Friday in South Dakota

It's only been two days since I wrote last and already I have a lot to report. Wed afternoon was nice in Colorado. It was raining so we just stayed around the house and I got to sit out on the deck and read my book and listen to the thunderstorm. My kind of relaxation. I was even wearing a sweatshirt! We are settling into vacation now and the boys are enjoying having us around 24/7 with non-stop chatter. They are getting along well. We went over to the community rec center in Idaho Springs and played in the pool there. Their new thing is diving boards and they had one as well as a rope from the ceiling. Now, my husband even had to do some show off dives off the diving board and all the local kids were like, "woaa!" and I was like "wow, what a big splash!"

Thursday we got up early and headed about 2hrs west with Kevin to an area called Glenwood Springs. We went on this awesome hike for 3.5 hrs (ok, so I was counting by the end when my muscles were aching!) and even Elliot was a trooper. At the top of the mountain, there was a lake and huge waterfall coming out of a rock. You could actually walk behind the waterfall-it was very cool. The water was crystal clear. The weather was perfect blue sky and 70 something. But we were all sweating after that. So, then we went to this hot springs place for the rest of the day. It is a big pool that is fed from natural springs. They had once again and diving board and water slide. After watching his dad AND uncle showing off foretting they are NOT 18, Elliot decides to do "front flip cannonball" I guess he made up that name, but it still looked pretty good. We didn't roll in until 10pm and got all our stuff packed up for the next leg of the trip.

I was happy to be in the car and ready to go by 8am this morning. Kevin had to drive us to Denver to get our plane and that is a good hour drive. So, we got there and made potty stops and mosied out to the plane and Jeff says,"Are you missing anything...like YOUR bag!" I had left my bag at the top of the stairs at Kevin's house an hour away. I know you all feel my pain and can understaind that I was really wishing it had been Jeff's bag that got left! It worked out because my nephew drove it halfway down and we only lost a hour.

A short 2.5 hr flight later we are in Rapid City, SD! First time for us all. Another beautiful and sunny day and no bumps or barf! halleueah. We got our rental car (I had reserved a midsize) and they bring over this brand-new-only-900-miles surburban. I was like "sweet." And it even has a dvd player that still had the plastic on it. So it is perfect for our little 2 day visit here. After checking into the hotel, our first stop was "Reptile Gardens." Remember I have boys...but seriously, it was pretty cool and interesting. We saw an alligator show where the guy was in there with about 20 crocs and even layed on top of one and showed us his teeth. INcredible. It is very pretty here with lots of green, rolling hills. Then we went to view the lighting ceremony of Mr. Rushmore. Very moving and they had veterans go up on stage after the lighting and we sang "America the beautiful." We didn't get to see everything so we're going back tomorrow.

Well, I snuck out of the room while Jeff was taking a shower and the boys were going to bed so I had better head back.