Day 10 - we're home!

We are home safe, no bad bumps, scrapes or bruises (just a few minor ones). We are all healthy and well. Just exhausted and trying to work on catching up!

We had such a blast in Sioux Falls, SD with Nicki and Zach. We stayed at the Ramada Inn Hotel and Suites and the water park was great! We wanted to stay so bad, but knew we had to hike it home. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Chevy's with Nicki and Zach and then headed home. It took us 4 hours, our shortest drive. It went really well and we are exhausted. Our vacation was so great and we had a wonderful time. We probably won't be vacationing like that any time soon... ;) The kids were a bit of a challenge. My Mom and Dad brought Maverick home last night and it was so nice!!! Thank you Mom and Dad!!! We missed our Mavey so much. I think he was excited to get home, he ran around like crazy! We're glad to be home, but bummed our trip is over. We brought the RV back this morning, and apparently it's heading out again today to some other destination (we're not sure where). I'm working on catching up with laundry now...there's about 6 piles downstairs, and that's not including the bedding. Ick. We need to get the grocery store...we had a forgetful moment of leaving our bread in the bread drawer and it's moldy. Really moldy. Woops. Well, we hope you've enjoyed reading our blog of our vacation. Now I'll be back to my original somewhat daily or weekly, or monthly blogging with everyday life.

Day 9, Sioux Falls, SD

So today, we dug Wall Drug. We had a great time at ye Wall Drug...we had a good lunch, Evan rode a horsey carousel thingy with another little girl, and we pretty much took off from there. We didn't spend too much time there because we had to hike it across the state of South Dakota today to get to our hotel. We arrived at our hotel, The Ramada, at about 6:30pm. We met up with Nicki and Zach (I was Nicki's personal attendant at her wedding in February) and we played in the super fun pool after a dinner that took a while (but that's a whole other story). It's a pirate themed pool and it's a blast! Evan has become very brave and we are so proud of him. He went down a slide all by himself and he even went down the big people slide with Brian a couple times...this is a big step for him! He's always been really timid with stuff like that, so you can imagine our excitement when he wanted to go down the big slide and he absolutely loved it. Mason had fun waddling around...he's hilarious to watch walk in the water, I think he tries to pick his leg up to go above the water with each step, but he can't quite get his leg up that high. It's so funny. Poor little guy. Now they're fast asleep in our gorgeous 2 room king bed suite. They're in the other room, of course. Evan was ecstatic about sleeping on the pull out couch and Mason's in his pack-n-play. They look so dang cute. Anyways....we're a little bummed that we're headed home tomorrow already, or I guess today since it's almost 1am. Our trip was an absolute blast and it's almost bittersweet that it's coming to an end. We had a lot of challenging moments, but we also had a lot of fun. We're so glad we took this adventure on, and now we're headed home tomorrow. We're going to take on the pool again in the morning, and check out isn't until 12noon, so we're going to take advantage! We hope to spend more fun time with Nicki and Zach. We actually just got back from the "Tiki Bar" with them...we finally enjoyed some well deserved drinks. They were really good! Ok, this is long again...sorry! We'll talk to you all later! I'll probably blog again tomorrow when we get home. Although we have a lot to do...we have to get that RV clean before 10am on Saturday! Yikes....

Day 8, South Dakota (huge post, picture heavy - make sure to scroll down to more blogs to see pics - there's 15 total pics)

Today was crazy! We headed out about 10am to Rapid City to Reptile Gardens, Bear Country USA and Old MacDonald’s Farm petting farm. It was a lot of fun! At Reptile Gardens we saw a lot of interesting creatures, and Evan and I were able to pet a snake. Brian thought it shot venom, but it didn’t and the situation was under control. Evan’s hat even got pooped on in the rainforest…but don’t tell him that ;) He didn’t know it happened. It was really funny. We saw a big tortoise that was 126 years old. There were 3 big tortoises total, and one’s name was Quasimodo because it had a funny hump on it’s back. Then we saw adorable prairie dogs, see pics below, there was this funny dome thing you could crawl under and look around at them. They are funny little things. Our stroller wheel kept popping off….and there’s not a wal-mart near by at all…it’s been interesting. We then traveled 1 mile south to Bear Country USA and that was really neat. We saw elk, buffalo, bears, wolves, reindeer, sheep, big horned sheep, mountain lions, donkeys and probably some other animals I’m missing, while driving on a 3 mile road, it took about 40 minutes which was a nice break in the gorgeous van with the a/c. We then were able to get out of the vehicle and there was a great path that allowed us to see some cubs and other small animals. Then we ate lunch there and Brian had a buffalo burger that was really good. I had a stupid hot dog. What was I thinking?! Anywhoobie, then we went to Old MacDonald’s Petting Farm while a storm was rolling in. We were able to see and pet a lot of adorable animals. Mason cracked up at the bunnies and Evan loved everything…except the cute little train they had that toured the farm (it was meant for kiddos). It started to rain, so we got wet. But we had a great time. The kids were exhausted…as you can plainly see from the pic below! As we were driving back to our camp, we drove through Hill City and there had been storms like crazy, and there was a lot of damage. We heard on the news there was baseball size hail, and we saw the damage. Cars were dented beyond belief, trees were shaken so horrible there were leaves all over the place, and you can see the pic below of a hotel that looks like the roof is covered in snow – it’s hail. I’m sure it had probably melted quite a bit as we had driven by not too long after the storm. We couldn’t believe it. We were very thankful we missed it and made it to our camp safely and everything was fine here. Just very wet. It had stormed pretty bad the night before when we were trying to sleep, and the storms just continued. However, we had a wonderful and sunny morning until we hit the Old MacDonald Petting Farm.

After nap time, we headed into town and ate at some Cowboy restaurant that was really good. Brian got buffalo meatloaf (he’s going to turn into a half buffalo soon), Evan got chicken and I had a burger. Of course ;) We got onion ring fries for an appetizer and Mason loved them (see the pic of him with the bowl on his head). Then we walked around town…not too exciting, but it was good to get the kids out for a walk and it also felt good to walk around for a while after eating such a big meal. We went to The Purple House ice cream place and enjoyed some wonderful ice cream and pie. Brian got strawberry rhubarb pie a la mode, Evan got cotton candy ice cream…oh wait…blue and pink ice cream (as his verbage), and I got a caramely waffle cone thing that was scrumdidiliumpscious! Mason shared with Mom and I couldn’t hardly feed him fast enough! We then headed back for our last night in our RV and tried to clean up a bit to hike out of here in the morning and head to Sioux Falls, SD and stay at a HOTEL!!! I’m very excited about that. Although the RV’s been great. We’ve really enjoyed it and would do it again someday. Maybe in like 10 years or so….but someday ;) I hope to blog again soon, we’ll talk to you all soon! Take care!

Day 7, South Dakota

This afternoon and evening were fantastic. I was able to complete 2 loads of laundry….it’s true, my work is never done! When Mason woke up from nap, we ventured to dinner at a great restaurant and Brian enjoyed BBQ buffalo ribs, I enjoyed a wonderful taco salad and Evan had his ever perfect grilled cheese. The people have been getting better…so that’s been nice ;). We then hiked it, in our fine vehicle, to Mount Rushmore. We had such a blast, we were able to enjoy the great ice cream we were told about by Scott and Betsy (thank you!) and we viewed the most amazing event we think we’ve about ever seen. The ceremony and lighting of Mount Rushmore. There were so many people, everyone was emotional and it was fantastic (ok, I was emotional, I don’t know about everyone else). They had patriotic music playing as we stood in this huge amphitheater filled with people. A Boy Scout group from Nebraska led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. A forest ranger lady, Grace Nixon, said a wonderful speech (she also said hi to us before she went on stage). We watched a 20 minute video. Then the lighting of Mount Rushmore began, it slowly started to glow and it kept getting brighter. We all sang the National Anthem. Then they had all the veterans then and now, and loved ones of lost soldiers go onto stage for everyone to honor them. The Boy Scout troop lowered the American Flag, and they folded it. It then got passed around to every person who stood on stage. It was so amazing and we are so glad that we went. The kids did great, and Evan even told me at one point, “Mom, this is so cool.” It definitely made for the perfect evening. Now it’s raining lightly, there’s some bad storms around that we’re hoping to avoid (but we think they’re east of us and moving south east), and it’s now time to get the kids to bed and ourselves. We have a big day planned tomorrow of fun adventures. I’ll write as soon as I can! Love you all!

Day 6 and 7...Wyoming and South Dakota

Well, this should be a funny post for those of you waiting to hear about bad/funny things. I think there’s a reason people like Colorado…it’s a wonderful state and the people are so friendly. We were bummed leaving the state, I guess we should have listened to our guts and stayed there! Our trip to Custer, SD went well in the RV. The kids did fantastic. The drive was extremely boring, we were impressed at the nothingness. We made it to Custer about 7pm last night and pulled into our campsite, and spent about 2 hours trying to level the dang thing (I’ll try to keep this blog clean…although some of you can imagine my normal verbage during times like these ;) ). It’s hot. We’re sweaty. The kids are strapped into their car seats screaming because we had to keep driving the RV back and forth. At a little after 10pm last night we called it quits and slept a little crooked, and very wobbly (the RV was leaning and we had it jacked up quite high to be somewhat level). This morning the kiddos woke up, which woke us up and we got ready and tried to head out to do some sightseeing. We thought we’d check our Crazy Horse…well we forgot the stroller, the broken stroller (one of the wheels popped off in Colorado), and we could see it kind of from the road, so we said screw it and headed back into town to try to find something else to do. So we ended up coming back to camp and asked to switch locations and luckily we were able to switch and the RV is now perfectly level and much less wobbly. Woohoo! So we then headed into town, in our absolutely fine vehicle (a 2 door grand am that is beyond dirty and musty smelling) and ate some lunch at a nice café. The food was great, so we’re hoping now that things are looking up. We walked around town for a while to check it out. The kids were getting a big crabby so we decided to head back to camp. We got back, got Mason down for nap (which took a while….again), and Brian headed back up to the car rental place to try and get a mini-van. Hopefully. We shall see what we end up with now. We’re hoping to go to Bear Country in the morning and we wanted a vehicle so the kids could actually see the animals (you drive through this road with all these animals). We are planning on going to Mount Rushmore tonight and then a nice dinner..once again…hopefully. We shall see, and I hope to keep blogging…the internet here is pretty sporadic, although our phone service does work, so that’s nice. I better go, this blog is pretty big and covered a good day and a half. I’ll hopefully be blogging again later with some fun pictures of Mount Rushmore or anything else we might try to take on for our adventure!

Day 5 - continued....(if you're catching up, make sure to scroll down)

This afternoon was quite chaotic. Poor Brian ended up getting a bad migraine and ended up getting sick. He's feeling better now (thank goodness). The kids were nuts, Mason wouldn't nap, it poured and poured rain, and it was really loud on our rooftop. Not the best timing with nap time. The BBQ with the Darling's was at 4, and we left here about 5:20ish. Anywho, we made it and it was nice. We talked with family and said our good-bye's (most of the family is leaving tomorrow). After the BBQ, we took Brian's cousin Russ and his wife Melissa to a go-kart place and then to their place they're staying at, then they came up to our place to enjoy a fire (our first fire since we've been here...kind of sad because it's our last night). We saw a deer (finally some bigger wildlife than chipmunks and birds), had a good time at the go-kart place. Brian had hoped Evan would have joined him in the go-kart, but Evan was too afraid. Go figure. Brian had fun anyways racing against Russ and Melissa. Then Brian and I took the kids down a huge slide and they loved it. A lady at the bottom told me Mason smiled the entire time down...and he had a fit when it was done! I think he wanted to go again...but walking up those dang stairs is tough when there's less oxygen. At least for me it was! Then Russ and Melissa came up to our place and hung out for the evening. The kids really enjoyed their company and we had a very nice time out by the fire. Except for when Russ accidentally hit the wrong button on the car keys and the alarm went off...at 10:30pm. It's quiet time at 10, and this place is pretty strict considering it's all young families...we felt terrible, but it was kind of funny. Hopefully the neighbors will think so too....we shall see. ;) Well, we take off for Custer, SD tomorrow morning, so wish us luck. I think it's about a 6 hour drive or so, so it shouldn't be too bad. We're hoping to take our time. I hope to have internet again there so I can continue blogging. We've been pretty lucky here with our great camp spot and internet...so we hope our luck will continue with great camp spots and internet! We've had a wonderful time in Colorado, and I'm sure we'll have a great time in Custer as well. Good night and love ya'all!

Day 5 - Rocky Mountain National Park

Today we ventured into Rocky Mountain National Park and headed to Bear Lake. We were told it was a kid friendly and stroller friendly place to go, and it sure was! It was absolutely gorgeous, but very busy! Evan and Mason enjoyed watching the ducks and chipmunks. The lake has a very nice walk path that goes around the whole thing - I think the total walk was about a mile. It felt good to finally do something *Colorado-ish*. We drove around for a bit and tried to see another location we were told was gorgeous, but we ran out of time with the kids and scheduling stuff - we're headed to a BBQ tonight with the Darling family - at least who's left of the Darling family still here in Colorado! The views here are amazing, we're a little bummed we leave tomorrow morning for Custer, South Dakota; but hopefully that'll be fun too! We hope you're all doing well!

Day 4 - Reception in Colorado

The reception was held at Historic Crag's Lodge in Estes Park and it was beautiful! We had a lot of fun! The food was good, but there wasn't any kid friendly foods which made for an interesting evening. Evan and Mason did not want to sit through dinner and it was really difficult trying to keep them quiet during toast time. Brian had to take Mason out of the room because he just screamed. Oh well. It was great to sit around and talk with some family...when we had a chance! The dance was great, they have a friend in Denver who is a DJ and he did some great mixes with music. Toward the end of the evening Evan finally wanted to dance. Brian and I even got to sneak in a date night - Grandma and Grandpa offered to come and watch our kiddos so we could go out with the cousins after the reception, and we went to a bar called Lonigan's Saloon. It was really fun - thank you Grandma and Grandpa! They hung out in our RV while the kids slept and watched the movie "Bruce Almighty". Check out our pics of the reception below - enjoy!