Family Weekend

Well, normally we celebrate family day during the summer. When asking the girls what they wanted to do Keara suggested Mount Rushmore. And so began coordinating a last minute trip to the Black Hills. And knowing that my dad would probably enjoy the trip, as well as my mom, we asked them to join us.

I start work on the 22nd so I didn't have a whole lot of time and neither did Zeb. 

We secured a room at the Comfort  Inn and made our way to the little town of Custer on Thursday. We arrived late Thursday night so there wasn't time to do anything except go to bed.

Woke up to a great breakfast at the hotel and then we headed out to Crazy Horse. What an amazing monument that it is! It's going to be quite the complex when it's done but we really enjoyed just seeing everything around there and learning about the memorial itself. 

After Crazy horse we headed to Mount Rushmore. I would not recommend seeing Mount Rushmore after Crazyhorse just because in comparison it looks so small but again it's still an impressive site and we enjoyed it.

Had lunch the and then decided to drive through Custer State Park. It was an absolutely beautiful drive. Not that I would recommend doing it after a long drive in the car but still we enjoyed it. Took the wildlife loop around hoping to see some wildlife but alas saw nothing more than a prairie dog and some antelope which we can see it home.

In the meantime, my brother Mark texted that my cousin John was in the area. So we got in touch with each other and managed to hook up for dinner. What a small world it is when your cousin from New York ends up in the same little town  on the same weekend that you are. 

After dinner, mom and dad took off to run some errands and we decided to go see the laser light show at Crazyhorse. Laser light shows sure have changed since I was a kid. It was amazing and so much fun to see on this mountain of rock.  The kids said it was the highlight of the trip.

Saturday morning headed into Hot Springs. We were told a must see is the mammoth site located there. The kids participated in a dig and we learned quite a bit on the tour about how the mammoths ended up there. Quite fascinating. 

Had lunch at Wooley's and then drive back home. It was really a great little trip for everyone and I'm so glad we went.