Miscellaneous Things

My girls have started a ballet class which they absolutely love. I love that they can both be in the same class and I only have to sit through one class not too. I've never been one to drop my kids off and leave them at class, except for school, of course. Dan was gone for most of the summer, which was really hard on us as a family so they were so excited whenever he would be around. Everyone would become very clingy to him.

Especially Megan who has always been a big Daddy's girl.

Nytis is getting old enough that he has discovered cars and loves them. Sometimes his brother is nice and shares his cars and they both have a great time, like in this picture.

Family History Activity

Yes, I know I'm way behind like usual with keeping up. Our ward had this awesome activity this summer/fall to promote family history. Each kid was supposed to dress up in some way (or have some kind of prop) that would be like one of their ancestors. We happen to have some cool antiques of one of our ancestors and Catherine pretended she was her. They were a "wax" museum and had a button, so when people came by and pushed her "button" then she would give some details of her ancestor. What a great way to get the children connected to their ancestors. Megan was also involved as a pioneer, with Daddy's help. I thought it was great and enjoyed seeing the whole cultural all packed with kids.

Jonah's first day of preschool.

He was so excited to go to school just like his big sisters. Even though it's just a couple days a week, every day he asks if its his day to go to school.

Megan's 1st day of school

Of course they're backwards. This is her getting off the bus from her 1st day of school. Her heart hairstyle she chose for the 1st day.

Megan's first day of kindergarten. She loves going and is so excited to go everyday.

My Big Girl

Here's my big girl all ready for her first day of school. She was so excited, especially since she already knew quite a few kids in her class and was fortunate enough to be seated next to 2 of them. She's growing up so fast. We've been playing with different hairstyles lately from a website we were introduced to and she's obssessed with this hairstyle. I told her I wouldn't do it every day, but I would for her first day. She has to pick other ones every now and then. I really likes that it has ribbons in it.

Wind Cave National Park

We went to the Wind Cave National Park and the kids were excited to go in the cave and see it, at least while we waiting outside for the Park Ranger to take us on the tour.

Catherine is taking the picture of us and that's why she's not in the picture also. She was very pleased with herself.

This is the original opening (hole) that they discovered the cave with. It is also the entrance that they used to take people down to explore the cave. There are no natural openings large enough to walk through so they had to create one for tours. This is called a breathing cave and it was discovered when an explorer was hiking around this area and had knelt down and a gush of wind from the ground knocked his hat off. He came back later and crawled down that hole and discovered the cave. You can see the ribbon Catherine is holding is blowing pretty good from the wind coming out of the hole. The ranger said that sometimes the wind is sucking in and sometimes it is blowing out.

At first the ranger asked Jonah if he would help him hold the ribbon, which he didn't want to. Then Megan who didn't want to and then Catherine happily volunteered to help.

One of the things that are fairly unique to this cave is the popcorn formations that have developed. There are no stalagtites or stalamites in this cave. It is a realatively dry cave and so any water that is down there sits and forms these popcorn.

They also have these boxwork formations that Jonah kept calling spiderwebs. The ranger said that 95% of all boxwork that has been discovered is in this cave. It is not found in many other caves that have been discovered.

A closer view of the "spiderwebs"

As we first started into the cave, the girls got very nervous. It was dark and there were some very step stairs, about 400 of them all together. They kept saying how they didn't like being in there and wanted to leave. After the walkway straightened out, the girls mothering instinct took over and they took on the job of helping Jonah and making sure he was ok. It was so cute to see and hear them making sure he held onto the rails and wasn't scared. You can see Catherine holding Jonah's hand in this picture.

Custer State Park

After we left Mt. Rushmore and had lunch it started to rain really hard. At first we were trying to decide what to do because we couldn't walk around anywhere and when I say rain, I mean pouring hard. So we decided to drive through Custer State Park where they had a wildlife loop. We weren't sure if we were going to see anything but it actually turned out very fortuous for us. As we drove up to the visitor center we saw a whole herd a buffalo. There were hundreds of them all over the place. A couple walked right up to our car. Even though it was early afternoon, because of the rain there were lots and lots of animals out.

We saw pronghorns out.

Very pretty views.

Burro's. The burro's were funny because they'd come straight up to the car. We felt like one of the video's you see on tv where the animals put their head in the car, except we didn't leave our windows down that far. The burro's were hear you rolling down your window and start walking toward your car until you'd roll it back up.

There were lots of baby burro's. Very cute.

Wyoming rest stops

We stopped at this really cool rest stop in Wyoming that had really nice playground. Everyone loved the swings, especially the boys. I know his head is cut off but it's still a cute picture.

Catherine loved the Monkey bars.

Nytis loved the slide.

It was such a nice rest after being in the car for so long and the kids got to get out and play. Much better then them running around a gas station or someplace asking if they could have everything in sight. I think all rest stops should have playgrounds.

Mt. Rushmore

A few years ago we were looking at a map and realized that Mt. Rushmore was only about 650 miles from us, which is about the same that we drive to Southern California and it would only take a day to get there and a day to get home. So we decided that we really wanted to go, it was only a question of when. Dan and I love planning road trips and some happen sooner than others. Last year we didn't make it on any long trips so we were determined to go somewhere new this year. As we planned, it started out a lot longer, but then reality checked in, along with expenses and we decided it was just to South Dakota and back, not a huge trip like we dreamed. But that will happen someday. Dan's work has just been so busy he didn't have a lot of time to take off either.
This is as you walk up to Mt. Rushmore. On a side note, we had started playing the out of state license plate game, which is great to do when you go to a National Park, especially one like Mt. Rushmore. We kept track and saw so many plates from different states and from different places in Canada. More on that later.
This was our first real glimpse of Mt. Rushmore. We are just on the other side of the entrance and right next to the Information/Visitor Center.

Dan & the kids. Me and the kids.

Getting closer. This is by the Avenue of Flags. Our state of Utah was near the end closes to the memorial.

I thought this was a pretty good picture for our little camera just on the viewing terrace. The morning was a little overcast and drizzle would start every now and then, but overall really nice because it wasn't hot.

Dan and the kids.

Me and the kids. Megan wouldn't turn around because she had already taken one picture in front of it and she wanted to keep looking at it.

We kept getting comments on how Nytis had the best seat being carried around all day. We also got lots of comments on how cute he was. I'd have to agree.

There's a long walk you can go on and getting closer to the monument. I think it's called the Presidents walk or tour. We got some really up close pictures of the statues. It was really cool. This is as close as you can get unless you're a worker helping with the upkeep of the monument.

Overall, very cool to see and I would highly encourage everyone to visit it at least once in their life. After we left, the weather turned very wet and it poured most of the day. We really went at the perfect time. As for the overall out of state license plate game, by the time we got home we were only missing 4 plates, which were Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire and Kentucky. Yes, we even got Hawaii and Alaska. It was a lot of fun.

Cheyenne, Wyoming

Dan and I try to stop all the different state capitals and take a picture. This is Wyoming's state capital, Cheyenne. Did you know that Wyoming is know as the first state to give women the right to vote. I think it was even before the civil war, but don't quote me on that one. This is a statue of the woman who behind getting equal rights for women in Wyoming.

When we were first getting the kids out of the car, Megan said, "look, bunny" and I thought she meant a statue or something. But no, it was just a cute little bunny on the lawn. It was adorable.

Nytis on our Road Trip

We went to South Dakota for the weekend and Nytis spent a lot of the time in his carseat. He traveled really great. He slept. and he played with Jonah's dinosaurs. He was so cute because if he was grumpy at all you could give him one of these dinosaurs, especially the brontosaurus and he'd hold it and start growling. Sometimes we'd have to growl and then he'd start growling and he'd just sit there in his seat and growl.

Such a cute boy.

Jonah had to join in the dinosaur fun.

The other thing is, we'd be driving around and Nytis would get very tired and just sit there zoning, but when we got the camera out to take a picture, he'd perk up and give us an adorable smile.