We road tripped it to South Dakota for a vacation!
I actually had someone ask me why we would go to South Dakota.
Uh, super easy answer.....
There's people that we love there!
So, the bulk of our trip was about spending time with Adam's mom and stepdad.
Kevin grew up there and they've owned a place there for years, but they officially retired and moved out there about 2 years ago. The boys had never gone out there. Adam and I last went 13(!)(What?! Time flies!) years ago.
We took a few trips with them to some amazing sights on a few different days, but we also spent a fare amount of time just enjoying time at their place together.
 |
On the route there, we stopped at Wall Drug for dinner.
I'm hoping they boys will re-enact this photo in 20 years for me. |
 |
| Hanging out at Mt.Rushmore. |
 |
| Sylvan Lake |
 |
This was our favorite wildlife on the Wildlife Loop at Custer State Park.
The rest of the animals were hiding. |
 |
| Devil's Tower (Wyoming) |
 |
| People climb this thing! |
 |
| Spearfish Canyon |
 |
And dinner at a biker bar in Sturgis
|
We also enjoyed hanging out together at thier house.
 |
| Eating at Grandma's counter. |
 |
| The boys got lessons in slingshots. |
 |
| Setting up targets in the backyard. |
 |
| And the older two boys got lessons in shooting guns. And don't ask Adam who won in a shooting contest between him and I. (IT WAS ME!!!) |
 |
| Grandma is pretty famous for her Schleich animal collection. The boys love playing with them. |
 |
| I've requested being considered to have this named to me in their will. |
 |
| The neighbors showing up to bale the frontyard. |
 |
| A tub of water entertained these boys for HOURS on a couple of hot days! |
And a neighbor happens to own some animals that were fun to see:
 |
| Please don't decide to ram our truck! Pretty please! |
Adam and I even got to have a hiking date one morning and hiked to the top of Bear Butte
(the boys thought it was more fun to call it Bare Butt).
The boys had a fun treasure hunt at Mt.Rushmore. My brother and his family had visited this site last month on their vacation adventures. He created a map for them and buried a treasure off of the trail a little ways for them to locate! They thought it was quite fun!
And a few other pictures to remember:
 |
| We went to multiple locations where there were fun rocks to climb on. This is the boys getting a talk about how they need to be careful if they don't want to fall and get hurt/die! |
 |
| Tate really wanted to find an abandoned deer antler out in the abundance of acreage. And he did! Tate is easily our biggest nature/outdoors/rocks/water/creatures lover. He's already asked if he can come back and stay for a month. |
And special times with grandma and grandpa:
Overall, it was such a nice time away as a family and we made some good memories! The boys can now fully picture what grandma and grandpa's house looks like....too bad it's a 15-hr car drive away! Plus, we saw some BEAUTIFUL sights and locations and enjoyed having some slower days of relaxing. This girl would nearly always choose mountains, scenery, and a slower pace over busyness, cities, and commercialization.
