Black Hills Family Vacation

This summer we did a big family vacation. By big I don't mean we went somewhere big I mean we spent it with a lot of family. :-) My sister and her family and my cousin and her family came to join us in the Black Hills for a few days. We spent a day in Brookings before heading west. Alexia had a ton of fun at the Children's Museum with her cousins Isabella and Isaiah.

Our first stop on the way to the hills was Wall Drug of course. With a sign every 5 miles along the drive you really can't pass it up. That, and there really aren't many other options. We had lunch and poked around in the myriad of gift shops. Alexia found her friend the cowboy from last year and we took a few pictures. These four girls had a blast playing together and it was fun to watch them. They even managed to include Isaiah most of the time.

We drove through the badlands but it was beastly hot. I have to say I have never been to the badlands in the summer and not felt extremely hot but our thermometers were registering 112 degrees. Chris spotted a relatively large herd of bighorn sheep in a very inopportune spot and everyone got out to see them. Then of course we saw quite a few hanging out right next to the road. Go figure. We got out to take a few pictures and see a few views but otherwise we did most of our enjoying of the badlands from the air conditioning in the car, which was working overtime.

On our first day in the hills we all rode the 1880's steam engine train from Keystone to Hill City and back. It was warm but not too bad with the windows open. Alexia said this was her favorite part of the trip. There were some nice views, but guess what, steam engines are not high speed trains. We had some slow chugging along the tracks, but on the way back a few of the littles got in naps. It is also the only group picture we managed to get with everyone and poor Adaline had her hat covering her face for the picture.

We rented a house from VRBO that turned out to be great. It was on a "working cattle ranch" that bordered Custer State Park. It was a great location and the kiddos had a blast sleeping in the bunk beds and running around outside catching critters and picking flowers. Playing with her cousins at the house was Lexi's second favorite activity on the trip. Adaline also enjoyed having space to wiggle and crawl around in. However, she spent more time walking around then crawling and even took her first few steps on her own. She isn't really walking on her own yet but she is working hard on it.

Of course we all visited the monument that makes SD famous. The last time we visited Mount Rushmore was with Chris's family and Lexi was 6 months old. So we updated our SD family picture with Adaline this year. We also did what is becoming our annual tour of Wind Cave. Maybe eventually we will try Jewel Cave instead. It was a great vacation but a little exhausting when traveling with two small children. I think Chris and I needed a vacation from our vacation by the time we got home. The girls had a blast though and we miss our family already.