Laura and Melanie planned to meet up in South Dakota this summer and invited anyone else to join in; we couldn't resist the chance hang with cousins. So Mark flew to Idaho with David, hung with the folks for a week then caravanned with Val and I to South Dakota. The kids had a blast using the walkie talkies on the drive. We were Mama Duck (courtesy of our duck on the dash board) and Val was White Thunder (often confused for White Lightning). They watched a lot of movies and had plenty of silly time on the way. We stopped for the night in the thriving town of Rawlins where a lot of confusion at Dominos ended with two pepperoni, sausage, ham and pineapple pizzas for free becuase our order was so messed up. The kids ran up and down the hotel halls and used the phones to call each others rooms; they were in heaven. The next morning we hit the road early to get to our KOA in Hill City by check in time.
We were greeted at camp by the Iversons and Bernards, quickly got things set up and headed for the "fun zone" at the campground. This fun zone was serious- complete with bouncy pillow, pool, hot tub, mini golf, water slide and a playground to name a few. Bacon grabbed Kate and headed to the mini golf course.
After checking out the bouncy pillow and slide all the kids jumped in the hot tub.
Back at camp we roasted hot dogs and enjoyed some time around the campfire singing songs and telling stories while Mel picked Castleton's up from the airport.
We had a tent for little kids, a tent for big kids, and two cabins sleeping 5 each. The big kids covered their tent floor with mats then slept on top regardless of where the mats were - so most kids were laying across multiple mats of varying heights - not the smartest move. Lets just say the next night they changed it up. Kate didn't even try and just slept in the cabin with Mark, Laura and I. I loved staying up late chatting with my siblings - Lily came into the cabin and ended up sleeping on the full bed with me because the other kids were too loud 😂.
The next morning we all jumped in our cars and headed to the Badlands. This place never gets old.
We headed to the Notch Trail before it got too hot, but the heat was unavoidable with that sun and very little shade.
We had to wait our turn coming up and down the ladder, in that heat standing still wasn't fun but the ladder was pretty cool.
The view at the end of the trail was beautiful - I love seeing the crazy rocks with rolling plains all around.
Enjoying the little bits of shade - even if it was a little hole in the rock.
After the hike we ate lunch at the visitors center and continued exploring the park.
At one scenic overlook while we were enjoying the suddenly overcast skies Bacon took a quick pee off the cliff, creating a ripple of giggles as he had hoped.
One of my favorite places are the Yellow Mounds- I love the yellow and red colors layered in these incredible mounds.
Anson slid down one to the lush valley bellow. Anna followed him while Emmy and Neils found away around. So incredible. The kids were pretty bummed not to stop at the well advertised, Wall Drug, but we headed home for a warm cup of noodle, s'mores and roasting startburts.
Lily started roasting a left over banana and Jonas offered $5 to anyone who would try it - Emmy volunteered and ate a bite of burned campfire banana. Yucky but worth it for $5 (maybe I should do that at dinner every night).
We had a story telling session about Mark and Anna in celebration of their birthdays - complete with crazy tea party hats made by Kate - we didn't get pics but Anna's had a banana on it and Marks was more like the King of the Garden with just greenery.
Kate, Phoebe, Hattie and I getting ready for bed. The kids loved Jonas's sleeping bag that had arm holes.
The next morning we headed to the caves, first Jewel Cave and then Wind Cave. I was glad we went to both caves, especially because I had never been to Wind Cave and the boxwork there was incredible. Emily even got a junior ranger badge to add to her vest. Reed had a particular love for the caves and was heard to exclaim, "Yes! Iron oxide!" Pictures from the caves didn't turn out very well but we totally enjoyed both of our tours.
The kids enjoyed some time hanging out at camp, making braclets with Hattie, getting fudge with Laura, and playing cards.
That night we took all the kids, who were interested, to see Mount Rushmore. It was a quick visit but the kids had a lot of fun playing games running to flags with certain colors, states where they were born, states with certain letters...you get the idea. We didn't run over too many tourist, I hope.
We filled our bellies with leftover then had a great campfireside where we shared appreciations for each other. It was really lovely. Then we sang some songs - Owen started singing a little ditty about walking to Burger King, second vs. was walking to McDonalds, third verse Dairy Queen - you get the picture. It was funny but got out of control quickly so we shut it down and sent everyone to bed.
Sharee wasn't feeling well and went straight to bed but the rest of the siblings stayed up reminiscing about our school days; it was a blast laughing together and remembering things I didn't even know I remembered.
The next morning we woke to the shocking news that Sharee had been taken to the hospital by ambulance in the middle of the night. She'd woken up with so much mucus in her passageways that she felt like she couldn't breathe. Mel and Val heard her and got up to help. Melanie got on the phone with Mark C and he told them to call 911; a smart move because Sharee was able to get a breathing treatment right away with immediate results. They took her to the nearest hospital where she continued breathing treatments and tests.
The rest of us started packing up camp while trying to figure out how what to do with the rest of our day. The hopital visit and subsequent Covid positive test result sent our original plans out the window. Kate was a trooper and took all the little kids down to the fun zone and let them play while the adults and big kids packed up camp.
I volunteered to pick Sharee up, get her meds, and get her to her hotel where she would quarantine for the next few days. She was doing lots better, definitely not feeling great but optimistic. I took her, Sophie and Reed and dropped them off at their hotel room in Rapid City then met up with the rest of the group at a park for lunch. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
When my girls heard about our trip to South Dakota they begged to go to North Dakota, a new state for all 6 kids. I wasn't sure it was worth the extra time in the car just to cross the border till Laura said she was planning to hit Theodore Roosevelt National Park with her kids before they headed home. A National Park as a destination and cousins for company and we were in. Laura and I were planning to get to Dickenson Friday night and see the park Saturday morning.
So the two of us headed to Deadwood but got caught in standstill traffic. After waiting for 20 minutes and only moving 10 feet we changed our plans and headed to North Dakota - which ended up being a fabulous decision. We enjoyed the 4 hours of rolling fields, sunflower fields, prairies filled with grass, and had a little celebration when we crossed the border (sadly the sign was so small we didn't realize what is was till we had passed it).
Greg also enjoyed North Dakota because as soon as we got there we had service again. South Dakota had been so hit or miss I was hardly able to comunicate with him at all.
We got to the National Park and were met with views of badlands and rocky hills. So beautiful.
The day was still young so we decided to go into the park and see if we could catch sight of any wildlife. Grabbing lunchables and beef sticks for dinner at a "grocery store", think glorified gas station, we headed into the park.
We were met with tons of prairie dogs, occational bison and wild horses. We made lots of stops and used our binoculars to spot animals, enjoy the scenery and time together. We even had a bison traffic jam where we got to watch the bison walk down the road right between the cars- felt like Yellowstone.
It was a long dark drive 30 minutes back to our hotel for bed but we had such a great evening it was worth it. We went to bed and told the Bernards goodbye, we had driven through the entire park so we changed our plans and both decided to head home the next morning. The girls were asleep before I even had my face washed. We were up early to make a last jaunt into the park before we headed home.
We drove into the park about 5 miles and Emily said goodbye to the praire dogs, horses and bison then we hit the road.
We still had 14 hours to go before we would be home. 10 hours, several audiobooks and movies later we stopped in Pocatello for the night. Grumpily, we managed to find a place we were all okay to eat. I thought the girls would go right to sleep but they got all silly and we stayed up far to late laughing.
The next morning I slept in, got clean, woke the girls, and we hit the road, happy to get home in time for an afternoon nap and relaxing with the boys before bed. The trip was a blast but we were all happy to get home to our own beds, and just in time for Kate to head to FSY the next morning 🤪.
