Christmas 2013, we gave our parents as a gift the committed dates of doing a trip together to South Dakota with Mount Rushmore being the highlight. Everyone of my siblings and their families would be there! In the end, we did miss a couple of nieces but mostly everyone came.
DAY 1
The trip began for our family by driving up to Salt Lake on July 3rd and staying with Eric's parents. We had a tummy bug making it's way through the family and poor Reagan woke up on July 4th throwing up. It seems we CAN NOT take a trip without someone getting sick. We are seriously cursed in this area to the point that I question traveling anymore and I LOVE to travel! I must say that we were fortunate that this bug ended with Reagan and we were able to enjoy the reminder of our trip without anyone else getting the pukes.
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Growing up, we couldn't take a trip it seemed without car troubles. And so it was. Many of us were making our way up Parley's Canyon when I got a call from my parents. They were traveling with my brother Ethan and his family. Their vehicle was overheating and we pulled over with them in Park City to replace the radiator in the Walmart parking lot. Good times!
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| Passing the time in the Walmart parking lot. |
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| Eric's parents were nice and picked up the part we needed and brought it up to us in Park City. |
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| My smokin' hot man. |
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| Two little red heads Lyndsee and Adi
We finally hit the road and made our way to Rock
Springs, WY where we joined the rest of the family at a park in town to see the fireworks. This is where my brother Tracey and his family live.
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| Christian and Emily |
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| Lyndsee |
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| Brigham |
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| Hannah, Ava, and Reagan |
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| Nana and Papa |
DAY 2
On July 5th, we drove to Martin's Cove in Wyoming to learn more about the pioneer history that occurred there and do a little trek of our own. It happened to be quite a bit warmer than usual making it more of a challenge for our group than it should have been. When the clouds moved to cover the sun, we felt some blessed relief.
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| Reagan, Ava, and Hannah |
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| Noah, Kyle, and Will |
"For some must push and some must pull,
As we go marching up the hill;
So merrily on our way we go
Until we reach the Valley-o."
Lucky ones that got to ride!
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| Julia and Uncle Von |
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| Will and Kyle |
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| Grandkids sing for Nana and Papa |
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| Ellie and Taylor |
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| The whole group with the Cove in the background. |
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| The pregnant pioneer was a trooper with little to no side effects (Aunt Mary). |
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| Crossing the river |
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Mama and Lyndsee After our trek, we camped nearby at a campground ran by Martin's Cove. I don't remember it having much in the way of amenities or trees but it gave us a place to set up our trailers for the night. It wasn't a very restful night however because Nana ended up feeling really ill and Papa and Uncle Tracey had to take her to the nearest hospital which was over an hour's drive away. I half wondered if this would be the end of the trip for my parents which would have been so sad. Fortunately, after some monitoring and medication through most of the night, my mom returned back to us feeling a lot better and able to go on. Thank goodness for modern medicines! DAY 3 Day three we woke up and went to church with the missionaries serving in Martin's Cove. Then we drove the 4 hours to Custer, SD near Mount Rushmore where we would spend the bulk of our trip. I don't have any pictures from this day. DAY 4      
Getting this group shot was unbelievably hard. We couldn't seem to find an individual capable of pushing a button on a camera. Every time we thought we had a shot, our group would fall apart, the helper would walk away and we would notice there were no pictures taken on the camera so we would have to gather the group again and find another helper. It took like 3 tries before we finally got this shot!
 After Mount Rushmore, our own individual family visited the Cosmos Mystery Area. They took us on a crazy fun tour of a hill side and shacks that left your brain and senses entirely confused. The kids loved it!   
After the tour, we met back in Keystone with most of our group for an ice cream cone. When we headed back to Custer and the campground, we enjoyed a different route back on the Iron Mountain Road that made for its own little adventure.
 Back at the campground, the kids enjoyed some time on the playground together.   
DAY 5
Today we took a very beautiful scenic drive on the Needles Highway up to Sylvan Lake. The tunnels carved into the Black Hills are always a fun obstacle along the way.
   
Heading back down the Needles Highway to find another hike.
  
On this evening, we drove back to Mount Rushmore to see it a second time and to see it lit up at night. We watched a ranger program in which they recognized all the veteran's on the stage. When they got to Dad/Papa, his fan club being huge as it was, became very apparent with their applause.
 
DAY 6
Today we started our day in Rapid City. We went to this old dinosaur park that has been around since my parents were kids.
                    
DAY 7
We visited Jewel Cave National Monument.
      DAYS 8-10 On the way home... We had a long way to go to get home so we took a couple of days to do it. We drove through Colorado so we could experience some different sights than what we are used to driving through Utah. 
Guernsey Ruts of the Oregon Trail. Pretty impressive!
          
Dinner at our camp the night before we headed home.
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