Vacation

In July we went to South Dakota for vacation. We had a wonderful time with Family and loved the time spent together. Unfortunately we lost our camera somewhere between chimney rock and rapid city :( So, we only have a few pics that we took with a disposable. But, we still remember the great times and exciting things we did and saw.

We went to an old gold mine that was really neat. It had a waterfall at the back of the mine where water was hit by the miners. We enjoyed seeing the waterfall 500 ft inside of a mountain! Lindsay enjoyed the mine as well. She was actually asleep when we entered but as soon as the water got loud she was awake and laughing and having a blast. Inside of the mine we say copper and silver deposits as well as quartz shafts. Or at least that is what we could recognize.

The view right outside of the mine was breathtaking. We absolutely loved being completely surrounded by this:

Joe thought this guy was pretty cool and wanted a picture by him. He is called the muffler man(don't ask me why, I thought he had a pick in his hands?!).

Chapel in the Hills is a beautiful solid wood chapel built after a church in Norway that is 800 years old. We liked the elaborate craving and detail on the inside and out. The house in the bottom pic was then designed after the care house of the chapel, complete with sod roofing. Looks like it could use a trim!

We also went to Story Book Island. We had fun trying to name all of the stories and I think that between, Mom, Jordan, Joe and myself, that we did pretty good! Lindsay enjoyed all the activities and playgrounds at this cute park(and so did we!).

This is a pic of Joe and Lindsay having fun at one of the museums we saw. Right behind Lindsay is the mouth of a really big fish of some kind(sorry don't remember what it was called).

One of the attractions which Joe got really excited about was the Crazy Horse mountain. He loved learning about the Indians and the dynamite used to sculpt the mountain. Below is a picture of Joe in front of a sculpture of what the finished mountain will look like. If I remember right, this sculpture is a 1/30 scale.

We also enjoyed many more attractions that we don't have pics of. Reptile Gardens was neat to see the turtle that was at least 120 years old (sorry i don't remember the exact age), the bald eagle, and the Komodo dragon (Joe's favorite). We also enjoyed the snake show. I still cannot believe someone would get that close to a snake on purpose!

One of my favorite sites was Mount Rushmore. I really enjoyed the museum that explained everything about the monument. It is amazing to me that people climb that high to sculpt stone!The trail around Rushmore was also very lovely.

Dinosaur park had huge concrete figures on top of what I think was the steepest hill in Rapid City. We also saw some glass blown. He made some swans and a glass bowl while we were there.

Black Hills Gold had a half hour tour which we were able to see how their Jewelry is made. It was very fascinating and neat to learn so much about how to identify a genuine black hills gold piece compared to a look a like.

Our Favorite part was being surrounded by family and nature!