South Dakota 2009

1400 miles....kids trapped in the car....camper in tow....

Vacation a success...check
Marriage survived...check
Kids survived....check(barely....oh and Jackson only fell out of the camper once) :)

You might think we were crazy for planning a summer vacation road trip......well...we kinda thought it was crazy too. About a week before the trip we began asking ourselves "Are we trying to get divorced?"......seriously who wants to drive over 1400 miles round trip pulling a camper with a 5 year old, 3 year old and a one year old(who seems to think he needs to only talk at the loudest level he can) trapped in their seats?
Anyway, it was actually a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it too. South Dakota is absolutely beautiful! Custer, South Dakota.......so much to see and do we needed about 1 more week to get it all in. I would definitely reccommend this as a vacation!

A view of good ol' George from a cave.

Mt. Rushmore(or Mt. Mushmore as Kalei called it the first few days)

A view of Mt. Rushmore from a far distance.

The kids and cousins that they haven't seen in years or ever!

My cute little boy.

Hungry Burros or "Beggin Burros" looking for some food!

Dan and the kids with Mt. Rushmore in the distance.

The girls and their cousins Ruth and Alice.

Crazy Horse

This is what Crazy Horse will look like when finished.....unfortunately probably not in our lifetime!

One day we drove up a highway called the Needles highway. All the rock formations look like needles. It was pretty amazing!


We had to make sure that Jackson got in the some of the pictures!

The girls and I engulfed in the massive rocks.

Kalei standing in one of the little crevices in the rocks.

The girls and I on some of the rocks. Notice my great rock climbing shoes.

One of the tunnels you drive through on the Needles highway. The rocks just about ate our mirrors.

A couple pics of the views on the Needles highway.

A little cave we stopped at on the Needles Highway.

The famous Needles Eye on the Needles highway.

Hannah in the rocks.

This picture show's just how massive and huge these rocks are.

Some buffalo we saw on the drive to Mt. Rushmore.

Sheridan, Wyoming has these art sculptures all over downtown, the kids had to pose for pictures at most of them.

The girls on the Trolley in Sheridan.

We hope you enjoy our pics from our Summer Vacation to Custer, South Dakota!

Oh yeah....

I forgot to mention that Jackson walks, but only when he wants to. He still really prefers to crawl.....and Mom isn't pushing it!

Jackson turns one!

So this is how 1st birthdays go when you have more than one child......

Kid number one....big party, lots of people invited, Mom actually makes the birthday cake, cool decorations and millions of pictures.

Kid number two.....Mom almost forgets to even get a cake.....only the Grandparents show up for the party.....leftover decorations.......half as many pictures.

Kid number three.......Mom hasn't even planned anything the week of the birthday....birthday comes and goes......family goes camping....kid gets a birthday celebration in a campground with a last minute cake bought at the grocery store(basically just to get a few of those messy cake pictures)...about 10 pictures.

Basically that sums up Jackson's birthday! We spent the weekend at Lake Koocanusa(Northwest Montana, practically in Canada) camping with our friends and their family. A beautiful place! We have already reserved our spot for next year. It was a long drive and it was obvious we were closer to Canada than home as most of the people there were from Canada. It was nice to finally get to camp in the sun. The kids had a blast playing in the water and on the beach and even went for a boat ride on "Grandpa Arnie's" boat. The weekend was too short but we enjoyed it tons!

Jackson turns "1"!

Jackson's new ride.

Lake Koocanusa

July 4th Babes.

Jackson sleeping with his hand on Kalei's leg....too cute!