Mt Rushmore

We decided to take the kids on one last quick trip before we all started school, so we flew out to Mt Rushmore!!! The kids were really excited to see it. It was a beautiful day, and perfect weather.

There is a trail with different markers that tell you facts about each president and also the history of the construction of the monument, so it was nice to do something a little educational as well as fun while enjoying the outdoors. Rapid City is actually a nice little area, with a lot of fun little touristy spots and cute shops. There are a lot of gold mines and caverns as well, which we will hit next time :) All the hotels have indoor pools and water slides too which is a nice bonus! Over all, it was a very fun trip - but if you go, bring lots of mosquito repellent because I have never seen mosquitos like those in South Dakota!!!


We could not get a single serious picture out of the kids at this point in the trail. Stinkers.

This is where a huge boulder fell and created a cool cave. Jax wants you to believe the boulder was about to collapse on him, I think...

You can see up Washington's nose from inside the cave!

Finally, something fun to do!!! Traeden could hardly contain himself on that mountain any longer - until finally we were at the point where you are allowed to go off the trail and CLIMB!!! We call him spidey...

The view from the top. The rest of us walked around this small cliff, instead of climbing up it.

Awww...a kodak moment :)

Araleigh wanted to join the boys but it proved to be a little challenging in flip flops!

Okay, yes, I totally made them pose for this one, but it's still cute, right???

Now this one I did not pose!!! Our little prima ballerina climbed on that rock and started dancing and posing all on her own!!! Absolutely no prompting necessary for this one! I love the knee pop :)

Day 2, we found a geology museum with free admission - yay! - so we headed over to check out some ancient bones and rocks :)

Araleigh liked the eggs, probably because she could imagine little baby dinosaurs inside...

There was something special about this one...the largest of its kind? The most complete? Found only in this area? Something special... I wish I could remember... maybe the kids know...Wait - it's the only real fossil - all the rest of the bone fossils were replicas. Maybe that's it...

Then on to the rocks, minerals, and metals. The boys were very impressed with the gold nugget collection, and spent a lot of time trying to imagine what these were worth and what they would buy if they had them for themselves!

We like the name of this one :)