South Dakota Part 2

I may never get our whole trip recorded at the rate I'm going so in an effort to speed the process up, I'll try to be brief, ha ha ha!

Monday morning we left by 7:00, went by way of Yellowstone, it was a pretty drive and we got to see Old Faithful but if we ever go again, we won't go that way because of the slow traffic. After a 2 hour stop there, we were back on the road again, drove for another few hours until we hit Cody, WY. We stopped for a picnic at a park and loaded up once again. Drove to Sheridan, decided not to picnic but to make life easy and visit McDonald's. As we were walking in with our trail of children, a man coming out with his friend whispers (a little too loud), "I haven't seen that many kids since I drove through SLC." I laughed out loud and embarrassed him. I'm proud of my trail of kids! After shoveling down food and letting the kids get all their energy out on the playground, we were back on the road. FINALLY arrived after 14 hours on the road, in Custer, SD. It was dark and some of the kids were sleeping so the experience of actually pulling in to our destination after such a long journey was not as exciting as I'd hoped. I must mention how much I adore the GPS, we may not have made it it it wasn't for this beautiful invention. DJ second guessed it's directions a time or two and I teased him that it was only because it was a woman's voice giving the directions. He laughed and didn't deny it! STINKER!!

These pictures were taken at Yellowstone. The babies loved having walking along the path but pretty soon Porter started to crawl rather than walk and I couldn't figure out why. When we got back to the car, I took his little shoes off and his feet looked like they had a terrible sun burn on them. The only thing we can figure is that with the heat of the day, the little pebbles got in his shoes and rubbed his feet raw. Later on in the week, they turned in to blisters but they really didn't even seem to bother him. The kids loved this little chipmunk along one of the paths. It wasn't afraid of us at all so the kids knelt right down by it and snapped pics. One other funny thing, as we walked around, heads were turning constantly, and we could see so many people counting our kids and making comments. It was so noticeable that DJ muttered under his breath, "You'd think we were the attraction, not Old Faithful." I think the babies were the main reason for all the comments, they were so adorable independently walking along the path.

I'll never forget DJ's face when we pulled up to our Motel. He'd seen pictures of the tiny, humble, abode but maybe he was hoping it was just the picture that was small. Not wanting to spend all of our money on a place to rest our heads at night, this seemed to be the best option. Though it was small with very little room to move around, it had just what we needed. Three large super comfortable pillow top beds, room enough for 2 portable cribs, clean bathroom, microwave and fridge, 2 T.v's and wireless Internet, not to mention, great location, and great price. Though we had a few tense moments particularly at meal times and bedtimes, it worked out pretty well. I took this funny photo of DJ one night after I got back from taking the 4 kids for a walk. He'd put the babies to bed in the room with the computer desk so he had to resort to the bathroom for his computer station. I seriously laughed my head off, he looks less than thrilled. Oh, if anyone is interested in this humbel abode, the name of the place is the Rocket Motel!

After a good but short nights rest, we got up bright and early to make our reservations for Jewel Cave. This is the second longest cave in the world and is pretty amazing. They took us on a 1 hour and 20 minute tour with a total of 720 stairs. The babies had to be in front packs which worked out nicely because we were hands free to help Jordyn and Kaleb with all the stairs. Kaleb was less than thrilled about the dark, musty, cave and whimpered the entire time. I was slightly annoyed but tried to imagine what I would feel like at his age, wondering if I was ever going to see the light of day again so I did have a bit of sympathy for the little guy. Plus, he did manage to whimper quietly instead of a full blown cry. This sweet guy (complete stranger), seeing that we had our arms and hands full, took it upon himself to walk closely behind the girls and help them if they needed it. I was so totally impressed and wished I would've gotten his address so I could write and thank him. There really are a so many kind-hearted people in this world. After the tour was over, we waited in a little dark musty hall-way for the elevator to pick us up. The tour guide was teasing Kaleb and asked him if he liked the tour, he said, "yes, I did it, and it was so fun." She then asked him if he'd like to go again and he said very loudly, "No way!"

This picture gives you an idea of how thrilled he was about the cave experience!

The babies actually behaved themselves the entire tour.

Morgan and Jordyn decided that they might want to be cave explorers.

After the tour we ate a quick lunch at the Custer Community Park and then headed for Mt. Rushmore. As we rounded the bend and turned to look at the mountain, it took my breath away. I've seen it in pictures but to actually see it is really something. We unloaded everyone and walked the path to get a better view and took some really neat pictures. Morgan had been particularly excited about this portion of the trip so she was pretty excited and interested in the museum. It had a few interactive things for kids which was a real bonus for my hands on kids. Unfortunately, the babies were super tired and acting up so we weren't able to stay for very long but the kids enjoyed what we did get to see.

We loaded back up and decided to hit our next destination, Cosmos. We'd heard so much about this place and were told that we had to go there so off we headed with 6 very tired children. Can I just say that the loading of 6 children, 5 of which are in car seats, takes an obscene amount of time. And as you well know, kids just don't cooperate when they're tired so these were some of our most tense moments on the trip. Anyway, on to Cosmos. I really can't explain what we experienced on our 30 minute tour so this is what their Internet add has to say (Have you ever experienced a place where the laws of nature seem to have gone completely berserk? Have you ever stood on the wall or felt an unexplainable force? Here at the Cosmos you can experience all of this and much, much more. Cosmos Mystery Area is a natural phenomena that is intriguing and mind boggling. We offer an approximately 30 minute long tour that will have you laughing and shaking your head in amazement.) Let me just say that DJ and I were so completely nauseous. I think I would've thrown up if the tour would've lasted any longer but even though I was sick, I was totally intertained and the kids were so hilarious to watch. They were laughing the entire time and amazed at everything they saw. Poor Porter and Kamryn had to be in backpacks and I'm sure felt the effects themselves. They kept reaching out for walls since DJ and I were having a hard time staying upright. Needless to say, we were glad when we stood on level ground again, the kids picked out souvenirs and we were on the road again.

The best .25 I spent the entire trip was on the plastic horse.

Notice the trees bending both up hill and down hill. This is one of the crooked cabins we went in.

By the time we got done with the tour, it was dinner time so we headed back to our motel. Again, I didn't want to spend a ton of money on food or lodging so Regan and I planned all the meals, cooked everything beforehand, put everything for each meal in large bags and piled it in the cooler. I packed everything from paper goods, can openers, knives, dish soap, so we didn't have to even make a trip to the grocery store while we were there. We spent less than $60 on the food for the whole week and came home with only a few things left in the bottom of the cooler. I was happy with the way the food turned out, not the most exciting or particularly healthy food but we were starving at the end of the day so it all tasted good. Our dinner meals included, Enchiladas, Hawaiin Haystacks, tator tot casserole, hotdogs, mac & cheese and hamburger. Lunches consisted of sandwiches, chips, fruit, vegies, drinks, and for breakfasts we mainly ate bagels with butter and cream cheese and some ate cereal. The kids didn't complain about the food and ate better than they do at home so I considered the food a success. That night, I took a walk around Custer main street with the 4 kids while DJ got the babies to sleep. The kids enjoyed walking through some fun shops, taking pictures along the road and just having nothing to do but be goofy.

We had another great nights rest in super comfortable beds, woke up bright and early to head for Custer State Park. This was probably one of the highlights of the trip for the kids because we actually drove through a herd of 300 + buffalo, I could've rolled down my window and touched them if I wanted to. I did roll down my window for these pictures though but I didn't touch!

Not long after the herd of buffalo we came upon tons of Donkey's wandering out in the middle of the road. Tons of cars were stopped and people were feeding them out of their car windows and lots of people got out of their cars to pet and feed them. The people parked behind us gave the kids handfuls of pretzels so the donkey's started coming over and eating out of our hands. They were having a ball and giggling like crazy. The babies wanted in on the action so I opened the van door and lured the donkey's over with food. They were grinning from ear to ear and didn't seem a bit scared. We probably spent atleast a 1/2 hour walking around feeding and them and then finally dragged the kids back in the car for the next adventure, Needles Highway...more on that another day!