The kids (mostly) slept on the deck in sleeping bags. They seemed cozy enough...
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| Nica opted to sleep inside |
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| Miranda slept indoors, too. |
Dad let me borrow his little car so we could still make our visit to the sites. We packed up lunches, grabbed some water, and headed to Mount Rushmore.
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| Kaleb and Nica looking at the map |
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| Reviewing where we lived: opposite sides of the country. |
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| Happy smile! |
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| Finishing up lunch (and working on booklets): Megan, Zoë, and Katherine |
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Our kids in front of Mt Rushmore:
Nica, Trapper, Charlie, Kaleb, Katherine, Miranda, Megan, and Zoë |
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| Walking down the stairs to the museum |
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| We found some shiny micah chips |
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| Micah rock |
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| Trapper |
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| Kaleb |
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| Miranda |
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| Zoë |
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| Megan |
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| Katherine |
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Twin Cousins!
Nadine and Jen |
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| Kaleb |
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| Walking to the base of the cliff |
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| and walking |
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| and walking |
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| I can do it! |
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| A "quick" break |
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Whew, made it to the "top" of the overlook at the base of Rushmore
The Ross group |
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| The Bailey girls |
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| We learned about some of the wildlife and took a little break before heading back down. |
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| Junior Ranger! |
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| Another Junior Ranger |
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| Proud Junior Ranger |
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| Another proud Junior Ranger |
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| Are we done? |
As we headed home, there was a black and green and purple cloud rolling towards us. We tried to get ahead of it, but just as we passed the turn off for the jewel caves, the HAIL hit. There was nowhere to turn off (unless we wanted to go sliding down a cliff), no trees to give shelter, and we literally got hammered. I was so freaked out by the noise and worried about damaging my dad's car! As soon as we could safely do so, we pulled over to the side of the road, and looked behind us to see this:
We scrambled out of the car, and took a few pictures of the beautiful rainbow.
Then we looked around and saw these awesome golf-ball sized hail pieces
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| You can see the layers and layers and layers of ice |
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| Awe, Hail! |
There were huge dents on my dad's car. I was just sick. Great- one more expense to chalk up to my trip. We stopped and got grocery supplies in Newcastle (OUCH! expensive!) and then drove home to make and eat dinner. When we got there, I was so nervous going to my dad and saying we got caught in a hail storm and I think I got the car dented. He went down to look at it and said, "Nah, that was already there from a previous hail storm". Whew!!!!
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| The "younger" kids were playing and chatting in their "beds" on the porch. |
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| The "older" kids were playing Minecraft and having a blast together. |
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| Nica fell asleep as soon as they stopped talking to her, but the boys were chatting quite a while longer |
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| The "teens" were having fun until we cut them off |
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