South Dakota

       Through the 4th of July my family was in South Dakota. South Dakota? I know what you are thinking. What a random vacation spot! Well, it is the home to my Great Grandpa Clifford and my Grandma Carolyn. They are the two people in the metal chairs in the picture below. The 5th of July was my Great Grandpa's 90th birthday so the majority of our small family came out to celebrate with us! The only ones really missing were my cousin Jaymi and her husband Eric and their two kids Max and Will. 

       Just a little background on my Great Grandpa. He was the youngest man to work on Mt. Rushmore at the age of 17 and he is now the last living man that ever worked on it. Since he still lives near Mt. Rushmore he is basically a local celebrity! It was so fun to have the girls up there to be with their GREAT GREAT grandpa! As many of you already know I just love when my girls get attention, it makes me feel like a proud momma. So when I got attention for them in South Dakota I proudly shared that they were not only adorable twin girls but in fact the adorable twin great great granddaughters of the last living man that worked on the monument they were visiting! It was a pretty special experience!

 

Here is all the family that came up for the celebration. My Grandma Carolyn and Great Grandpa Clifford are on the metal chairs in the middle. His kids are directly behind him, my uncle Donnie is the youngest on the far right, next to him is Karen (my Deedee) she is the middle child and then there is My Nana the oldest. Next to her is my Mother and then my two sisters Hannah and Shelby next to her. Behind her is her husband Gary, my step Dad, and then my husband Trevor with our daughter Riley. Then there is me with our other daughter Audrey. At the top is Karen's son Kevin and his son Carey and daughter Lucy. The ones missing are Karen's daughter Jaymi and her family as I mentioned above.

First day we were there, after a long 21 hour drive in an RV.

Audrey is reaching out got my camera on the right and Riley is on the left.

Audrey's 4th of July outfit!

Riley in the front and Audrey in the back!

Granddad with the girls!

Trevor and Hannah pushing the stroller at Mt. Rushmore

Kevin and his kiddos!

The mountain covered in fog, I thought it was pretty cool. I had never seen it like that!

Our fam at Mt. Rushmore

Trevor and Riley

Grandma Carolyn and Great Grandpa Clifford after he accepted the flag that hung over the 4th of July and the 5th which was his birthday!

Trevor and I attempting to take a picture together now you know why they aren't many!

Me with Audrey on the right and Riley on the left!

Riley ridding on granddad's shoulders right before she puked on his hat! 

One of the yummy places that we ate at that had good cheeseburgers and buffalo burgers!

G-ma keeping Audrey warm!

Audrey looks like her momma! 

Riley and Granddad joined in on the warming fun and Riley just got a kick out of it!

Hannah rocking everything she wears!

This is what they originally planned the mountain to look like but Borglum the man who designed it died before they could finish it!

Cheesy Trevor

The girls

Our little family

Hannah and me rocking our aviators!

The boys

All the girls

The Deedee's! I know this is a weird name right. Here is the story: when my mother was little she couldn't say Karen so it came out Deedee. So it stuck and we call Karen Deedee and her kids call my Nana Deedee. I think it is pretty cool, but my family id full of funny names I guess!

This trip pretty much exhausted these girls!

Trevor just loved riding his bike around the little town of Keystone, every time we would go out to walk around he would ride around on his bike!

Lucy holding Audrey!

Another shot of our family

All in all it was a nice relaxing trip we got to spend lots of time with my Grandpa and see lots of beautiful country! Had some funny experiences, for instance, Gary almost hit a deer and he slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting it and Hannah was asleep in the very back of the RV and she flew out of the bed all the way to the front of the RV. Every time we passed any kind of rock formation Gary would say "Look kids, there it is! Mt. Rushmore." Had a few funny buffalo jokes that cannot be publicly shared. Gary was more excited about seeing an antelope than a buffalo, he even made me take his picture with it on the side of the road at Custer State Park. Mind you he didn't get out of the car for the picture, I'll have to post that one later though it is on Shel's camera! We also had a tire shred when we were just outside of Cedar City, Utah. Then we had to call the RV company and then they decided we had too many passengers, even though we all had seat belts, and made us rent another car. A mosquito got caught in the RV and gave us all a few extra bites and we didn't know it was in there till we were 10 minutes out of Vegas. When Gary took the RV back on Saturday he ran over the mailbox and then when he was filling up the gas tank a pipe broke and gas went everywhere! Bahahahahahaha. Poor Gary!

More posts are coming later because I just had too much for one post and I had some good ideas for other posts. One of which you will only understand if you know stories about a neighbor I have had. So keep an eye out for more coming!