The Blanch Herd: South Dakota Elwood Reunion {Days 4-5: Rapid City and Home Again}

Day 4 (Friday, June 14th): We spent Friday exploring the sites and must-sees of Rapid City. Our first stop was the . . . unique . . . little dinosaur park on the top of a hill overlooking the town. This was high on Grace's list of must-dos in South Dakota, and Sam is big into dinos these days, too, so he was totally game. These dino statues are not going to win any awards for accuracy, that's for sure, but it was a fun lesson in seeing how science changes over time as more information is gained. But also, these dinosaurs were just funny. Apparently it was a WPA project and completed in 1936 to capitalize on all the tourist traffic coming to see Mr. Rushmore. The views from the top were fabulous! And I definitely think it's worth a stop to see a piece of history. Even if the dinos aren't scientifically correct. :)

After the dinos, we needed some lunch and some playground time. I googled for a playground with picnic tables and found Memorial Park, which seemed to fit the bill. We found a shady place for our picnic and then crossed the bridge to play on the multiple awesome playgrounds that cover the whole length of the block. The sun came out and it got hot, so we (I) didn't enjoy this one quite as much as I could have. But we still had a good time. Some thunder clouds rolled in as we were leaving, and we crossed our fingers that we'd be able to enjoy our next stop: Storybook Island.

Alas, just as we pulled into Storybook Island's parking lot, the raindrops began falling. The forecast showed precip for the next 90 minutes plus, so we opted for a drier locale across town: the Museum of Geology at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Sam fell asleep en route (and so did Heather and Grace in Nate's truck), so Gregg stayed in the car with the napper while the rest of us enjoyed the displays about fossils and rocks and minerals. They had a great little scavenger hunt for the kids, which Cal and Evy took very seriously. They found everything on the sheet and got to pick a small polished rock to keep. Bonus!

When we got out of the museum, the rain had let up (at least on our side of town), so we decided to try Storybook Island again. It was still raining there, but not hard, so we donned our rain jackets (if we had them) and grabbed umbrellas and went inside. It was great! The kids loved digging in the sand with the excavators, pretending to be little pigs in the houses of straw, sticks and bricks, sliding through an ice cream cone, visiting the Hundred Acre Wood, and many other cute storybook (and Disney) themed playground pieces. The rain stopped at last and the train came out of its shed and Sam was in heaven! The kids got to ride it around the park, thanks to Grandpa and Grandma. And then they all got to ride the speedy vintage carousel, too. A highlight for everyone - thanks Grandma and Grandpa! We finished up with the fun and said goodbye to the Billy Goats Gruff and the Ogre on the bridge as we left and headed back (on the same road, no less) to our campground a few miles away.

Everything was still in tact even though we had heard it rained quite hard while we were gone, and we enjoyed a yummy dinner of Dutch oven enchiladas (an Elwood staple). Despite our faith and optimism (at least some of us had some - I even spent $5 and a truck ride from Nate (twice) to buy some dry wood, hoping we could enjoy another fire evening), the rain returned and we all turned in early to stay dry. It turned into quite a storm, and the thunder and lighting lasted for a good long while. I was amazed the kids slept through it all! (Our best camping sleeping trick? Wear your kids out during the day! Works wonders!)

I didn't realize till now that we have pictures of her sleeping
almost every day. Haha. But look how angelic!

They liked sliding down the stegosaurus's back.

Lots of steps at this park perched on top of a
hill!

Post lunch bouncy toy time.

Electronic tennis game, anyone?

Another bop the light game that was fun.

He just couldn't stay awake one more second.

Filling out her scavenger hunt sheet with Grandma.

Ky got in on the fun, too.

This hairdo just had to be documented.

I took this for Sam - the sign says it weighs 400 pounds!!

We finished in the museum and he was still
zonked.

See what I mean about big kid?

Little pig, little pig, let me come in!

Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood . . .

Happy kiddos! (And Mugs got to ride, too, since Grace
was technically too short to ride without an adult.)

Choo choo!

Saying hello to the Cat in the Hat.

All her unicorn loving dreams came true!

All smiles!

The operator warned us that it was a fast ride
and holy cow that thing could move!

A cute little musical section of the park.

I can't figure out why that second billy goat
has an udder?

Watermelon disposal.

I just love this - watching my siblings laughing and washing
dishes together. Brings back memories...

Check out those cool mammatus clouds!

Day 5 (Saturday, June 15th): We didn't spend too much time Saturday morning playing around since we had a big driving day ahead of us. Our goal was to get on the road by 9:00 and I think we made it with minutes to spare. We packed up as much of our tent stuff as we could while Callie snoozed on. When she woke up we dragged the tent to the parking lot to shake it off and attempt to dry it a bit (it was drenched from all the rain!) before rolling it up to head home. The drive was long, but the kids did great. We stopped again at the Casper park for lunch and then again at Little America for park time and bathroom time and dinner. We got home around 8:30 that evening and unpacked and showered and crashed into bed. We were pooped. But it had been such a fun time with the fam!