Family Vacation, Continued

Day 5: South Dakota. A wonderful day of relaxing and being together. We had finally arrived at our long-awaited "destination" (via some wonderful adventures, of course!), and were thrilled (the kids especially) not to have to get in the car. We slept in and relaxed at our cute little cabin. Here are Kyle & the kids out front:
You are basically seeing the entire cabin in the picture. Nothing fancy, nothing spacious, but we loved that little room. We had two beds, a table and a little stand with a lamp. Oh, and who can forget the all important space heater?:) Skyler's crib barely squeezed into the corner. But the kids loved it and the parents loved the price:). It was at a cute little RV park/campground; our bathrooms were in the building you see in the background, so it was practically closer than our bathrooms at home (LOL)! And besides the one night/morning we had rain, it was sunny and beautiful, so we spent most of the time while we were there playing outside. We were a little worried about not being in a hotel, but in the end feel like it worked out much better than a hotel.

Another thing we loved about our campground: the little mini-golf course and playground. The kids loved being outside, running around, yelling, and chasing after the balls that first morning.

After lunch we hit the road again, driving through beautiful Custer State Park. This park is south of Mount Rushmore and covers some beautiful country. The scenic drives are incredible and there is a lot of wildlife to see. We drove through one of the scenic areas on our way south to the Hot Springs, then the next day spent the entire morning driving through more of it.

These burros used to be domesticated and carried tourists to the summit of one of the mountains in the park. They are now wild, but are still very people friendly. They are called the "begging burros"; we saw them eating whatever people offered them.

You can see the beautiful Black Hills in these pictures. This was our one rainy morning but was still gorgeous. The tunnels carved right through the mountain are very cool (signs before you enter warn you to honk first). The lower left picture is of the "Needles Eye" and is actually high above the ground (hard to see in the photo).

Wednesday afternoon we spent at Evans Plunge Hot Springs. The kids loved the kiddie slide and areas, and the giant crocodile to float on. Kylene and Skyler loved going down a long, windy slide on mommy and daddy's laps, but Spencer never got up the courage to do it. Daddy loved the big "Evans Plunge" slide that drops straight down in a closed tube (aka, complete darkness), but mommy couldn't summon her own courage on that one. :) It was a fun afternoon, although I have to say I wish the water was a little warmer (aren't hot springs supposed to be HOT?).

Day 6: South Dakota. We ate breakfast at the set of Dances with Wolves. It is a cute western town right outside Rapid City that was built for the filming of the movie and is now a tourist attraction with all kinds of western shops, a restaurant, and an evening show. They also have lots of tours of the area that depart from there. Anyway, we were lured in by the All You Can Eat Pancake breakfast for 99 cents a person (they get you on the hot chocolate/orange juice and sausage/bacon prices)! Then we walked around the shops and learned how to make a rope in the "rope shop". The man who taught the kids was really cute and patient with them, and since it was the "off season", spent a long time with us.

We spent the rest of the morning doing the scenic drives through Custer, then met up with the Rummler's at Mount Rushmore!! We were so excited about that and loved every minute with them. More on that to come...