The Dakota's

WARNING: MANY, MANY PICTURES AHEAD

My sister moved to North Dakota about 3 years ago and we had never gone to visit. She comes here 2 to 3 times a year, so we decided we could make it over there at least once. We made a plan to drive to her house, then her family and our family go to South Dakota and visit Mt. Rushmore. 

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!

On Friday, at 5am we loaded everyone up and headed for N. Dakota! It was a long, "adventurous" drive. First, we didn't really know where we were going once we got to Yellowstone. Second, we found out the hard way that Ryan gets carsick...poor little guy! Last, it was 2 hours longer than we thought it was going to be! It was a LONG 16 hours in the car! But the kids did fantastic! No fighting, whining, everyone did great...even Dash, who I was the most worried about.

This is somewhere in the first hour of driving...trying to go back to sleep.

 We arrived at my sister's house about 9:30 Friday night. Saturday morning around 11:00 we headed out for a 6 hour drive to Keystone, South Dakota. Again, the kids did great! It was a pretty drive. N. Dakota had a lot of interesting rocky hills. I can't really explain them but Jer & I thought they were pretty cool. The part of S. Dakota that we drove through reminded me a lot of Idaho near McCall. Lots of little mountain towns with lots of trees and hills! So pretty!

We stayed at an Inn in Custer. Our kids had never stayed in a hotel before. They were SO excited! Once we got to Custer, we got some dinner and let the kids unwind a little, then took the swimming and off to bed.

All the kids but Layla in the Flintstones car.

Pizza after swimming!!!

 The timing and weather didn't work out for us on Saturday to visit Mt. Rushmore so we went on Sunday. We were actually a little worried Saturday night when a huge downpour came through. I hadn't seen rain quite like that before, and with thunder & lightening...I was really worried...but we woke up to beautiful sunshine!

First shot of Mt. Rushmore, right when you walk through the gates.

There is each state flag with a plaque of the name and date which it entered the union.

Being silly

All the kids this time...plus Jer so Dash wouldn't fall!

Up close...there's a trail that takes you right up under the heads.

More silliness!

Mt. Kidsmore...we tried to get them looking the way Mt. Rushmore does

 After Mt. Rushmore we hit the Presidential Alpine Slide. SO FUN!!! I was bummed we could only go once. We had to ride a chairlift up the mountain to ride a 2000ft slide down. I was VERY worried about the trip up, but the kids loved it!

Ryan wasn't old enough to go alone.

 I started quite a bit after Kayla but passed her on my way down. I'm not sure she enjoyed herself and was her normal cautious self.

 After the slide we had a picnic in the park and then my sister wanted to take us to one more place....The Cosmos... There is some weird gravitational unbalance in this area. You can't stand straight or walk easily...it was CRAZY!! And it made me a little nauseous. Unfortunately my camera died here so I don't have many pictures.

Just the beginning of the pull. This picture was taken at the angle that I was standing, notice the crooked house in the back...nope it was me

My brother-in-law trying not to fall over. You can see the person next to him too, that's the angle you stood at.

We headed back to my sister's after the Cosmos. The road that we took to S. Dakota was closed due to brush fires, so we took a remote highway back to their house. We were out in the middle of no where, with 2 cars full of kids needing to go potty! The only place we could find was a bar so...we took the kids to the bathroom in a bar in Deerfield, ND. We were able to keep the kids separated from the bar scene and just go into a big room where the bathroom was in the corner...PHEW!
We vegged out Monday and headed for home Tuesday morning at 5:30!
5 days, 46 car hours and 2562 miles...It was a FANTASTIC trip but we were all happy to be home!