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!