Adventures of a Mama & Four Boys

As we were getting reservations, we ran into everything being full.  It didn’t takes us long to figure out why.  We just happen to be going through Sturgis during the 2014 Road Rally!!  We had to see this crazy!!!!!  It did not disappoint.

We took a hike around Devils Tower and quickly realized, we were missing out on why people come here! No real point in coming here unless you are a rock climber!!!!  The boys and I will be back to climb this bad boy!!!! It’s a date!!!  We will throw in wind cave too!  Can’t really explore that til they are 16!

Standing on the Arm

We went to Crazy Horse today. Crazy Horse is a monument that is being created and has been a work in progress for the last 50 years. When it is complete, it will be the largest monument in the US. To give some perspective, Mt Rushmore could fit in his neck. It is massive, yet somehow humbling. It represents all the Indian Tribes and is a sculpture from the granite mountain of an American Indian riding a stallion pointing to the land. He is pointing to all his land where his people are buried. Crazy Horse was a great warrior and never signed a peace treaty. He had once said that the white man broke many promises, but kept only one, they promised to take our land, and they did. This memorial makes me ashamed. My kids learned a valuable lesson. We have national parks to protect special places because if left to the common man, we would strip it of everything. We have spent the last 3 ½ months exploring this America and it still amazes me of the lack of restraint that so many of us have. Walking off trails over precious grounds, touching pictographs and getting the oil from our hands on it, taking a lizard out of a stream and putting it in their pocket (while their parent watches), and don’t get me started on the littering problem. We are a very self centered society we could of learned a lot from these Indians, if we had not been so entitled and realized, like them, we are just visitors.

They are getting ready to blast tomorrow! The last day of tours for awhile!

We couldn’t not stop at Wall Drug! Years ago, before bottled water, people would travel by car and during summer months would be hot and sticky.  Wall Drug had a brilliant plan, they would advertise Free Cold Water so people would pull off the interstate and stop and hopefully shop. It worked and the billboards today still advertise free ice water…they do leave out, it taste crappy! But we stopped drank cold crappy water, bought ice cream and 110 dollars with of more crap!!  They are geniuses!

“Sometimes it’s good to be bad.” This quote sums up the Badlands.  Utah and Arizonia were my favorite states so far…..my new state is South Dakota!!!  It is so diverse. There is grassland, deserts, and mountain tops all with a few hundred miles!!!  I need to come back here and spend a couple of weeks!!  Badlands have so much beauty!  It has pinnacles and grasslands.  It’s full of animals, which makes my family very happy!!!!  We saw bison, prong horns, big horn sheep with their babies, and fields of squawking prairie dogs!!! 

This stop was for Grammy. Growing up I would come home from school and everyday at 3:00 my mom would be watching Little House on The Prairie. My mom loved this show so much. She wanted to be in that time and Charles and Caroline to be her neighbors. My mom was born in the wrong era! This past school year Mason read the first book and he loved it. So when we were only 50 miles off course to see where the real Laura Ingalls and family settled, we had to go! We didn’t know that much of the family was buried there too. We saw the school that Laura, Carries, and Grace went to. We saw the homestead that they first settled into the area at. We got to go inside the house that Charles built for the family in the 1800’s. Which was the last house that Ingalls family lived in. Mary’s Brail Bible and …..well we saw it all!

This was a really good day fro me too. I grew up watching and reading these stories and it was fun to share them with my mom and my boys.

My friend Cindy loves the term “Americana.” I bet if you looked up the word, you would see the name, Corn Palace! It’s a big gym with corn murals and decorated in corn.  They change it over year and this year, it’s getting a full facelift!

Corn Head!!!!!

Work In Progress

Those Murals Are Made Of Corn!

My Brushel

The Dells has been a FUN stop!!  We are staying at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Waterpark Resort.  It has a waterpark and pool with a waterslide.  Saturday night was a laser dance party and every night yogi bear cartoons play on the outdoor screen.  Did I mention the glow in the dark miniature golf course and boat rentals!!!  It’s a kid’s paradise just staying here!

We did venture off property to go see the dells, on a jet boat!!  The ride was a blast! We were doing 360’s and sinking the front to soak its passengers.  Screaming and laughter is just part of the fun when exploring the Dells on a jet boat!

The fun didn’t stop there.  My mom went antique shopping while the boys and I went to Noah’s Arc, “Americas largest waterpark.” We rented a cabana and I had the server fill up a bucket of Summer Shandy.  We just had the best time!  They had huge slides we could all go down at the same time, zip lines that crashed you into the water. That’s where Mason fell off the platform….twice!!!  That was a little scary.  A crowd gathers there just to watch the people fall off.  Poor Mason.

Griffin was funny, in the zipline section there are rocks to jump off and water slides that come out 5 feet above the water.  There are signs all over that say, only for good swimmers.  Griffin had the speedo on and they wouldn’t let him go…he runs over and demands me to take it off.  When he went off his first rock wall the lifeguard informed him, he was not that good of a swimmer.  He argues that he was a good swimmer and she said ok.  Let me put a red band on you so everyone knows what a good swimmer you are.  I don’t think he knew a red band meant danger, attitude bigger than ability, watch out for this one! He went on everything and by the end of the day he really was a good swimmer!!!  Hehehe!!  I called Mike to tell him, we are a waterpark family!!

Preston Ziplining