The Petrified Garden
Going for a hike in The Badlands
Mining for gold at Wall Drug 
Cooling off at Wall Drug
Arguing at the Air and Space Museum
Mount RushmoreWe left Michigan on Tuesday, June 22nd with 5 kids, 2 moms, and one dog packed comfortably in the Suburban. While this sounds absolutely crazy, it's very manageable if you choose the right moms to travel with. I promise. I arrived at Autumn's house to find three Sivyer children walking out the door in a neat and organized line. Each had a bag with them and they got to work right away loading the trailer and climbing into the car so that they could watch their movies.
The day passed very quickly and we stopped for the first night in Lacrosse, WI before continuing the next day to Murdo, SD. Once we had made it to Murdo, we found a very classy Super 8 and spent the night there in style. Believe it or not, I even had artwork in the bathroom! There was a red laminated piece of paper stapled to the wall listing out the prices of all items in the room in case I wanted to liberate any of them. The "plastic ashtray" was $2.50. The "tin ashtray" was only $1.50.
We started the day off with a visit to the Petrified Garden and then headed into the Badlands. Justin was very excited about this because he recognized it right away as the place where they film Dinosapien. He showed me several places that he had seen in the TV show and told me what had happened there. Annalise joined in his excitement and I think she convinced herself that she recognized all of the places too. We stopped for a little hike and Justin got to go to the top with Autumn while I stayed down at the bottom with Jasmine and the girls. When Autumn got back, she sent me up and said I had to see the view but about halfway up, Annalise took a spill that made me envision her sliding down the whole face of the mountain and I called it quits. The view we saw from halfway up was certainly one for the books anyway.
After we left the Badlands, we headed to Wall Drug (which is now a mall). We had lunch there and the kids played in the water, posed with characters, tried on hats, went mining for gold, rode a covered wagon, watched the T-Rex come alive, shopped, and ate ice cream. It was a fight to get them out of there! After leaving Wall Drug, we stopped at the Air and Space Museum where Hunter and Justin had a good time debating all points of every aircraft they saw as well as all recorded events of US history! Autumn at one point told them that we would have to leave if they did not zip it - these were hardly casual debates.
The highlight of the day was a drive through zoo where we got to see Arctic Wolves, Elk, Reindeer, Mountain Lions, Buffalo, and Bears right next to the car. There was one bear close enough that I could have reached out and touched it had I been brave enough. Another bear decided to amuse us by relieving himself on the tire of our U-Haul trailer!
The day passed very quickly and we stopped for the first night in Lacrosse, WI before continuing the next day to Murdo, SD. Once we had made it to Murdo, we found a very classy Super 8 and spent the night there in style. Believe it or not, I even had artwork in the bathroom! There was a red laminated piece of paper stapled to the wall listing out the prices of all items in the room in case I wanted to liberate any of them. The "plastic ashtray" was $2.50. The "tin ashtray" was only $1.50.
We started the day off with a visit to the Petrified Garden and then headed into the Badlands. Justin was very excited about this because he recognized it right away as the place where they film Dinosapien. He showed me several places that he had seen in the TV show and told me what had happened there. Annalise joined in his excitement and I think she convinced herself that she recognized all of the places too. We stopped for a little hike and Justin got to go to the top with Autumn while I stayed down at the bottom with Jasmine and the girls. When Autumn got back, she sent me up and said I had to see the view but about halfway up, Annalise took a spill that made me envision her sliding down the whole face of the mountain and I called it quits. The view we saw from halfway up was certainly one for the books anyway.
After we left the Badlands, we headed to Wall Drug (which is now a mall). We had lunch there and the kids played in the water, posed with characters, tried on hats, went mining for gold, rode a covered wagon, watched the T-Rex come alive, shopped, and ate ice cream. It was a fight to get them out of there! After leaving Wall Drug, we stopped at the Air and Space Museum where Hunter and Justin had a good time debating all points of every aircraft they saw as well as all recorded events of US history! Autumn at one point told them that we would have to leave if they did not zip it - these were hardly casual debates.
The highlight of the day was a drive through zoo where we got to see Arctic Wolves, Elk, Reindeer, Mountain Lions, Buffalo, and Bears right next to the car. There was one bear close enough that I could have reached out and touched it had I been brave enough. Another bear decided to amuse us by relieving himself on the tire of our U-Haul trailer!
We ended the night at Mount Rushmore and we were trying to hold out for the lighting ceremony but the kids were ready for bed. We shopped in the giftshop (where my kids decided to purchase and begin collecting harmonicas!) and walked out to the car. We stayed in Keystone, SD and I thought it was a very cute little town. I would certainly go back!
The next day we spent some time at Crazy Horse before heading to Denver. The kids enjoyed hearing about the Indians and the history but they were ready for a rest after all of the excitement. We climbed into the car for an 8 hour drive to Nana's house in Denver where I knew a day of rest was waiting for me.
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