Black Hills Vacation Day 1

We took our first "real" family vacation last week, well aware that family vacation is not a relaxing experience, but more of an adventurous one. Lewis and I agree that traveling together with the kids is very important, it builds memories, bonds, and experience.

We left around 8 on Wednesday morning, it was a perfect day on the prairie. I mean, how can you not love that shot of the bright blue sky, vibrant green grass, and soft white clouds?

Our first stop was at Al's Oasis in Oacoma. We just needed to get out and stretch. The kids got a kick out of these bison that were out front.

We then drove on to the Badlands. Wow, is that an amazing creation. Whenever we travel we talk about how creative God is to make such beautiful works of art out of the Earth. The boys were really hoping to see a rattle snake. I'm relieved we didn't encounter one.

We stopped at Wall Drug for some lunch and window shopping. Its such a quirky place, but you have to stop on your way to the hills. Its un-American if you don't. I mean, how many places can you sit on an enormous Jackalope?

Our first order of business out west was to swim at the WaTiki swim park in Rapid. But it was closed due to maintenance, so we took a swim in the hotel pool instead. Thank God they had one, that saved us from hours of whining from Jack. Ella loved swimming with Daddy, she has really warmed up to the water.

Since our swimming plans had changed, we now had all evening to do other things. We decided to check out StoryBook Island. Lewis had remembered being there as a kid, very few experiences live up to a childhood memory; but he said it was even better then he remembered. It was so fun watching Will run from one set to another. Once he got to one display he barley stopped a minute before he found another one to sprint after. The Dr. Suess was my favorite display. It was bright and clean, and very well done.

Ella liked hanging out with the puppies.

Finally, after we had a little dinner we climbed up a massive amount of stairs to check out Dinosaur Park, at the top of skyline drive. A very pretty view and the kids enjoyed climbing on the life size dinosaurs. We all went back to the hotel tired and ready for another adventure in the morning.