South Dakota

Welcome to the random moments section of our road trip.  On our first day we stopped in Torrington for a picnic lunch at the local park.  The kids enjoyed getting out some wiggles on the playground equipment.  Jeremy and I were even able to get out our wiggles on the public ellipticals.  

We stopped as soon as we crossed from Wyoming into South Dakota to get another state sign picture.  We can officially cross this state off of our list now! 

 We had hoped to visit the wind caves, but like everything in the world their operations have been affected by covid-19.  The cave tours were postponed, but we stilled walked along the path to the cave entrance.  The kids each packed their cloaks to travel with.  And they thought, why not go hiking while wearing cloaks?  They reminded me of hobbits from Lord of the Rings. 

Jeremy thought that lowering our sons into the natural entrance of the cave would be a good idea...I've had enough scary experiences with exploring caves that I didn't quite agree.  Luckily Kelton was too nervous to go exploring.  

Near Custer we passed a huge sculpture made out of bicycles.  We pulled over and went exploring.  It really was a sculpture made entirely of bicycles; new, old, antique, broken, new-ish, children bikes, and adult bikes.  We walked through it just thinking that it took a lot of dedication to keep something like this growing, and I was grateful to find something so unique.  And we heard the unexpected from our teenage daughter, "Wow, road trips are actually a lot of fun!"  I'll take that as a win.

There were very few restaurants and shops open this time of year, so when we stopped at Custer and found the only burger shop open in town, we had to wait a bit for a table.  We wandered around town and found an old stage coach stop, stage coach, and bunk house.  And while we couldn't go into the museum, we could slide down its banisters!  

Luckily for us, once we did get our dinner we were not disappointed!  Black Hills Burger and Bun was amazing and we left with incredibly happy tummies!  Cambrie thought the restroom sign at the diner was awesome.  I admit, it made me chuckle too.  Day one on the road wasn't too bad!

Mammoth Site

Spring break looked a little different this year.  We were supposed to be in Oceanside enjoying some beach time, Disney time, Lego time, and racing.  However plans changed so we decided to introduce the kids to the concept of a road trip.  We drove up through South Dakota and the kids really loved it.  Our first stop was at Mammoth Site.  There was a pond here in the Black Hills that was the perfect trap for mammoths, they could walk right in to drink and swim, but because of the fragile soil composition they couldn't get enough purchase to climb out and would die in the pond.  So far they've discovered sixty-one mammoths here; including two different species, American Columbian and wooly mammoths, among many other mammals.  

The foyer was about what we expected and we posed next to an articulated mammoth fossil.  

What we didn't expect was that as we walked through a set of doors that we would be in a room that fully encompassed the sinkhole that they mammoths had such trouble with.  They scientists have removed some of the fossils for study, but they have also left most of the fossils exactly were they were discovered.  It's really fascinating to see how they all puzzle together.  All of the kids were so engaged.  They loved walking down to the bottom of the pit, as well as around the perimeter looking for the mammoths on our guide map.  We really liked all of the models that really illustrated how big these creatures were.  

It's still an ongoing archeological dig site.

Cambrie eating Daxton's head with mammoth teeth.

Fossils of cave bears have also been found in the sinkhole, and there was a side exhibit with different species of ancient bears.  This one could definitely eat Kelton's face.  

I would not want to be chased by this predator!  

By now we were running out of time and had to rush through the back room of the ice age exhibits.  It was really cool seeing how some of the ice age people used the materials from the mammoths to live, like this mammoth bone hut which contains hundreds of mammoth bones.  

Ancient arrowheads

Near the gift shop the kids could dig for their own fossils in a sand pit.  There were actually a lot of hands-on activities the kids could enjoy.  It was a surprisingly awesome visit.

St. Patrick's Day

Potsy McKnobb visited again this year!  He sneakily hid all of his gold coins on top of the fan, so that as soon as the kids turned it on gold came raining down.  I wish it would always rain gold!  

He also took all of the kids' snow clothes that have been hanging out to dry, and turned them into little smashed Wicked Witches of the West.  Tricky little leprechaun.  

When Daxton and I walked to school, we noticed that Daxton wasn't heavy enough to break through the top layer of snow.  We started calling them leprechaun steps because it was kind of cool, magical, and tricky.  I, on the other hand, am apparently not cool, magical or tricky, because all of my footsteps fell right through.  And if you're wondering, it's a lot easier walking on top of the snow than trying to stop your way through two feet of it.

Epic Snow Day

Even though we start growing excited about winter and snow in November, we don't really receive any good snow here until March.  It's sometimes awful waiting until spring to build our snow forts and snowmen, this year it was worth the wait.  Denver received 27 inches of snow in one storm.  It's a number that is a little hard to wrap my brain around.  However both Jeremy and I have noodle arms and exhausted backs from shoveling for two days straight, and that's a little bit easier to relate to.  

18 inches and still falling...

It was actually too deep to pull a boarder in the road.  Our expedition got stuck three times on our street.

The snow started Saturday night and just fell steadily for two days.  Everything was closed from Saturday-Tuesday in anticipation of the storm.  The kids had two snow days, real snow days, without any remote learning, and we made the most of it.  

What a great day for an epic ride....hehe.

Jeremy and the kids have always wanted to build a snow fort as tall as the house.  I thought that was a little ambitious, but they did it!  It required a lot of shoveling, and we didn't even use all the snow in our backyard.  The finished product was incredible!  Jeremy and Cambrie ramped a slide so they could slide off the roof.  

The rest of us just started at the top of the snow slide, and it was plenty thrilling.

At one point Cambrie took out the snowman mascot on top of the slide!

Later the boys added jumps which made this view just a little bit more intimating.

Daxton had room inside a castle tower.  

McKenzie and Kelton dug out a series of tunnels on the other side that wove through the whole structure.  

The day after we finished it we had all of the backyard neighbors over to play and they were out there for hours.  The sun came out in force which meant it was a gorgeous day to play, it also meant that our gorgeous fort only stayed structurally sound for about three days before it began to melt.  

I am lucky to have such an incredible husband who is willing to help the kids build their dreams.  I mean look at this fort!