Mount Rushmore Vacation Part 2

 We finally made it!

We were here for only a couple of hours. We did one hike around the base of the mountain where we could see all four faces from a different perspective. I stupidly took the stroller again, thinking Grayson would definitely sit in it, but he is so stubborn he wanted to walk the whole time. And the hike ended up being half stairs that we had to walk down so that was fun having to carry the stroller up and down a hundred stairs.

After Mount Rushmore we had lunch and then split up. Mom, Dad, Adam, and Lynnette went on a helicopter ride to see the Crazy Horse Monument while mine and Joseph's families went to Rush Mountain Adventure Park for the rest of the day to play outside on obstacle courses, a zipline, a mountain coaster, and a 7D movie (whatever that  means). We also took a one hour tour of the Rushmore cave which was a really nice way to get out of the heat for  while.

Wednesday was another full day of fun. We started off with a tour of the Cosmos Mystery Area. This place was actually really fun and interesting. The kids loved it. They had two cabins that were built in a location where the earths magnetic fields are all screwy. 

We had lunch and toured the biggest candy store in South Dakota and had an ice cream cone. Then we spent the rest of the day at the Reptile Gardens. It is one of the biggest reptile zoos in the US and has a beautiful botanical garden. They had hundreds of different snakes from all over the world. Animals still fascinate me as they did when I was a child. They had all sorts of crocs, alligators, and caiman, and giant tortoises, and birds. I got to see some snakes that I've only seen on tv. I took this one picture of a viper that had beautiful scales. I kinda wish I had taken more pictures--they had one of the biggest alligators I've ever seen in my life. It was massive! but I didn't get a picture of it.

The kids got to pet the tortoises and as we walked to see the adult ones, they ran over to them because they thought it was funny to see one tortoise "trying to get a piggy back ride" on another tortoise, haha!

Some pretty flowers Hannah picked for me. It was the end of the day and I was tired, but she was so sweet to think of me.

The next day we went swimming at an indoor water park. It was actually a lot smaller than I thought it was from the pictures, but it was a lot fun. They had slides and a lazy river which is all that my kids needed. We were there for the whole morning with Joseph's family and then we split for lunch. We took Grandma and Grandpa with us to Storybook Island which was so cool! It was a free park for kids to go play and look at all these fun mother goose and Disney scenes. They had statues and play grounds all over and things for the kids to climb on. There was a carousel, and a train that you could pay to ride. We rode on the carousel. Grayson wasn't a fan. I wish we had more time to spend there because there was so much to see, but we had to get back so we could get to our dinner show on time. Hannah even found her unicorn! It was extremely hot; you can tell by their flushed faces, but what an awesome place for kids.

 

Trish's kids watched my kids and us adults, including Charity, got to go to a chuckwagon dinner and show. This was the perfect way to end our trip. Some much needed time together as couples and just adults. Dinner was delicious and the show was fun and entertaining.

We took off for home the next morning. We drove more than halfway to make the last leg a little easier, so we stopped in Casper for lunch at a really neat restaurant called Little Shop of Burgers which was horror themed. The decor inside was awesome! All sorts of horror movie posters and creepy dolls and black flowers etc... and the all the menu items were horror movie themed. I got the ooey gooey burger that was chunky peanut butter and peach jam and cheddar cheese. It was amazing. The kids got to color zombie Disney character pages. They had the Mad Hatter and Ariel. We stayed at another hotel for night and drove the rest of the way home in the morning.  Hannah ended up throwing up three times this trip all on different days, and Stephen caught a really bad cold, but other than that we had a blast and I can't wait for another trip like this. I loved having more family come with us to share our time together.