaur Park. It sits on the highest point in Rapid City with beautiful views and dinos the kids can play on...one of which was huge!!!
We also took the kids to Storybook Island. It was fabulous and the kids loved it. It was like a free version of Disneyland for the little ones...and it was free!!! We spent almost 2 hours there following the kids from one set to another. There were 8.5 acres of different play sets representing nursery rhymes, Disney movies and old cartoons.
A great fire truck Brennan found. We had a hard time getting him off to check out other things.
They had a great barrel train the kids could ride all by themselves. They were in heaven.
Dr. Suess
101 Dalmations
As Kami was sitting in Yogi's picnic basket, she declared she was corn on the cob:)
Outside our hotel was a great little park with a pond strangely called Berlin Wall Park. Pat, my dad and I decided to walk down there and check it out. What you see in the picture are two actual parts of the Berlin wall that were between Check Point Charlie and Brandenburg Gate. In front of the wall there were about 8 different plaques you could read on the history of the wall and these two pieces! It was fascinating and well worth the time.
On our way home, we took our time and drove through Custer State Park! It was beautiful! We bought some sandwiches at a general store and ate a picnic lunch by a lake, went on a hike and checked out some bison!
On of the bridges we encountered. You drive under it and then pigtail back around to drive on it.
We drove through a couple of these one lane rock tunnels. The kids loved it!
Our picnic lunch!
Our little hike.
Custer State Park has one of the largest bison herds in the country. This guy happened to be walking on the road, so I made Pat pop out of the sun roof to take a picture (don't worry, I was driving:)).
The last stop on the way home was at the Mammoth Site. We had no clue what it was (we had seen it on a billboard...and billboards are pretty big in South Dakota), but decided to stop and check it out. What a great surprise! It was an actual sink hole that happened 27,000 years ago. About 60 mammoths fell in and died. What you see in the pictures are the actual bones of their final resting place. Kami was in complete awe and kept asking if they were real. There is now a building over the site that is temperature and humidity controlled to preserve the bones. We took a tour, with a guide, around the site and learned a ton. It's still an active dig site today.
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