I can't say that I ever had the desire to visit South Dakota. The only thing I knew about it was this Corn Palace that that the kids and me had read about a few years ago.... Yet, that's where we spent a week in July of 2008. My parents had gone there for the summer to work at 1880 town in the middle of the state. And in the middle of nowhere. During a weight loss competition, I won gas money for the trip up there... yay me! My vehicle wasn't exactly in traveling condition, so my parents graciously let me use their car to haul my 4 kids 17 hours away. Oh - and their radio didn't work - no antennae. The CD player worked for about 2 hours, we listened to Narnia on cd. The tape player .... well, I didn't bring any tapes. Good thing I love road trips. Even better that my kids like them too! ;) We stopped and got Subway sandwiches, and made it into a picnic on the grass.
We left for SD on June 30th, immediately after getting our family picture taken for the church directory. It was mid-afternoon, I do believe. And for some silly reason, I thought it would be a breeze. After all, how many times had I made the trek from IL to NJ and vice versa? Without stopping, I might add. Not a problem! And hadn't I taken a 7 week vacation with Silvia from Germany after our nanny jobs were up - driving from NJ to CA and back? Sleep? Who needed sleep? I failed to take into account that I was 20 then. And now I'm not. I actually like sleep now. I REQUIRE it now..... who knew?? I just couldn't see wasting the money on a hotel, though. That would be just silly... wouldn't it? So I went until I could NOT go any longer... had to get a room. Now, back when I was 20, Silvia and I would sleep in a rest area. In the car. Yep, 2 young gals (good lookin' too, I might add ;) ) would sleep in thier car in a rest area. But don't worry... we were in a very safe Hyundai. ha ha. So I'm thinking I must have been crazy then - and was going to get a room. This exit (in the middle of nowhere!) had 3 hotels. Guess what? Go ahead, guess.... yep. All full. So we slept at Days Inn. In the car. In the parking lot. In a compact car. ahhhh... good times..... goooooood times. not. Again, I'm not 20 anymore.... After 3 hours of "sleep" I got back on the road. We finally reached Murdo SD around noon, I think. I was smelly, sleepy and crabby. Hard for all of you to imagine, I know. Much easier for my kids. ;)
It was the strangest thing to see that there were no trees in this part of the state. None. Nothing but prairie. For miles! But it was still pretty!
Here is the 1880 town where mom and dad worked for the summer. (They are going back again this year.) The kids loved it. John Michael said it was his Garden of Eden.
Look at all of those wild indians out on the prairie. They are wearing the costumes their Granny had made them. You could also rent time period costumes while there, but they didn't have indian ones... so everyone thougth these were great. We did get to dress in the other clothes too, but since we were special guests... it was free. ;)
Are we cute or what??
We went to Bear Country USA while we were there. It was a lot of fun, and the lady taking our money to get in could NOT do math, and my kids were laughing at her.... where do they learn such rude behavior?? sigh..... But it was fun there, the cubs were adorable.
My macho men in the black hills... aren't they cute?? :)
We found a spring in a state park, or something like that, and they had a blast. The water was freezing.. but they didn't seem to notice
Even babies wanting to nurse in the road... poor momma... I feel for her. :)
We finally made it to Mt. Rushmore as evening set in... It was really neat. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would have. We spent the night in a little motel nestled in the mountain in the town of Keystone. The kids really enjoyed this too. We saw TONS of bats in the evening, going crazy in the spotlights during the presentation. ugh.... This is a gorgeous part of the country... I was surprised. Pleasantly so.
We did another dress up day, and just spent the day in 1880 town. The boys' favorite day. Yep, free. Can't beat that. But they loved it so much becasue Papa dressed up as the sheriff, and he was after 3 little robbers.... Here he is dragging one off to jail.. Nathan.
Looks like bandit John Michael is getting away with the bag of go
ld......Looks like Ben may be to the rescue.....
And look who wound up in jail too..... not fair
Playing in the Badlands. They had a blast here! We played here for hours. I'm amazed we are all still alive, and walked away with no broken 
bones.... If ya look for them, John Michael and Nathan are climbing here.....
bones.... If ya look for them, John Michael and Nathan are climbing here.....This church is in 1880 town as well..... I thought this was a pretty cool picture. Neat sky.
Mom and Dad's truck and camper. Yep - 7 of us lived in there for a week. I could say that we got to eat under the shade tree.... but in the middle of South Dakota, apparantly trees have been outlawed.... We had a GREAT time! One of my crazy children thought this was better than Disney World.
We were in Iowa - I think, I really don't know - when I took this. There was a pretty major strorm brewing all around - and I took this while driving down the road. Now mom & dad, the kids were exaggerating when they said I took. I wasn't going 80 mph while driving with my leg. I was going 82 and driving with my knee.... :) Do NOT try this at home. Or on the road.
Ben and Nate are soldiers, JM is Abe here
..and princesses....
The mad hatter at Nate's birthday breakfast. Both he and Bailey had their Birthdays while there. So we did character breakfasts for each. Baileys was in Cinderella's castle.
There is a really cool story here, about Ben getting to fight Darth Vader. This is in MGM studios, and certain times throughout the day, you can meet at this place, and different kids are chosen to train as Jedi's. Ben had his heart set on this. It was the last session of the day - the day before we left. He wasn't chosen - he tried, though. He raised his hand - but didn't jump around and yell like a brat (and like some of the others... that were chosen, btw). When he wasn't picked, my heart just fell for him - as it was his last chance. He was fine, though - he said "I'll get it next time mom. It's ok." I gently told him there probably wouldn't be a next time - but he wouldn't listen to me. He just repeated over and over "I'll get picked next time, mom." Well, the next day was our last day AND Nathan's birthday, so he got to choose which of the 4 parks we would attend, and we would only be there half a day. Well, wouldn't you know it, Nathan chose MGM Studios. And by the time we made it over there, it was the LAST possible chance Ben was going to have. His siblings rallied around him. As they were choosing kids, Ben didn't even stand up. He remained sitting, calmly raising his hand. This boy had FAITH I tell ya. His brothers and sister all stood behind him pointing to him - lo and behold - they picked him. That boy was thrilled. He stood up, turned and said to me "see, mom, I told ya they'd pick me." I was so happy for him. (and isn't that Jedi trainer CUTE?!!)
