Aye, Aye, Aye

Adventures abound.

5 days down and we have visited -

Falls Park in Sioux Falls, SD
Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, SD
Wall Drug, Wall, SD
Badlands, SD (only from a distance in a thunderstorm)
Mount Rushmore
Custer State Park and Black Hills Forest scenic drive
StoryBook Island in Rapid City, SD
President's Park in Lead, SD
Devil's Tower outside Sundance, SD
drove over BigHorn mountains (10,000 ft elevation) and saw SNOW!!

We have seen a lot of things that those in the natural would attribute to evolution and the Big Bang, etc. What it has done for me has solidified my belief in my Wonderful Creator.

His attention to detail in every mountain, every forest, every animal species, is all amazing.
We have seen two rainbows, too. What a great reminder of His Love for us. Yesterday two thunderstorms were on both sides of the highway and all we received were a few sprinkles.

I mentioned earlier that one of our motels had the pool right next to our room. It made for a little noise, but it was okay. What I failed to mention was that it was next to a helicopter tour landing pad.... or the Alpine Slide where you ride up the hillside on a ski chair lift and come down on a sled in a track....

Today, we were halfway down the BigHorn Mountains when we smelled something....
we pulled over and the brakes WERE ON FIRE!!!

So we grabbed our water bottles and doused the brakes and waited for them to cool down and as we descended the rest of the mountain, I prayed and called the town we were staying in (Can you say ROAMING fees?) to see if anyone could look at the brakes, on a Sunday. We found someone to look and them and it turned out that something was actually caught in one of the brakes on one side and that was what caught fire. He only charged us $6.00 to look at them, too!

We reached our rental vacation home tonight (after a trip to Super Wal-Mart - Don't try this with 4 children who have been cooped up in the van for 6 hours in a strange store).

Anyway, the vacation home is AMAZING! I wish we could stay longer. It is an old farmhouse that has been redecorated with all the modern conveiniences and decor. It has 50 acres of land to explore and is in a valley between two mountains. A stream runs through the property right next to the house.

I have taken well over 300 pictures. I'll have to sign up for a flicker account so I can show them all off when I get home.

It's amazing. God had been looking out for us and blessing us every step of the way....
even though Gigi cries now every time she even looks at the car seat.....






President's Park was a bit of a bust. We