Rapid City Trip

We finally took a long-planned trip out to Rapid City this summer. We had plans to go last summer, but Olivia was still in her phase of screaming on any car ride that lasted more than 10 minutes. So we postponed. And then gas practically doubled in the meantime, but we went anyway. With our new camper. Which I think Seth regretted about halfway across South Dakota. Pulling a 30 foot camper up and down large hills in nearly 90-degree weather (the forecast predicted mid-70s) made for a lot of stops to wait for the transmission to cool down. But we made it and fun was had by all!

The first night we stopped in DeSmet, SD at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead, which I highly recommend to families with kids. There were so many old-time buildings and activities to explore. We got there too late for the actual tours and presentations so we'll likely go back someday, but they had fun nonetheless. Their favorites were ringing out clothes with the old style wash basins and a corn sheller (I'm not sure that's what it's actually called). 

There were a few other families camped near us and one little girl lost her frisbee up in a tree shortly after we arrived. We assured them one of ours would have no problem climbing up to get it. And sure enough, as soon as Frank heard about it, he clambered up the tree and got the frisbee. As a reward, they let him keep it. That evening three of our families all gathered around one campfire and had a great time getting to know each other. The little girl (who lost the frisbee) had the quote of the day that night. She said to me out of the blue, "I'll tell you what. It sure is nice to be a in a Red State!" I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud to hear that coming out of a 7-year-old's mouth. They are from Washington state and I gather they haven't been too happy with how things are going there.

The frisbee rescue

We left early Saturday for the long haul out West. We drank as little as possible to avoid making any unnecessary stops. The kids did a great job entertaining themselves with reading, looking for cows and singing - I am pretty sure we heard Olivia sing the ABC's a good 50+ times on the trip. We tried avoiding the tourist trap of Wall Drug, but the transmission was getting pretty hot so we got to see it after all. They still have the free water - no cups, though. Quote of the day was from Olivia: "We're going backwards!" - said when a semi truck was passing us giving the illusion of going in reverse.

Outside of Wall Drug, after realizing that we almost made a rainbow with our shirts. I was saving Olivia's yellow shirt for the next day so we could easily spot her at the more crowded destinations.

Elena finally found a souvenir with her name on it - and spelled correctly! We didn't buy it, but she had to document it.

Photo op at Wall Drug

We got settled in our campsite, gave Olivia an emergency haircut after realizing she had gotten a huge wad of gum stuck in her hair on the trip, had supper cooked over the fire (by Seth) and settled in for the night. Seth was exhausted from the stressful drive and passed out immediately...which is why I felt bad waking him up at midnight to tell him our window was leaking. A lot. It was pouring rain outside and the water was streaming in right onto my pillow so I ran to get a bucket to catch the water. We stayed up holding our buckets and cups until it stopped raining (which fortunately was only 30 minutes or so) all while Seth was completely baffled at how that could happen because he heavily caulked the roof before leaving. He discovered in the morning that a panel on the roof must have popped out on the trip leaving a big gap for the rain to come in. We were thankful it was an easy fix and that I caught the leak before our bed was soaked. 

Before(during) and after the haircut:

We went to a beautiful Mass (I guess they're all beautiful, really) in Hill City. Olivia sneezed during the homily and the priest - who had kind of a Wild Bill Hickock mustache - said, "Bless you" and kept going without even skipping a beat. Later, the kids were able to bring money up front to a basket the priest was holding during the offering. Frank came back from giving his dollar, and whispered in awe: "That's the closest I've ever been to him!" 

The two big highlights of Sunday were seeing the Crazy Horse Memorial - I found the story behind it fascinating - and Mount Rushmore. Frank had another good quote when we saw a harp at the Crazy Horse Visitor Center and he exclaimed, "It's a real live accordion!" 

Crazy Horse

The kids were eager to climb all the rocks, of course, which is one of my most vivid memories of visiting Mount Rushmore when I was little. Olivia was no exception and had no fear - she immediately took to climbing steep rock slopes and Seth bravely followed her up and helped her back down, which is much more challenging than getting up. At one point, Olivia wanted to climb some very challenging rocks and I told her she couldn't, pointing out a sign that said so. She pointed at the sign and explained to me, "It says, 'Yes! You can climb on the rocks." 

We lucked out at Mount Rushmore to arrive just as a show was beginning of an Irish Dance group called Celtic Throne, in which the dancers were incredibly impressive (and a man was lying on the ground for no obvious reason through half of the performance. I assume he had a purpose as the performers didn't seem concerned and he eventually got up and walked off in seemingly good health). 

Monday we headed to Lake Sylvan, which was one of my favorite spots. Lots of climbing rocks and a bit of swimming. We had initially planned to hike Black Elk Peak (formerly Harney Peak), and I was glad we decided otherwise. It appears we have much less energy than I estimated because we were shot just from walking around the lake in the heat. We didn't even make it as far as the trailhead to the peak before we were ready to be done. I included some photos of the kids climbing at Lake Sylvan. Almost as much fun as watching them was watching other tourists watch Olivia scale the rocks in amazement.

 We followed that up with Needles Highway - very neat, but a little long for 5 kids. By the end we started to hear things like "He's wiping his boogers on me!" and "Stop poking me with your used Band-Aid on a stick!"

Lake Sylvan (Liv was on the verge of falling asleep)

There's a picnic bench in Lake Sylvan for some reason - Elena had to get a picture!

Up at the top!

That evening Seth, Sam and Frank went down the Alpine Slides in Keystone - I was at a local playground with the rest of the kids, which had a comforting sign posted warning that rattlesnakes are native to South Dakota. I was told Sam came very close to tipping his cart on the slides because he was going too fast on a curve (not surprising). 

Elena and Charlie skipped the slides because they really wanted to take an Old Time photo of our family, which we did. It was a lot of fun seeing all the kids dressed up. I was worried Olivia wouldn't cooperate because she kept throwing her hat off as we were waiting, but as soon as the photographer took over she did everything he asked of her - even following directions to smile or be serious. He said he's pretty sure she's the best 3-year-old he's ever worked with. 

This was everyone's favorite - mostly due to Frank

Tuesday started with Olivia waking up to Sam sleeping next to her. Thinking it was me, she rubbed his back and said, "Good morning, Mom!" He rolled over and said, "Good morning, Liv." To which she shrieked, "You're not my mom!!! MOM!!!" We had played a bit of musical beds that night because it was storming and it was really loud in the back bedroom and the boys couldn't sleep. So Frank took my spot by Seth, Sam went by Olivia and I went to sleep in Sam's bed. 

For our last day, we hit up the Reptile Gardens, where we ran into our former priest Fr. Craig and his family. It was a lot of fun catching up with them and as impressive as everything was, Elena said seeing Fr. Craig was her favorite part. Then we drove through Bear Country. And lastly we toured the Cosmos Mystery Area. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves for all of our adventures there. 

Petting an alligator

Meeting a real tortoise

On the ride home, we stopped to hike in the Badlands. We did a couple of short hikes. The scenery was so unique. There were lots of little "canyons" small enough to keep me from getting nervous and big enough to make the hike a real adventure. At the end, we took a family picture. You probably can't tell in the photo, but I'm pretty much terrified in that picture. There's a huge drop-off just 3 feet behind us, and the boys kept trying to climb out over the ledge. Charlie in particular wanted to stand at the edge and take a picture, but this Mom was not brave enough to let him do it. I try not to be too helicopter-y, but the older I get the more heights bother me. Frank found a sling-shot so he was happy just shooting rocks into the distance the entire hike. Olivia (as usual) made me carry her almost the entire way. If it hadn't been naptime, she probably would have walked.

Well that about sums it up. In closing, here's Olivia singing the ABCs (also known as the EDC's). We all have her version memorized now: A-B-C-D-E-F-G-Jake-I-LLLLLLLLLLLLL-P-Q-R-S-P-U-D-W-X-Y-Z. Now I know my EDC's, next time won't you sing with me!

Catching Up: Frank

Frank had a brief stint in wrestling last January. I think he went to two practices and one tournament before he decided that was enough - at least for now. I know Seth and Sam are sure hoping he'll go out again because he has a natural talent for wrestling. He especially likes doing take-downs so at his first tournament, he just kept taking kids down, letting them up and then taking them down again on repeat. He's also super fast and agile - he loves tackling anything that even closely resembles a ninja warrior course. Now Sam has him running practice plays for football: running, catching and throwing spirals. He does well with those, too, but isn't overly enthusiastic about it. He turned down the opportunity to do T-ball this summer as well. 

So long story short - Frank has lots of potential in the world of sports, but so far the desire is a bit lacking. We'll see how this all pans out, but in a town like Minneota the pressure will be on.

First tournament, 2nd place

Frank has been relishing his role as big brother to Olivia (for the most part. Now that school is done and they are together all day, he's starting to need his space and doesn't understand why Olivia won't stop doing things that bother him, such as singing the ABC's incorrectly on a perpetual loop).

Pulling Liv and Briar to the park

Daily morning coffee (it's mostly milk, for those of you panicking)

This is a picture that was captured of Frank from the Penny Panic week at St. Edward's School. Kids compete to have the most pennies. Dollars and silver coins count against their total so the kids can put those in the jars of other classes. At the end all the proceeds go to charity and the class with the most pennies gets a reward. Here he is "blessing" another class's jar.

Elena recently did a photo shoot with Frank. Here are a few shots.

Tucking in his pants, in case you were wondering!

 

Catching Up: Charlie

Charlie turned 9 in January, right in the middle of our family's first time quarantining with actual COVID (as opposed to all the previous quarantines due to near exposure) so we celebrated at home with just our family. My parents very generously offered to pick up a Dairy Queen cake for us, which was much appreciated as I was double tired from COVID and morning sickness. We added a little coronavirus to his cake we could remember this as the "COVID birthday." Once everyone was better, Charlie was able to have a party at PK's in Canby with all of his friends. Much fun was had in the ball pit and too much pizza was ordered so we had lots of leftovers to enjoy.

Charlie finished up 3rd grade, and has started baseball again this summer. He's super excited to have Seth as his coach this year. 

I also have a few photos from the school year below. The first is "Market Day" in Spanish class. The 2nd is from a field trip the class took in which Charlie was selected from the group to try on some safety equipment. 

Charlie and Frank are at the ages where they seem to be locked in constant battle, but every once in awhile I will catch them getting along. I came downstairs one morning to find Charlie reading to Frank and had to take a picture if only to prove that they are, in fact, capable of peaceful interactions.

As loud as Charlie is capable of being himself, you wouldn't think loud environments would bother him, but it appears they do. We attended the Quincieñera of one of Elena's classmates (which was a lot of fun to see!) and it the band was pretty loud. At one point, I saw Frank screaming as loud as he could just to see if anyone could hear him (we couldn't). Charlie, in an effort to lesson the noise, took a couple of Lindt truffle wrappers and made ear plugs out of them. The effect was interesting to say the least.

Like most kids, one of Charlie's hobbies is to sneak on my phone and take videos. There are too many to keep, but I'll share a few examples.