This is Noah during this years soccer season. I wish you could see his face better but it's still a great action shot!
We woke up really early on Thursday to drive to Omaha,NE. Along the way we stopped by a place called Carhenge. It is a remake of Stonehenge but made out of cars..lol.
More football playing at the rest stop
A little swimming in the hotel pool
This was at the same place the cars were at
This was on the way to the water park. If you look REALLY close you can see Mt Rushmore in the background.
Another one lane tunnel
This was the Iron Mountain Road and it had a lot of U turns.This is one of the pigtail turns.
When you came out of this tunnel you could see the presidents.
Zoe and Corey
Noah trying to blow the ball in..lol
Corey was nice and relaxed!!!
After we grabbed some dinner we went to Mount Rushmore. This is what the kids have wanted to see the whole trip! It was raining a little when we got there but then it stopped.
The kids posing like the presidents.
The kids and I striking a pose too..lol
The kids got sworn in as Jr Park Rangers for Mt Rushmore. They had to complete a book with a lot of questions in it.
Avenue of Flags
They have a program in the evening and then light up the faces. We were trying to keep warm:)
I left to go to laundry ( yes moms still have to work on vacation) and left Corey with my camera.Glad I did because Kain caught this trout all by himself:)
Then daddy caught this fish and Kain took his pic. It's a really good picture taken by my son!
Zoe took the picture above and below.
The kids got to pan for gold and get all wet. The park had different programs that you could participate in. They found a few jewels and fools gold but you are not allowed to removed anything from the park.
After we were through trying to strike it rich.We went and did a little swimming in that beautiful lake you saw on the other post. I think of lake water and say gross but this water was crystal clear.
We grabbed some ice cream and asked wanted they (kids) wanted to do now. Guess what? More fishing! Corey was gonna get some good use out of his 1 day SD fishing licences that costs $20.
I was surprised that Noah knew how to bait his on hook.
While we were fishing a herd of mountains goats came out of no where. Kain had to run away because they were right beside him. And these goats were being crazy jumping all around and hitting each other.
Noah finally caught a fish and was VERY proud of it:)
Zoe was upset because she didn't catch a fish. She didn't understand that you have to leave the pole in the water!
Remember those mountain goats from a few many minutes ago? Well Corey was shutting our trunk and one came up on him. He jumped in the car and left his family(me and the kids) outside to fight the goats off...lol. That goat was after him though and I was laughing so hard...lol!
We finally saw the wild burros a.k.a. donkeys on the Wildlife Loop. They are the only animals you are allowed to feed.
There was one burro by himself and Noah wanted to give him some food. But he was not very social.
When we got back Corey cooked us some saugage dogs..yum yum!
Zoe had been trying to catch a rabbit to bring home since we got here.
Then of course we had to have some s'mores!
Wind Cave National Park
The kids and I with some buffalo in the background.
We decided to go on a cave tour since we were in Wind Cave National Park. Kain and I were a little scared but once we got in we LOVED it! We walked over 300 steps down to get in the cave.We were 190 feet underground and we went 1/2 mile into the cave.The tour lasted a hour and a half. This cave doesn't look like other ones.It has box work instead of the pointy things(sorry can't remember the name). It was really beautiful.
This is the box work I was talking about.
Zoe even has to pose 190 feet underground
We found a nice little park and had a picnic before we headed to our next stop. The boys have played football at every stop..lol. Notice Noah's tongue sticking out? He has been doing that a lot lately.
The kids have been waiting to go to The Mammoth Site since I told them about it. Years ago they were clearing land to build houses when the found some bones. Turns out it was mammoths and some other animals. Every summer scientists from around the world come to do more research.It was really neat to see. We signed the kids up for Jr.Paleontologists program where they were able to do a dig and identify the bones they found. They thought this was the best thing ever!
Official Jr.Paleontologists
We saw some more buffalo and a coyote on the way home from our very busy day!
This is some of the buffalo on the Wildlife Loop Road. This is the road where most of the animals are suppose to be.
Pronghorn Antelopes are every where
We found this cave on the Needles Highway. It was very cool and they ran right inside it.I was afraid an animal was living in it...lol.
Noah did a little rock climbing
While Kain stayed on the ground looking in the creek
We drove through a few one lane tunnels carved out of the mountain
Sylvan Lake was just beautiful
We found this little passage on a trail at the lake.
He is King of the World
Kain is getting to be a pretty good photographer.
We then rode to see Crazy Horse. It is still a work in progress.
I found a lot of good reviews for this little pie shop in Custer so we tried it out. YUMMY is all I can say! 2 thumbs up!
Apple pie
This was a Fort with some of the original homesteads on it.
We were told that the Elk are very shy and you rarely see them during the day. Corey was sitting on our porch and saw something way up on the mountain. He got my zoom lens and this is what he saw.
Not one but two Elk!
The Park Rangers had different things laid out for the kids to look at.
We finished up our day at the park.
We stopped at a rest area a couple of hours after the Corn Palace and found this awesome view! Wondering how I took our family picture? Take a guess.
I have NEVER seen anything so beautiful. It almost didn't look real. This was taken from the car as we were traveling along.
This tee pee was at a gas station. The roads were all paved when you got off the interstate but they turned to gravel.
I have to say the Badlands just took our breathe away. Oh only our glorious God could make such a beautiful place. It was so hot there too. I thought I was in a desert. You have to watch out for prairie rattlesnakes so we were all being very cautious.
Now I have been told you can not go to SD and not stop at the world famous Wall Drug Store. It started many years ago as a small place and has grown into a huge tourist attraction. When it first started they thought of a way to draw people in. They put signs on the road saying "free ice water".Well it worked because everyone started stopping there.
Our first buffalo burger. It tasted a little dry to me but Corey liked it. Wall Drug has anything and everything you could imagine.So we decided to eat lunch there too.
Finally after many hours we arrived in Custer State Park.We were not in the park 10 minutes and started seeing the wildlife. All animals have the right of way so you just gotta stop and wait for them to move.
mountain goats
( It is against the law to feed them so they are not looking for food.They keep licking the road..lol)
Instead of tent camping ( they have mountain lions and it gets cold at night) we rented a camping cabin. The only thing in it is beds but we liked it.
deer beside our cabin
