Black Hills Vacation

We had a great time in the Black Hills. We stayed in Keystone at the Washington Suites hotel. This picture shows our adventure at climbing the hills/rocks. It was one of our more favorite things to do but maybe not the smartest! Those hills are steep! We told the kids we would start climbing but didn't know how high we would get- challenge was on! Marty helped Jonathan along but Jena seemed to be a pro, we kept having to tell her to stop and wait for us.

We made it to the top! This picture shows how high we were. If you look really close you can see the 2 people fishing in the stream, on top of the culvert. Notice the utility poles on top. We're not sure how they put those in, helpicopter?

I think the favorite thing we did was go to Storybook Island in Rapid City. It is a free 6 acre playground with several nursery rhyme, Disney, and classic characters.

One night we went to the Circle B chuckwagon supper. The kids rode ponies, lassoed a plastic calf, and watched the biscuit bandit shootout. They started to pet the small goats in a pen until Jonathan let them loose! They ran right down to the barn for food but it sure upset Jonathan. We ate a huge cowboy meal- shredded beef, beans, homemade bisquit, applesauce, and cake. After supper they entertained us with some country western singing. Very relaxing evening!

Of course, we had to go visit Mt. Rushmore. We walked all 400+step, stopping to sniffed some trees(they smell like butterscotch!). We also went back on a different night to watch the heads be lit up.

This was our first stop, the Badlands. Look at how blue the sky was! The kids had fun climbing some of the smaller mounds.

The Alpine Slide- our favorite activity!! We rode the skylift up then rode these little scooter down the 2000 ft. slide. We were going to get western photos taken and decided to skip them to do the slide again!

Every evening These guys, Big Dave(7ft. 2in. tall) and Jerry, put on an comedy skit/shootout. We all liked it except Jonathan, he was scared of Big Dave and the shooting. It's ironic because he loves his play gun at home! We also toured an inactive gold mine, panned for gold, and rode through Custer state park, went to Bear Country, went to Wall on the way home, and walked the streets of Keystone several times. We bought t-shirts and rocks, no jewelry this time. We even made time for Cabela's, both going and coming home. Did I mention all the fudge and taffy we ate? :)