That spells vacation! My family and I recently went on an 8 day excursion called vacation. This trip was the longest time away from AND the most time we have spent together so closely as a family....I think ever. We all had our growly - don't poke the bear - moments but all in all I think it went well! We had to go invest in a dual screen DVD player for the car as the husband and I feared for all of our sanity. Unfortunately, our first leg of the trip was through Yellowstone Park and the DVD player was still new so most of the sight-seeing was done by the husband and myself. After spending the night in Cody we ventured over to Thermopolis to test out the "largest thermal hot springs in the world." We took the kids to a place called Star Plunge. For those of you who haven't been there......it was interesting. The inside pool seemed like it was over 100 years old but it was hard to tell because the minerals cause all that build up. The husband DID NOT care for the indoor pool because of the pleasantly unpleasant odor of bad eggs...aka...sulpher. Unfortunately for us that is where we spent a majority of the time since that was where the baby pool was. We did swim some outside and we rode the slides with the kids and we watched our oldest jump off the high dive (pretty good considering she claims to be afraid of heights) I know the kids would go back in a heartbeat but I don't think their dad shares the same delight. Our next leg of the trip took us to Rapid City, SD. We mostly chilled and swam at the hotel (correction-MOTEL......Motel 6 to be exact -- but at least it had a pool which is all the kids cared about) We played a quick round of mini golf at a great place called the Pirates Cove. Fun yes, but I am sure it would have been more fun if the kids attention spans could have been longer and our sweat wouldn't have been sweating! (Holy humidity Batman!!!!!) The next day we arose refreshed and ready for the day! After a quick breakfast we were off to be super tourists!! We started out by driving out to the Crazy Horse Memorial. Truly a great place, but again not too fun with short attention spans. The kids were mad that we didn't stop at Mt. Rushmore on the way back but if have picked up on my theme then you know why! My husband the antagonizer got a kick out 
of making them take a picture of the dead presidents out the window while we drove by!! LOL! We then ventured down to Keystone, SD.....Oh what a wonderful world! (If you own a tourist shop!!) It was all good though, since we went with the full intentions of being the best tourists we could be! We started at the Presidential Wax Museum -- a cool place, but again the attention spans. We also went to the Keystone School which is now a museum with an interesting display about Carrie Ingalls. Our oldest child liked it because she is reading those books and the littlest one liked it because he found some old chalk to eat in one of the class rooms. We also got to ride a tram (looks like a ski lift) up a hill and the baby and rode it back down while all the others got to ride down a huge slide. We tried to take a train ride....after we finally convinced the kids it would be fun to do we found out it was sold out!! Maybe next time!! After a much needed night's sleep we were off to a little town called Winner. (My family and I lived there for a year when I was a freshman in high school) My Uncle Wayne (he was married to my dad's sister) and cousins live there. My uncle and his wife took us out to dinner and we got to share our children's impeccable table manners with the other patrons.....you know I'm kidding, right?!?! LOL! After some visiting and touring of Winner, we headed over to Chamberlain and little town called Pukwana. Puk is a place where my dad's family lived. I liked visiting there when we were kids. By the way, if you ever hear of a place called Puk U......(dad used to tell us it was a school) there is indeed a place bearing that name. I am sure that you probably guessed that it was a bar! LOL! We left there and headed up to my brother and his wife's place in Ree Heights. We just hung out and visited the first day. The next day (after some needed sleeping in) we hung out with Andi (my brother's wife) and Jesse and Kaiti (their kids). We went to their AWESOME town pool (did I mention how awesome it was) and swam for a few hours befo
re going to the races. (to watch my brother) We had a blast at the races and Doug did good. He won his heat and got 2nd in the feature.....by the way Doug, thanks again for the watermelon!! (it was pretty good) We decided to stay one extra day so we could go out and watch our nephew Jesse race go karts. It was pretty fun to watch!! Then we got up the next day at the butt crack of dawn and drove straight home....it was nice, the kids slept most of the trip! I think we all had a pretty good time and, for the most part, we all still like each other! LOL! We may just make the trip to SD a yearly thing.....I will have to settle for vacation because I don't think I can convince the husband to move there!!!! Hope your summer is going well!! Until next time....
of making them take a picture of the dead presidents out the window while we drove by!! LOL! We then ventured down to Keystone, SD.....Oh what a wonderful world! (If you own a tourist shop!!) It was all good though, since we went with the full intentions of being the best tourists we could be! We started at the Presidential Wax Museum -- a cool place, but again the attention spans. We also went to the Keystone School which is now a museum with an interesting display about Carrie Ingalls. Our oldest child liked it because she is reading those books and the littlest one liked it because he found some old chalk to eat in one of the class rooms. We also got to ride a tram (looks like a ski lift) up a hill and the baby and rode it back down while all the others got to ride down a huge slide. We tried to take a train ride....after we finally convinced the kids it would be fun to do we found out it was sold out!! Maybe next time!! After a much needed night's sleep we were off to a little town called Winner. (My family and I lived there for a year when I was a freshman in high school) My Uncle Wayne (he was married to my dad's sister) and cousins live there. My uncle and his wife took us out to dinner and we got to share our children's impeccable table manners with the other patrons.....you know I'm kidding, right?!?! LOL! After some visiting and touring of Winner, we headed over to Chamberlain and little town called Pukwana. Puk is a place where my dad's family lived. I liked visiting there when we were kids. By the way, if you ever hear of a place called Puk U......(dad used to tell us it was a school) there is indeed a place bearing that name. I am sure that you probably guessed that it was a bar! LOL! We left there and headed up to my brother and his wife's place in Ree Heights. We just hung out and visited the first day. The next day (after some needed sleeping in) we hung out with Andi (my brother's wife) and Jesse and Kaiti (their kids). We went to their AWESOME town pool (did I mention how awesome it was) and swam for a few hours befo
re going to the races. (to watch my brother) We had a blast at the races and Doug did good. He won his heat and got 2nd in the feature.....by the way Doug, thanks again for the watermelon!! (it was pretty good) We decided to stay one extra day so we could go out and watch our nephew Jesse race go karts. It was pretty fun to watch!! Then we got up the next day at the butt crack of dawn and drove straight home....it was nice, the kids slept most of the trip! I think we all had a pretty good time and, for the most part, we all still like each other! LOL! We may just make the trip to SD a yearly thing.....I will have to settle for vacation because I don't think I can convince the husband to move there!!!! Hope your summer is going well!! Until next time....
