The Perfect Pillow

Doesn't Finley look like he's enjoying himself?

Adventures of Mount Rushmore

Jeremy fulfilled one of his childhood dreams over the Memorial Day weekend when we traveled to South Dakota and saw the great Mt. Rushmore. We arrived on Friday night and stayed in the town of Custer.  The weather was rainy and cold on the drive up and we were crossing our fingers and toes that it would be warmer on Saturday.  We must not have crossed enough fingers and toes to please Mother Nature because we woke up to 40 degrees, rain and thick fog.

 

 

 

 I didn't mind the weather that much because most of the day we were in the car, driving through Custer State Park.  I told the boys that whom ever saw the first wild animal would get a milkshake.  With that incentive, the boys' faces were plastered against the car windows.  We saw two buffalo, then several antelope and deer.

 And then, Bridger spotted the first "John Deere" - a rare, beautiful green creature sitting quietly up on the hill in his natural habitat.  We slowed the car down for a good look and Bridger shouted, "Whoo hoo! Now I get a milk shake."  Well done, my boy.

 

We were commenting on our good fortune of getting to see not one, but two buffalo out in the "wild", when we came upon this sight:

 They were crossing the street in front of us and coming right up to the car.

As we drove through the park and headed toward Mt. Rushmore, I kept hoping that the fog would lift, just for a moment, so we'd be able to see the mountain.  When we arrived at Mt. Rushmore, we couldn't see a thing.  There were crowds of people milling around, waiting for the fog to lift, but no such luck.

We had better luck on Sunday.   We were able to hike around the Memorial, check out the museum and since they didn't have milkshakes, the poor boys had to settle for enormous ice cream cones.  They muddled through some how. :)

We also went to the Crazy Horse Memorial.  This is a small scale model of what the mountain will look like when it is completed.

 

This is what has been done since they began in 1998.  Hard to see with all the fog, but it was very impressive.

 

There's gold in them hills, and the boys each have a vile with gold flecks in them to prove it.  We toured the Big Thunder Gold Mine and Jeremy and the boys tried to win their fortune by panning for gold.

Gannon wasn't that interested in finding gold, but was captivated by all the cool-looking rocks.  He filled his vile with his rock treasures and 1 tiny fleck of gold.  He was a happy man.

 

Trying to keep Bridger from falling out of bed at night was a full time job.  He was restless and whimpering in his sleep and I kept waking up to push him away from the edge and to cover him back up.  Even with a wall of pillows, he fell out once, but thankfully didn't sustain any injuries. :)  While I had bags under my eyes in the morning, Jeremy slept blissfully through the night, unaware of it all and was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  Ah, the thankless job of a mother.

I have to comment on the continental breakfast, since when we asked what their favorite part of the trip was, the boys all shouted, "Swimming at the hotel! And Fruit Loops!"  In that case, we could have saved ourselves a whole lot of time and money by just cracking open a box of cereal at home.  I'll make a mental note for next time. :)  I think they cleaned out the hotel's entire supply of Fruit Loops.

Here's Bridger, all set for the drive home.  All in all, it was a great trip!