Rapid City wildlife

We did see some wildlife on the trip (besides my wild kids). These mountain goats were just parked at Mount Rushmore.


We also saw a deer right by the side of the road.

We drove by Bear Country USA but I was too cheap to pay the $55 for us to drive through. Luckily for us, there were 2 bears that we could see from the road so we got our money's worth (heehee!).

Rapid City silliness

What do you get when you mix a relaxing vacation with two teens and a couple of blue coconut slushes from Sonic?

More Sights - Rapid City Day Two (cont)

After the monuments, we hit some of the sites within Rapid City. We went to the Dinosaur Park (kinda lame).

Then we headed to Storybook Island - a park meant for little kids but it was dang cute and we loved the novelty of it!


They had scenes out of children's literature. Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer were on a raft on a river. There was a tall castle with Rapunzel's hair hanging from a turret window. We saw Barney, Little Bo Beep, 3 men in a tub, and so on. There was Cinderella and her pumpkin carriage. There was a house made of straw, a house made of sticks, and a house made of bricks. Of course, the wolf was trying to get down the chimney of the house made of bricks.

I was having camera problems but managed to get this pic of Robin Hood on the castle roof.


After that we did an art walk. We saw statues of all the Presidents of the United States. We also walked down art alley where graffiti is legal and encouraged. Some of the artwork was just your average tagging but lots of it was amazing!

Then we had a relaxing evening at the hotel watching game shows, Monk, and reading. More sleeping in the next day before flying back home. Rides, Rushmore, reading, and relaxing - that about sums it up!

Mount Rushmore - Rapid City Day Two

We slept in Friday morning and then headed out to see the sights. We started off by driving to the Crazy Horse memorial then on to Mount Rushmore. Our first glimpse of Mount Rushmore was actually a profile of Washington.
We listened to a park ranger tell a few tales about the various presidents and then a few tales about how the faces were carved and about the sculptor. It was pretty interesting.


Shanley actually had the owner of Aeropostale come up and ask to take her picture in front of Mount Rushmore (since she is wearing an Aeropostale shirt).

Watiki Waterpark - Rapid City Day One

We flew into Rapid City on Thursday. We had sandwiches at Subway before checking into our hotel - a charming inn with big rooms and comfortable beds. McKayla and Alec, being typical teens, immediately crashed onto the beds for long naps. Then we headed to an indoor waterpark.

It was a lot of fun! We all enjoyed everything from the lazy river to the slides. I loved riding the double tube around because I could stretch out on it and practically fall asleep. It was so relaxing.


We all really enjoyed this slide - the Super Bowl! (Although I kept thinking of it as the toilet bowl). You entered the bowl on the upper left of the picture.


Then you'd make 3-5 rotations of the bowl...


before being "flushed" down the remainder of the slide.


Another favorite slide was the Funky Frog. Here's Alec being spit out.

Chandler coming off the Funky Frog.

McKayla enjoying more of the lazy river.