South Dakota Vacation!

In August we took a little road trip to South Dakota. It was a blast, the kids had so much fun and were so good in the car. They loved the hotel - Kolby sure looks comfy :)

We went to one of the caves. We were really debating because I had forgotten their jackets at the hotel and I know that it gets pretty cold way down in those caves, but we were close to it and just decided to do it. You know, I don't consider myself a claustrophobic person normally - and I remember doing these caves when I was little and went on vacation with my Dad and don't really remember having a problem - but I did NOT like it at all!! Right away we went down like a thousand stairs and just kept going deeper and deeper, and further and further away from the exit and I had terrible thoughts going through my head. The guide was saying how it was wetter than normal because they'd had a lot of rain and I thought for sure it was just going to collapse on us and I was feeling so terrible for putting my children in harms way. Ugh! Thank goodness we made it out alive, and they thought it was interesting, so it all worked out :)

Getting ready to go in the cave, the second after I took this picture Sammie fell off the step and hurt herself and started crying :)

Next up was the Reptile Gardens. Once again, being super unprepared because I didn't bring sunscreen for the kiddos and it was HOT, good thing part of it was inside :) The kids loved seeing all the animals, and watching some of the shows.

The huge turtles were my absolute favorite! Crazy to think some of them were over 100 years old!

And next were the "faces on the mountain".

And my favorite activity was the mining for gold. We went to an old mine and had a very interesting tour (and didn't go so far in the mountain that I felt trapped :) )  This particular mine a couple guys started and hired people to help them and after 20 years of digging ended up with about $100 - luck was not on their side for sure because many people struck it rich just on the other side of the mountain :)

Then we got to go outside and we were taught how to pan for gold - it was so interesting!

I love this picture because it shows exactly what was happening. Bradley did NOT want to get wet or dirty and was just appalled when his hands got stuff on them - and Gracie is on the completely other end of the spectrum :) She was not needing the pan at all, she was digging in that wet dirt with her bare hands for over half an hour trying to find some gold :) Her hair was even getting wet from her leaning so far over :)

Showing our new treasures - we found a couple tiny pieces of gold when panning and several good sized Garnets :) And all the kids got to pick out some cool rocks inside :)

Bear Country USA! Kevin and I stood in the same exact spot 8 years earlier when I was pregnant with Bradley. Oh how our family has grown! What a difference! (So blessed!!)

Oh the pool! So first night we went swimming and the kids had new floaties to help them (and me). Bradley being very unlike himself was feeling very brave very quickly and decided that he could jump in in the deep end - not realizing it was the deep end :( Kevin and I did not see him get out and sneak over there and jump in - we looked over when we heard a guy on the side yelling to his son to "Help him!!" Ugh! He had just jumped in, realized that he couldn't touch and freaked out and was really struggling. Kevin swam over there and got him pretty quickly but it really scared all of us. He was able to keep himself above water though, he didn't choke or swallow any water so afterwords we were telling him that if he stayed calm he would have actually been able to swim to the side, but he just got so scared :( Poor thing. Then that night at dinner we lost Kolby's paci and couldn't find it anywhere and Kevin had to make an emergency late night run to a sketchy Walmart nearby to grab a temporary replacement. Then - I forget what it was even about, but Bradley was telling us something and he "swore" that he was telling the truth. Turns out he wasn't actually telling the truth and we had a very big discussion about saying "I swear" - a discussion that included how it is a sin to lie and we talked a little about hell. So he ended up saying, "Great! I almost drowned today and now I'm going to hell! :( " to which Kevin replied, "So all in all - pretty good start to vacation :)" haha