Days 3 and 4 of Spring Break - South Dakota

We have unfortunately wrapped up our time with our friends in South Dakota - and had an epic drive through South Dakota and saw all kinds of amazing sights. Three cheers for South Dakota!

Day 3

Day 3 was the last day that the Millers, Thorntons, and Hagemans were all together. So many good memories of our weekly dinners in Manhattan - wish we could all still get together all of the time! Matt did a great job of taking a picture with all three families.

After a morning of playing outside and relaxation, we all headed out for lunch - adults' table!

Kids' table!

That afternoon, Addie, Daniel, Beth, Will, and I all walked over to Addie's school, where the kids had a blast playing on not one, but two playgrounds.

Later in the afternoon, Addie joined our family for a trip to Falls Park in Sioux Falls!

It was over 70 degrees and sunny - and absolutely gorgeous day.

The three amigos.

The kids had a blast scampering over all kinds of rocks.

Daniel and I.

All kinds of great rock rocks everywhere. You can make out the little dots of people who were also out climbing over the rocks and around the falls.

More of the falls!

That evening, we all had a cookout and ate yummy brisket at the Millers' house with some other friends. The kids' table was outside this time.

We were all so sad to say good-bye to our friends, and can't wait until the next time we are all able to be together!

Day 4

We got a later start than expected (surprise, surprise), and pulled out of Madison, South Dakota at oh, about 9:30 a.m. (slightly later than 6am). We had originally planned to drive across Nebraska today to go on to Phase II of spring break in Colorado, but decided instead that the extra time to drive across and see all of the sights in western South Dakota would be well worht it.

First stop of the day - the world-famous, world's only, Corn Palace! This was in Mitchell, South Dakota, and was under construction. We viewed the Corn Palace in all of its external glory but opted not to go in again this time since we were on a tight schedule.

Stop 2 - Badlands National Park!! Oh my goodness, what an amazing day to check out the scenery. It was another perfect, beautiful day with almost no other visitors around.

Breathtaking views.

The kids. It was warm but still super windy.

Our whole family! We met a nice couple from Leavenworth (where Will grew up) who offered to take our picture.

Truly awesome.

Selfie!

At the end of our loop through the Badlands, we stopped at the world-famous Wall Drug Store. They market themselves very well, with billboards for hundreds of miles extolling their free ice water and 5-cent coffee.

Of course, Will and I had to each partake in the bargain-priced 5-cent coffee!

And the gift stores. We can never go anywhere without checking out the gift stores, especially when there are miles and miles of them. We even got a free bumper sticker. ;)

Daniel was keen to have his picture captured by the mock-Mount Rushmore exhibit.

And our next stop - the real Mount Rushmore!! So exciting.  '

View of the cliff as you approach.

Famous flag-lined walkway.

Boys' selfie.

Me and the kids!

Daniel would only take the previous picture of we also took one where we pretended to be punching each other.

We went on a "nature hike," where we enjoyed seeing the monument through various angles.

And the biggest, most wonderful surprise at all - we ran into our neighbors from across the street!! Yes. Our neighbors in Manhattan, Kansas. Of all the people in the world who happened to be at Mount Rushmore at the same time!! I am still grinning ear to ear thinking about what an amazing coincidence this was.

Daniel and Hayden.

After Mount Rushmore, it was about 5 p.m. and we still had 6+ hours of driving left to make it to our hotel in Boulder. This is where Will was a saint and drove the whole way, while the rest of us got to relax and listen to audio books. We wished we could have had more time in South Dakota to visit some of the attractions below - next time!

Wyoming! I missed the actual sign. It was very, very desolate. We were on a state highway most of time with no cell phone coverage and it struck me how very horrible it would be if we ran out of gas or something.

Monument of some sort! This was probably the most interesting landmark of our drive through Wyoming. ;)

Colorado!! Yup, absolutely, positively black outside. It was pretty late at this point but the kids were troopers.

And finally - our hotel!!! We were not 100% sure if we had remembered the name of our hotel reservation correctly and were elated to discover that we were in fact correct. 

Today, we are having a relaxing day hanging out in Boulder, and are planning to go skiing at Eldora tomorrow. Three cheers for vacation and spring break!