South Dakota

We got to enjoy a week away from the oppressive Kansas heat and head up to the Black Hills of South Dakota.

We got there right before a nice big thunderstorm. Luckily we got the tent up before the rain started and the girls hung out in the tent and ate grapes while Rory stood under a tarp and cooked us some dinner.

I was a little worried that we'd get no sleep but we did juuuuust fine.

We got to drive through some cool tunnels in the Black Hills National Park. Thank you CCC.

Throughout the trip Madelyn and Lily were so helpful with the dishes. I was hoping that would carry over into every day life... It hasn't.

Rory got some water in his ear one night when we went swimming in the lake. He spent the rest of the evening with his head tilted to one side.

The girls learned to fish and loved it.

They even caught a few teeny ones.

This lake was right down the road from our camp site. The girls loved exploring it.

Madelyn found this crawfish. She said she thought it was a cool rock but then it moved and freaked her out.

The weather was amazing! It was so nice to not be hot and humid.

The girls loved running all over the hills behind our camp.

Our first glimpse of Mt. Rushmore!

One of the days we were there we went to Keystone and rode an old steam engine train up to Hill City.

It was a fun ride. We got to hear the train toot its horn at 20 road crossings! Loooong looooong short-looooooooooooong. They said that was morse code for the letter Q. Ships carrying the Queen used to use that sequence to let other ships know they had the right of way and railroads just kind of adopted it too.

View from the train.

In Hill City we ate lunch and walked around looking at all the tourist shops.

Grandma Jo bought us some much needed ice cream while we waited for the train ride home.

And there's Mt. Rushmore close up. It's cool! For about five minutes.... and then you've seen it and are ready to move on. Haha.

We also got to do a little rock climbing while we were there. I would have liked to do a lot more. There were some seriously cool climbing sites!! I somehow managed to not get any pictures of Lily in her harness. She didn't actually want to climb. She just wanted to look the part.

More fishing.

The girls discovering that when you hook a fish there's blood.

Grandma Jo was kind enough to watch our girls so Rory and I could go on a little alone hike. We hiked Black Elk Peak which is the highest point in South Dakota.

There's an old fire watch tower at the top. This would have been a cool post back in the day. They had their own pump house but you'd have to be a mountain goat to clamber up and down those stairs every day without slipping.

View from the tower window to the cliffs below.

There's the tower. I'm glad I didn't have to build that right on the edge of a cliff. Scary stuff!

Later that afternoon we went to a stockade that was built by some pioneers who decided to head for South Dakota to look for gold illegally. They got kicked out.

We saw a big bison herd on our way out of the Black Hills.

On our last day of vacation we stopped in Hot Springs, SD and visited the Mammoth Site. We took a tour and got to wear these fancy head sets. We were lookin' good.

They built a building over an old filled in sink hole where tons of male mammoths met their deaths. 

There's a pile of tusks they've been excavating.

Our last campsite was right by a river that Madelyn was so anxious to get into that she wouldn't let us go to bed that night until she'd dipped her toes in. Lily did eventually get in too.

On the drive home Lily got a fever. Poor baby.

We made it home eventually. It was a long drive. But the girls were awesome! It was such a fun trip! I wish we'd had more time up there. I feel like there was tons more to do.