Vacation Wrap Up

I know most of you are probably thinking, "when she is going to quit talking about her vacation. Enough already." BUT this is our family scrapbook and there are a few more things I wanted to document. It's taken me this long to get back to normal after the trip. As I said before it was wonderful, but if you are wanting a restful, relaxing vacation this isn't the trip for you! But I do recommend for everyone to see that part of the country at least once in your lifetime!

Some of our friends just took the same trip we did. They went a week before us so we were about to get the skinny from them before we left! One suggestion they had was to start a penny stamp collection for K. What a great idea! I remember getting a few penny stamps as a child, in Washington DC I think, but didn't know they were still around...and EVERYWHERE!

So we bought this little book

And were able to get these pennies for K as her souvenir!

They are made in a machine that looks like this.

Click here for more info on penny collecting.

Warning: I'm about to overload you with videos! I'm just now getting these loaded.

This is Castle Geyser.

Remember how I talked about the buffalo just walking down the road and stopping traffic. Here it is.

 

Buffalo make a crazy noise. I think that baby was getting a "talkin to" from his momma!
K really liked the "bus-iyo" In case you couldn't understand her, she said, "bye-bye buffalo, see you later."

Ok, that's all I've got for the trip. I think!

South Dakota and driving home

I'm so sad the our vacation is coming close to an end. I can't believe I am saying this, but it has gone by so fast and I'm not ready for it to end.  Before we left, all of us were very concerned that we were going to be in close quarters with each other for 10 days. We were unsure how it would work, but it has been great. There's been no cat fights to report!

On Friday was the day with the most stops. We spent the entire day in South Dakota. (Sarah, you are right...you do have a really awesome state!)

  First stop was Custer, SD.  We toured the Custer County Museum and even got to hit up an arts and crafts fair across the street from the museum.

Next stop was the Crazy Horse Monument and Welcome Center.

They have been working on this monument for over 50 years. One man and his 10 children worked on it for the majority of their lives.  This monument is refusing govenrment funds to finish the work so it may take a while.

In the picture you can see the profile of Crazy Horse.

This is the model of what it will look like when complete. I have to say that the pictures in history books show the picture below so this is what I was expecting to see when I arrived.

There were so many people taking thier pic in front of the model I just had to take a pic with random people in front of it!

Zach took this great shot. You can get a better idea of what it will look like.

The Crazy Horse welcome center had lots of neat Indian artifacts. One thing that caught my eye was the shoes, of course! Take a look at the baby mocasins in the middle. They were no bigger than an inch long! So cute!

So we left Crazy Horse and drove about 10 miles to Mt. Rushmore

It was so neat to see something in person that you've seen pictures of and read so much about.

You can tell from the pictures that the sky is cloudy. We were trying to beat the rain and see the sights before Kinley had a need-a-nap melt down.  But we couldn't pass up the ice cream stand before we left. And K was completely ok with that!

As we headed out of SD, we took the tour through the Bad Lands. This was another something that I didn't understand until I saw it.

It is layers of dirt, mud and ash from millions of years ago. Lots of fossils have been found here!

Even though it is called the Bad Lands, it was quite fascinating!

Criminals and outlaws used to hide out here because the terrain is so rough they weren't easily found.

A shout out to the Jamboree GT for putting up with us for 9 days!

Friday night we spent the night in the creapist place you can imagine. I would have taken pictures but I'm certain they had cameras in that place. I'll just say they turned their home into a motel. Each room was different and had a different price depending upon the room. Weird. I think we would have been more concerned if we weren't so tired....and Dad said "I'll answer questions tomorrow" regarding the motel. That means it was really weird because my Dad doesn't normally say things like this. Anyway, we survived and I'm erasing it from my mind!

Saturday was our big driving day and winding down of the trip. We found brochures on a place called the Corn Palace that we had to stop to see.

Once again K wanted to give knucks to "Corn-elius".

Which came just before she pushed him in the face because she got scared. The poor girl dressed as Cornelius couldnt help but laugh!

The Corn Palace was first built, entirely of corn, in the late 1800s . The building that we visited was the 3rd Corn Palace. This is a pic of the inside arena. You can see the pictures on the back wall are all made of corn.

Below is the outside.

Each year they tear down the corn art on the outside and put up another design. They were in the middle of this process. Everything you see to the left of the hot air balloon is corn. Below the hot air ballooon they had begun tearing off the corn. This place was kind of neat, but I think we were all a little disappointed because it had been built up so much.

Couldn't pass this place without stopping.

From here is was straight driving home. We made it home in the early morning hours of Sunday. I think we are all still trying to get back on schedule.

We had such a fun and blessed trip!

Thank you Mimi and Mony!!

Goodbye Yellowstone

We had such a wonderful time touring Yellowstone. It is really a neat place. Thursday morning we left the park and headed to Cody, WY.  There we toured the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. 

 It had 5 museums in 1! Plains Indians, Firearms, Yellowstone Natural History, Western Art, and Buffalo Bill History.

Because of time we didn't get to tour the Yellowstone museum. The firearms were a little difficult for me to appreciate because I don't know much about guns, but there were    We even got our pic made with Buffalo Bill himself. 

Kinley wanted to give him knucks!

I really enjoyed seeing the Plains Indian portion of the museum. The women were in charge of so much. They were responsible for setting up and taking down the teepee when they moved, cleaning the animals killed by the men hunters, caring for the children, cooking, making the clothes and other native attire, tanning the hides, and I'm sure other things I can't remember right now. I'm certain they were very strong women!

Take a look at the baby carrier attached to the side of this horse near the woman's leg. I'm amazed!

Think this was the original inspiration for the Bjorn and other baby slings/backpacks?!

After we left the Buffalo Bill Center we got back on the road planning to stay in Gillette, WY for the night. Turns out the National High School Rodeo Finals were going on and there were NO hotel rooms in Gillette. (Melissa, sure wish you would have decided to ride, because we could have watched you!!)

So we had to drive about an hour further. About midnight we finally found a little road side hotel. We were all exhausted and just stumbled into the room and went to sleep. When I woke up I found this sign

I think we were in huntin' country!

Everything is beautiful

Even this bison!

the bison were everywhere in Yellowstone. They often times think they own the road. Today the bison caused a road block for about 20 minutes because he was walking right down the middle of the road. The vehicles didn't bother him a bit!

Here is a herd of bison near a geyser

On Tuesday we had breakfast at the Old Faithful lodge. They had amazing French toast!!

Here's a cute little chipmunk that hangs out there. He was so fun to watch scurring around everywhere!

After breakfast we waited to see the geyser Old Faithful errupt.  It is named Old Faithful because has been faithful in errupting every 90 to 120 minutes for over 100 years.

It was fun to feel the mist from the erruption. The only bad part is that it smells like sulfur, which smells like rotten eggs to me. But I got over it so quickly because it was so beautiful!

I can't remember the name of this geyser, but it was amazing and crystal clear!

Some of the geysers were muddy, some very big and some just tiny holes in the ground.

This is Castle geyser. It errupts for 30-50 minutes followed by 60 minutes of steam.  If I am remembering right this one shoots the water 150 ft in the air (I think). It is really high whatever the # is. ha!

Finally we got the whole gang! I have been offering to take pictures for people this whole trip.  I almost always offer when I see a group taking a pic and someone has to be behind the camera. I was really hoping that eventually someone would ask our group. Finally we broke down and asked someone!

This is in front of Castle Geyser.

The main attractions for Tuesday were the geysers. They were awesome! I didn't really appreciate what they were until I saw them in person.

Thank you God for your beautiful Earth!

The big stops of the day on Wednesday were the waterfalls! I think I could have sat and watched and listened to them all day.

In seeing Yellowstone National Park and all of God's beautiful creations some scriptures kept playing over in my mind. Psalm 104 is about creation and David could have been tour Yellowstone when he wrote it.

Verses 10-12 "He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches."

Ps 104:24 "How wonderful are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures."

Rom 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

Tomorrow is Mt Rushmore! Stay tuned!

where the buffalo roam! Days 4 & 5

We've had a fantasic couple of days We spent a few hours in Jackson Hole, WY yesterday. It is very beautiful there. We had lunch and did a little shopping, but I could have spent the entire day there looking at shops. The boys were planning to raft there as well, but we didn't have enough time.

Here's a famous arch in downtown Jackson Hole that is make of antlers.

Last night we made it to our cabin and RV parking spot for the 3 days we are in Yellowstone. It is quaint and just perfect for what we need!

On the way we drove through part of the park and were able to see a momma black bear and her 2 babies right on the roadside. So cool! No pics though. I wasn't quick enough.

The weather here is fabulous. It was in the low 40s this morning when we left and then got in the upper 70s this afternoon. And there is NO humidity! You could have big fabulous hair all the time!! It would be my kind of place until I just heard that it gets 30 to 50 below zero in the winter. Way too cold for my liking!

Funny thing about this place is when wildlife is seen from the road people just jerk off the road really quick to get out and take pictures. Sometime it will cause a traffic jam for 30 minutes.  This is what the road looks like when it happens.

Today (Tuesday) we spent the entire day in Yellowstone. We saw geysers, mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, elk, grizzly bears, antelope, and buffalo! Some of them were very close. A really neat experience. I suggest everyone visit here at least once in a lifetime. There are people here from all over the world which is really neat too!

a female elk

in front of a geyser

a geyser

a male 7x7 elk. we were SO close!

the views are just breath taking

a herd of buffalo

Zach and I are at the laundry mat now washing all of our clothes. Makes me so thankful for my own washer and dryer at home.

That's it for today! Stay tuned for more from Montana!