Life as a Yowler

I woke up yesterday to the sound of the air horn blowing 3 times. I flew out of bed. I checked all 3 older kids beds. They were all 3 sleeping soundly in them. Phew! It wasn’t my kids this time. Other people have kids that are out of control too!

We crammed a ton of sightseeing into yesterday. We wanted Lance and Grant to be able to see and experience as much as possible. We let Lance choose what to do since it’s his senior trip. The first stop was Crazy Horse. The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument that is still under construction. It is going to be the largest monument when it is completed in about 50 years. The project is moving so slowly because the Native Americans are not accepting any government funding. They are working as they have the funds.

We rode the bus and got to see the monument up close. They said his head alone is three times bigger than the heads on Mount Rushmore. Three minutes into the 25 minute bus ride, Brielle had to pee of course. Luckily we stopped a couple minutes later. There was no bathroom, so we talked to the tour guide. He was like. “No biggie just have her pop a squat in the ditch over there.” So that’s just what we did.

After seeing crazy horse we went and drove through Custer State Park. We saw wild burrows. The kids were so excited because we saw wild burrows on the last trip we took. Joah has really been wanting to see some again. We also saw antelope, elk, deer, and bison. It was a beautiful drive. I love seeing animals in the wild in their natural home.

After driving through Custer, we went to The Rushmore Cave. It was an hour long tour through the cave. I was worried someone would have to pee. I was also worried the kids would get tired. Neirther worry came true. I loved it a lot more than I thought I would. It was really cool.  We climbed and walked a lot. There were some very narrows spots. The kids thought it was awesome.

After the cave, we went over and rode the roller coaster ride that went right through the black hills. We did that with the kids on our last trip. I loved it because you can control your speed. If you want to go slow and take in the beauty, you just push the breaks. If you want to fly down the mountain and have fun, you can. Lance took Joah. They wanted to go fast. Grant took Brielle. They went faster yet. I took Caed at his request. Brandon took him the last time and it scared him to death because Brandon went fast. Caed and I went nice and slow like a couple of grandmas. I loved it though because the black hills are so incredibly beautiful. Caed kept saying “this is nice, mom. Oh this is nice.”(I think he was referring to the speed and not the scenery)

After the coaster ride we drove over to Bear Country USA. We had been there before and knew Lance and Grant would love seeing all the wildlife. We saw lots of bears. We also saw lots of other cool animals. There were wolves that were moving all around. The kids were so excited. The last time we drove through they were just laying around. There were also a group of wolf pups just born. They were adorable. We got to see the four bear cubs that we saw five weeks ago. They had obviously grown. They were very active and moving. They were climbing trees and wrestling with each other. They didn’t act much different than my own four cubs. We saw reindeer, elk, bison, mountain lions, mountain goats, coyotes, porcupines, foxes, otters, and badgers. First we drove through the park. There were bears crossing the road. There was also one swimming in the water hole. After the drive we got out and walked around. That’s where we got to see the bear cubs playing and climbing.

Brielle fell in love with this bear butt.

One of the bear cubs climbing a tree.

This mother bear was scratching her back.

After Bear Country we were all very hungry. Lance wanted to try out the Firehouse Brewery. There was a half hour wait so we walked downtown to the square. There were a lot of climbing rocks and a splash pad for the kids. I didn’t let the kids do the splash pad since we were going to go eat. They didn’t mind though, because they are all climbers. Joah was making it his goal to get to the top of all of them.

When it was time to eat we walked back and got seated. It was the coolest environment. We were seated outside and there was live music. Brandon went and asked the musician if he takes requests. He said “well probably not but why don’t you send your kids up here to help me play a song.” He gave them each a harmonica and taught them how to play in the right key. Our kids don’t have any shyness and they all went right up. Brielle was stealing the show. She was so funny to watch. She was dancing and playing and getting so into it. Soon some more kids joined ours and they all put on a show. When the musician was done he came over to our table and talked to Joah. He told him he has a natural gift and will someday be a musician himself. Apparently Joah was really paying attention and played in the right key the whole time. As a side note….Isla broke two plates during the course of dinner. She grabs whatever is in her sight these days.

I have picked up some great reading material that we will use this Fall when we start Kindergarten. I’ve learned the very best souvenirs to get are books. They are educational and they trigger all of our memories and help us remember sights we saw.

It was a really fun day. We all slept like rocks last night. We were exhausted.