Mt. Rushmore

Let's just say Dan greatly dislikes when I write Debbie Downer posts which is apparently the umbrella under which my last one falls.  So this is my peace offering.  And I will also admit, this is the blog version of nesting.  I really need to get all the old news out of the way in time for the new news of the baby.

Back in the summer, we had tentatively blocked off a long weekend for a last summer visit to Utah.  Dan is so lucky to get every other Friday off, so he arranged to take off a Thursday before and there we were free as birds.  But it turned out our ideal weekend was actually the weekend his parents were moving homes and we figured our descension would be the absolute last thing they needed.  But the time was already blocked off so after a little thought, we decided a quick trip to Mt. Rushmore was in order.

And I have to make a public apology right now to the great state of South Dakota: I am so sorry! I always imagined you as one of the most boring states in the Union and never had any desire to visit you.  But after our trip, I can honestly say that I was SO wrong.  I will never doubt you again!

Seriously, we are going back. Spending a week would be easy.  It may just turn out to be another weekend, but we know now for sure, that it will be a great time.



We stayed in a little cabin in Custer.  It was a great big room with 3 beds, a bathroom, and a little kitchenette.  It also had a nice covered porch where we ate a few of our meals.

Finn had to sleep in the bathroom, which was a tight squeeze and caused some stress for Ava who worried she'd need to use the facilities after bedtime, but we all got used to it and it worked out okay.

  Behind our cabin was a great hill with rocks for climbing.

Like always, Dan did his research and planned a beautiful route to for us to drive to Mt. Rushmore.  The road was called the Iron Mountain Road.

It had spectacular views,

winding turns called pig tails,

and a few one way tunnels that framed Mt. Rushmore in the distance, which is hard to see in this picture, but take my word for it.

You had to honk your horn when you drove through and the kids got a kick out of that.



 Mt. Rushmore was pretty amazing, and I was so happy the kids thought so too.  Max still talks about it.

The face of each of the pillars represented a state.  Everyone stopped to take their picture with "their"state.  I'm not going to lie, we were torn.  But when we discovered that Texas had been shoved on the backside of a pillar backing right to the fence, where staging a family picture there was nearly impossible, we took it as a sign to embrace our new state.

Finn caught on very quickly and posed in front of every single pillar.

The boys stopped to look at a sweet little chipmunk and this was the moment I realized that Finn could actually fit through the rungs on the fence, I dropped my phone back in my bag, and grabbed him just in time.

After hiking down around the base of the mountain and eating dinner outside the restaurant in the beautiful evening sun, 

we were less than an hour from the evening program, which we really wanted to see. But the parents in us had second thoughts about keeping the kids up extra late on our first night, so we headed back to the cabin and figured we'd catch it another night if we could.

The following day, again under Dan's faithful research, we headed into Custer State Park (which is absolutely beautiful) and hiked around Sylvan Lake. 

The landscape was unlike any I'd seen in person before and we were all in awe.

Max took a minute to warm up to the whole thing because he somehow fell right out of the van as we were getting out. 

Our plans had always included to have the kids wear or at least bring their swimsuits for a dip in the lake but on our drive over that morning, we realized we forgot them, thus providing yet another "you can walk into the water but don't get your clothes wet" situation. 

 

And as is traditional, they rode home soggy but happy.

We debated on making a run for the swimsuits and returning to the lake but settled on going back to the cabin and Finn and I staying in for a nap while Dan took the big kids to the pool.

We spent a very enjoyable few hours at Reptile Gardens.  The weather was perfect and there were no crowds.

The kids loved seeing all the snake and spider displays as well as a alligator show and snake show.

Both of which involved petting opportunities afterwards.

We also met this 107 year old tortoise and saw a bird show.

We had the great opportunity to be reminded how big our family has gotten as well as how much money we can waste on greasy food, when we dropped 50 bones at Dairy Queen,

and Dan nearly had to take two trips for our personal pan pizzas.

                                        

We saw more motorcycles than we have in our previous years of life combined.  It was the week before Sturgis but I can't imagine there being any more motorcycles.

We made it back to Mt. Rushmore for the evening show.  It was a more adult affair that I'm not sure the kids appreciated, but it was cool to see it lit up at night.

Cool enough, thank goodness, that right before we got in the car and drove away, I was inspired to take another picture, which caused me to realize that my phone had fallen out of my pocket somewhere in the park.  A quick call confirmed that it had been turned it at the front desk and a real crisis was averted.

Right before we left town we made a stop at crazy horse.  It's different than Mt. Rushmore, being a private entity, basically existing because of one man (and his very large family's) vision and work.  They have already established a Native American College on site.  The circumstances surrounding the place are just very interesting.  

Also, the scale of it just huge.  Way bigger than Rushmore, 

We took a short bus ride up to the base.  Finn was so excited to see Crazy Horse.

Actually it was a mama and baby cow he was really jazzed about.

But it really was impressive.  Though obviously not finished,  I hope my kids will be able to go back some day to see it complete.