Snapshots from out west

A week ago Saturday, we began the long trek out to South Dakota. This is our happy little traveler at the beginning of the very long car ride. We drove it in two days which was a good thing. Brady did really well as long as he had his wooden spoon in hand!

On our way out we stopped at both the Corn Palace and at Wall Drug. They were just as I expected they would be...now I can say that I have been there I guess. At Wall Drug we took the opportunity of the stop to let Brady get out of the car for a bit. We checked out the backyard and found this lovely saddle for a photo.

We arrived to the Aspen Ridge houses on Sunday night. We were greeted by all of Andy's mom's side of the family. All of Andy's grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, everyones spouses and their children all stayed in two beautiful houses in the Black Hills for the week. This included travelers from the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Montana.

Needless to say, since we were all together we decided to have Christmas in July. We made the traditional Christmas dinner of egg bakes and sweet rolls and had a gift exchange. This is Brady opening up his Diego truck from Lucas. He was very excited about his truck. It was fun for us to watch him open this, because it was the first present that he has opened that he didn't just care about the wrapping paper!

Brady also had fun playing in the tissue paper from Andy's gift!

A family photo in the Black Hills.

Wednesday, the whole crew loaded up and headed to Mount Rushmore. We had a great time there and really enjoyed seeing the new visitors center and the sculpters studio. It's hard to believe it from the beautiful blue sky in the picture, but it did rain and hail on us that day while we were there. Good thing we took our photos early!

Lisa and Becca at Mount Rushmore

The same afternoon we headed to see Crazy Horse. I haven't been there for almost 15 years so it was fun to see the progress they have made. Andy and Brady found a fountain to play in while we were there. Do you think Brady had fun!?

That evening for dinner we went to a Red Lobster. Brady was so excited about this wooden fish that he found. I had to laugh when this happened because my sister Jen makes it her mission to find some bizarre thing to kiss on every family vacation and to take a picture of her smooch. Well Jen, it looks like Brady took care of it on this one for us!

Thursday we took a drive through Spearfish Canyon. It was gorgeous! This picture of Bridal Veil Falls is my favorite - isn't God's creation amazing!

Brady and Levi brought the same shirt out west so we had to get picture of the boys in their matching outfits. This is a pretty serious picture for these two clowns!

Thursday evening the grandparents gave us the night out. All of Andy's cousins and spouses went out for the evening in Deadwood, while they watched the kids. We played a few penny slots at one of the casinos and then found a band where we sang and danced the night away.

It was a great time!

Friday we went to Bear Country. This was one of our favorite things that we did on the trip. Bear Country is a huge wildlife park that you drive through. The animals are in their natural habitat, so it's kind of like a drive through zoo. Amazing....we saw elk, reindeer, mountain goats, a ton of bears, and lots more. At the end of the drive, they have walking exhibits outside for you to see the smaller animals like fox, badgers, and the baby bears. Brady LOVED watching all the animals and giggled lots at the baby bears playing in the trees and with one another.

Here is our tired, but mostly happy little one on the way home. It tooks lots of toys, reading of books, and singing of song to make it home, but we made. It was a great trip!