Rapid City--Mountain Art

Al and I took the "long way" to Minot, North Dakota and passed through Rapid City, South Dakota. (The "long way" was only 2 hours more...) I'd never been there and I wanted to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Al wanted to go to Reptile Gardens. So in my head, Rapid City was a little town where they happened to have a great reptile zoo and some artwork carved into the mountain.

I was so wrong! There is so much to do there! First, there's the natural stuff: caves to explore, dinosaur digs, and this plase called Cosmos where apparently all rules of physics and nature are completely void. Then there's the tourist stuff. In Bear Country, you get in your car and drive through this bear habitat. There's also a zoo to walk through. There's a huge petting zoo called Old MacDonald's Farm. There's a lot of Native American history to learn about, some good shopping and restaurants (even a couple of year-round Christmas stores) and if that weren't enough, it's beautiful! It was never too hot.

We had a lot of fun there and I'm thinking that at some point, a bunch of us should plan a vacation and meet out there--so now I'm going to use pictures to lure you...

Here's a few of Mount Rushmore. The first thing we had to do was visit the ice cream shop. Al had been raving about it ever since we decided to make the trip.

They were huge and good! Al got mint chocolate chip. I got caramel butter pecan.

We thought the Presidents might want some, too.

There is a stage underneath the memorial. They weren't doing anything with it when we were there, but I know they have a great sound system because I jumped pretty high when there was an announcement for someone to go meet up with their party.

I should probably mention the wildlife. This little guy showed up and ran around a bit picking up little pieces of food left behind. We ignored the presidents for a while and took a bunch of chipmunk pictures.

Back behind the stage area is a walkway where you can get fairly close to the monument.

There's a little cave-like area that you can go into and get a great shot of Washington!

The rocks below the presidents are what was blasted away from the mountain in order to create the sculpture.

We didn't do the whole Rushmore experience. There is a little museum where you can learn all about the history of it with artifacts and films, as well as tours. We just wandered around and took pictures. It was definitely a fun experience!

Crazy Horse has been in the making for 60 years. I wanted to see it and was amazed when it cost $20 to get in! They're refusing government funding, and I thought all they were doing was carving a mountain, but the overall project includes a medical university, museum, lodgings, and a bunch of other stuff.

We walked aroung the museum for a while--it is huge and very interesting. Then we stayed for the laser show (We figured we'd get our money's worth!) I didn't get great pictures because it was getting dark, but here's a couple of acceptable ones:

And if you think I'm kidding about all the stuff to do in Rapid City, check out their tourism website:

http://www.visitrapidcity.com/

It's almost 11:00pm and I'm avoiding packing. Al and I are going to spend the weekend at Bear Lake with his mom and stepdad. I should probably stop procrastinating.

Volleyball Champs 2008!

Yesterday was the Chili's annual volleyball tournament. Al's team from the Harrisville store took first place! I went in the capacity of the official photographer--a title I gave myself because I hate getting my feet sandy without the opportunity to immediately wash it off and put lotion on. Taking pictures keeps me off the court, gives me something to do, and ends up being a nice keepsake for others. I took 195 pictures and out of those, I got several good ones, even if they're kind of blurry. Since for most of my readers the other people in the pictures mean nothing, I'll share the good ones of Al. And I can't resist sharing my photo of Jake's moment of glory...

The win was especially exciting because no one on the team had been champions in any of the Chili's events before. A few had made it to second place, but the first place was new to everyone. Congratulations, Harrisville!

We're Back!

Al and I are back safe and sound from visiting his dad, stepmom, and sister in North Dakota. We took two days getting there and went through Rapid City, South Dakota to see the sights. It was about 18 hours total driving time on that trip. Coming back, which we did in one day, was 16 hours. We got back yesterday, spent today unpacking, doing laundry, and hanging out with his mom and stepdad, and will be getting up at about 5:45am tomorrow morning because we have to leave for the Chili's volleyball tournament by 6:30am. So plenty of blog entries are on the way, just not quite yet. But here's a gem to tide you over!

Jeff's Birthday!

My parents hosted a birthday bash for Jeff's birthday on June 19. It was pretty fun. My mom and the grandkids had worked hard to make ice cream sandwiches. I worked hard cutting a watermelon. The intact watermelon is what was leftover once I'd cut a huge bowl--it was gigantic! I know it looks small in the picture, but keep in mind that the pitcher is a gallon...

We played RockBand and everyone had a blast--including Molly!

There are a lot of reasons to love Jeff, but the neices and nephews love his silliness. Lately, he's been spotted all over Syracuse with his dog Daisy on his bike. He went out and bought a baby seat and uses a doggie seat belt to keep her in.

What We've Been Up To

So it's been almost a month since I last blogged. The big reason for that is because about 90% of the people I blog for were in Utah! So here's the recap. We'll start with the sleepover.

Kenz and Madi didn't get the chance to do a sleepover when they were here at Christmas, so we made sure to do one while they were here. The one problem was that between my teaching summer school and Al working, there wasn't a time to do it when we were both of one night and the next morning. Poor Al got left out, so I recruited Jeff, Ashley, and Daisy to come play.

The girls started out playing in the yard while we waited for Jeff and Ash to arrive:

When Jeff arrived, he and Kenzie started out with Crossbows and Catapults, Al's favorite game that Jeff also enjoys. There are little machines that use rubber band tension to shoot and destroy your opponenent's base.

Then we did some Rock Band:

Once it got dark, we started the fire pit and did some s'mores:

Madi was a bit intimidated by the fire and kept her distance:

All in all it was a fun night!

My Eyebrow meets Trillian's Head

This morning, Al and I both had to be up at 6am. When the alarm went off, Trillian was on the foot of the bed so I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her up by me. Now, Trillian has this thing about being moved ... she doesn't like it. She was trying to wiggle free and the top of her really hard head hit me in the eye. After about an hour, it was still just a slightly discolored robin's egg, so I went to my Struggling Readers class. At about 9:30. we had a break and I went into the bathroom and saw this:

When I made a joke about people thinking my husband beats me to one of my friends in the class, she said that she'd been wondering how to tell me that I'd only put makeup on one eye!

I guess it's a good thing that I have some purple eyeshadow and the bruising is nicely contoured in the crease...

WiiFit Fun With Jer

Sorry these are so dark, but you get the gist of the fun that is WiiFit when you have an audience!

Sorry to Jer...Jill asked me to!

Hula Hoop:

Running:

Yoga: Tree Pose

Table Tilt: