Family Vacation

We just got back (late Monday night) from our family vacation to Mt. Rushmore (among other places). Just a word of warning---this will probably be a long post, so feel free to stop reading at any time. I use this blog to keep friends and family informed, but also as a journal. :)

We left last Wednesday morning and drove to Casper, WY, stopping at Martin's Cove (a pioneer site) on the way. Casper is an interesting city--built all along the freeway and in the middle of nowhere! The next morning, we headed to South Dakota. The black hills are amazingly beautiful! Jon thinks they're called the Black Hills because from a distance they look almost black because of the heavily wooded areas, but I kind of thought it was maybe because all of the trees were actually black in the first area we entered, due to a forest fire years ago. :) We stopped at Jewel Cave, the second longest mapped cave in the world right now, and went down 250 ft. and looked at a "room" down there.

We headed to the Crazy Horse Monument after that. I was expecting some rock carving of maybe 6 feet high, but this thing is carved right into a mountain! They have the head done and they're working on the horse head now. They said every 2 weeks for 2 years they'll blast away rock with dynamite to get it ready for carving and they've been doing the blasting for a couple of months now. The guide's estimate of completion (nothing official, but just to give anyone an idea about when) is in about 40 years. WOW! There was a very neat center with a lot of displays and souvenirs set up. Poor Jarren had an upset stomach---strange since he'd had the stomach flu the week before we went.

The next stop was to get groceries and then check into our cabin in Custer State Park. Yes, it cost a little more than one of the lodges, but it was soooo worth it! Right in the middle of the park and we had wildlife wandering through--mountain goats and buffalo. On Friday, we took a very fun road (Iron Mountain Road) to Mt. Rushmore. This road passed by big-horned sheep, deer, antelope (or as Jarren and Jenna called them--"cantaloupe"), buffalo herds, a pack of burros, and had a few one car tunnels that offered a glimpse of the faces when we came out of them. Back to the burros...we stopped to see them and had the windows down. Two of them immediately trotted over and took turns sticking their heads right into the van--of course it was on my side and I was a little worried about being nipped.

Mt. Rushmore was sooooo cool! You walk up a pathway and they have this walkway set up--each column has the name of two states and when they became a state, along with the state flags on them and then to see these presidents heads looming above them--very cool. There was a trail that we took that you could walk right down to the base and it offered different viewpoints.

There was a mystery area a few miles away (Cosmo's) that had some fun (yet hokey) entertainment. We went in to Rapid City and found this FUN park---Storybook Island.

We toured the Wind Caves (4th longest mapped cave in the world) on Saturday--we spent about 45 minutes down there going along and through it. We also went to Mammoth Site--a place where 35 years ago they found a HUGE cache of two different kinds of mammoth (wholly and one other kind) bones/fossils were found.

Sunday morning, we started our journey home, by way of Nebraska. I had never been that far east in the USA before and always thought it was flat. Well...in a way it is, but it's more like rolling-hills-with-no-mountains-in-sight flat. We stopped at Chimney Rock, an important marker for the pioneers.

We stopped in Denver, CO for the night. On Monday, we took a tour of the US Mint--and yes, Jarren was sooooo hyper and thrilled to be there with all that money! They said they make between 10 and 20 MILLION pennies a day--among the many of the other coins. We then headed home through the majestic Rocky Mountains.

The kids did sooooooo great!!! But the trip home was long--Jenna's bottom was tired of sitting and Jarren was still obsessing over money and made up a song about burping to keep himself entertained and Kendall wanted it quiet and Kristen was tired of Jarren singing and talking so loud. But we did it! And we are soooo glad we did. It was one of the most fun vacations we've ever taken.

Random Stuff

Just a few random things....

Jenna is completely potty trained now! She hasn't had an accident of any kind for almost 3 weeks now! And she has even been dry at night for months. It's so nice to have that dreaded chore over and done with.

Our tadpoles....after 6 months, they never changed. They never grew any legs at all. Their food got all moldy and I had read that they don't eat food anyway until their tail is gone--absorbing their tail is how they "eat." They seemed dead so we got rid of them. I don't know why it took so long and what was wrong with them.

The kids went to school on July 27 for 3 weeks and are now wrapping up their first week off-track. I like the track we're on because they go back to school and get a feel for things, but then they get a second summer. They go back for a long time the day after Labor Day (September 8). I'm glad they were off this week, since most of them had the stomach flu--one of my least favorite illnesses--so no school was missed.

Jon and I have planned a fun trip to Mount Rushmore for next week. Jenna is soooo excited to see "Mountain Mushmore"---well, all of us are really excited!

Wind Storm

Last night we had a huge wind storm come up. There was lightning and high winds, but no rain. I was making dinner and it was just about ready. Kristen was at the neighbor's and they didn't answer the phone so Jarren went over to the door and he said, "Why is it growing so fast?" I thought, "What in the world is he talking about?" I went over to the door and saw that this dismal flower bed was very very green. It suddenly hit me--one of the park strip trees blew over! I yelled for Kendall to come and we went out and investigated it. Within about 10 minutes of it going down, I had 3 awesome neighbors over cutting it up and moving it--it blew into another tree and they didn't want it to force that one down too. The tree has been dying and we've slowly been cutting branches off it--it's been leaning a bit too. Anyway...the wind helped us out and got it down and thankfully no one was under it when it went over. Jon got home from work and 2 of the neighbors came back with chain saws and helped us get it all cleaned up. I can't believe how helpful they were! Anyway....those trees don't do too well here, so we may be planting something else in the near future. It's just sad to see it go.

Hair Clarification

Just to clarify---I'm not totally gray, I just find a few grays here and there and it's getting to be a pain trying to pluck them all out. I guess it's only natural--I'll 35 in less than 6 months now. I doubt I'd look like a 90 year old women--yet--if I just let it go. :) I just don't want any grays at all--not until I get much older. I still haven't decided if I like the new color or not. I'm sure I'll get used to it and then when I try something else, it will look strange to me.

Hair

I am sad to say this, but I have two choices now: color my hair every other month or start going gray. So....I'm coloring my hair. The last time I did it, it went way lighter than I wanted so this time I did the next color up and I feel like it's too dark. So...I'll be having some interesting, constantly changing hair for the next few months until I figure out what I like.Before the latest coloring--see the roots?After.

BFF Party

So I'm late on this post too. :)

About 2 weeks ago, Kristen and her two best neighborhood friends decided to have a BFF party. They started here and had me do their hair. Then they went to another friend's house to have their nails done. They ended at the third friend's house and ate lunch, decorated cupcakes, and watched a movie. It was sooo cute to see how excited they were and how much fun they were having. And what good friends they are!When I was "practicing" the night before on Kristen's hair, Jenna actually let me braid her hair!! What a shock! It was very cute and those curls sure help hold styles in place, lucky girl.

Pain

When I posted about our camping trip, I forgot to write about the most painful thing ever. The mosquitoes were very bad, so I pulled out the repellent and of course it wouldn't spray. I took the lid off, but it wouldn't come all the way off--that stick thing was still attached. I tried to push down on it to get a little of the stuff to dribble out so I could spread it on someone's face and the thing sprayed me directly in the eye!!! It's amazing how much pain a little squirt could cause. Fortunately, I still had my eye sight the next morning. :) So here's the warning: apparently those stick things can still spray, even when they're not attached to anything.