Mt. Rushmore/Bear Country:
Oct. 19-23

At first Dan and I hadn't planned on going to Mt. Rushmore with the family but once we learned that I had work off and he had fall break we decided to go and I am so glad we did! We left Logan Wednesday around 2pm and headed to Farmington. From there we all jumped in our cars around six for the long drive to Laramie. Dan and I were in David and Mandi's car with Madi, Logan and Kaitlynn. In the other car was Mom, Dad and Kelsi. The drive wasn't too bad especially since we had adorable kids to keep us entertained and we arrived in Laramie around 11pm. It was fun because all the kids were asleep so we got to all spend time with Betsy and Josh at their house.

Thurs:
Since Dan and I slept on the couch we were woken up bright and early and ready to go on another 7 hour drive to Keystone South Dakota. Once again the drive wasn't that bad and it was a beautiful scenic view! We arrived around 2:30 and checked in to the ghetto super 8 where we all thought we were bound to get murdered...ok it wasn't that bad. Brent and Josh decided to go see Bear country while everyone got settled in, then we all went to the park to eat lunch and wait for the others. Bryan, Lindsay, and their kids, along with Jamie and Ty decided to fly because they just can't handle the road like Dan and I ;). After the park we decided to take a swim. That night we all went to Mt. Rushmore to see it at night. It was actually pretty cool. Afterward we all ordered pizza from the only place open in all of Keystone. Dan and I shared a room with Jamie and Ty and after some interesting conversations we were all rolling laughing, Jamie the most...with her crazy laugh that couldn't be stopped.

Friday:
We all got ready and headed to Bear country. I didn't have much expectations for the place but it turned out to be really fun. We were able to drive through twice. Bears and wolves would come right up to your window....Betsy's car got bit last time they were there. Then we did the walk through and all the baby cubs were wrestling each other. It was really entertaining. After Bear Country we stopped at Christmas Village where we bought ourselves a Halloween ornament and played with Bryan's i-phone4s. We quickly ate lunch and headed back to Rushmore so we could see it in the day. We were able to walk the trail and to go through the museum which was really cool to see how they built it. Man, Wyoming and South Dakota are definitely cowboy country! At Mt. Rushmore we saw a couple at least 90 years old getting married right there, in front of the big president's heads. They were dressed to the nines in their cowboy gear and had a few family members with them. We didn't notice until a bit into their ceremony so we had been kind of loud. Little Emily had lost her Hello Kitty glove and was so upset she just sat there crying over and over, "Hello Kitty glove....Hello Kitty glove" so hopefully they don't have the demonic chanting of a child in the background of their marriage ceremony :) Then all of us....which is a lot of us, went to Perkins (which is like a Denny's). Some went for a quick swim after returning to the hotel. All in all it was a great fun filled day.


Saturday:
Those who flew had to leave around noon so we left early to go see Reptile Gardens. I am not the biggest fan of reptiles but it turned out to be pretty fun. We were able to play with massive turtles, pet a baby alligator and see a snake show so I was glad we went. We had to decide if it would be worth an extra 2 hour drive to see Devils Tower and so we ended up going. It was really fun to see. It was the first national monument and people were rock climbing the massive mountain. After Devils Tower we kept on driving back to Laramie and arrived around 10:30 pm.



Sunday:
We went to church, stopped back at the Bakes house and headed back out on the road. We got back to Farmington around 5:30 and Dan and I got back to Logan around 7:30.

It was a great weekend with the family and so much fun to go on a big road trip.