Trek out West - getting there

So we were just getting settled into our new life in Rochester, when it was time to pick up and leave again. We decided to drive out west to see our families. On July 31st we woke everyone up before 5:00 a.m. and headed out to Mt. Rushmore. Chris and I were surprised with how well all the kids did on the road that day! We made several stops before we got to Mt. Rushmore, including a rest stop somewhere in SD for lunch. Within a few minutes monster mosquitoes were eating us alive, so we sped things up and jumped back in the van.

Another stop we made was at Wall Drug. What a memorable place!

Wall Drug started out years ago as a simple drug store that offered free ice water to hot, weary travelers (we were definitely some of them - it was sooo hot that day!). It has grown a ton and now it's famous all over the world. All these life-size animal statues were in a courtyard in the middle of all the buildings.





We couldn't get a very good picture, but this is a T-rex that comes to "life" every twenty minutes or so. It was a little freaky, especially for Brigham who sped out of there as soon as the dinosaur started roaring.





We finally made to Mt. Rushmore in the late afternoon. There were columns of all the 50 states, so we got pictures of all the ones we've lived in as a family.



None of us have ever been, and it is hard to describe how impressive it is!



It rained off and on while we were at Mt. Rushmore, and on our way back to the van we saw this rainbow. Chris and I are pretty positive that our kids have never seen one before because in Ohio the sun never came out after it rained. The kids were entranced!





The next day we stopped at Devil's Tower before driving the rest of the way to my parents' house. A fever had been rotating through the kids since the day before we left, and Brigham had it that morning, so I stayed back with him while Chris hiked with the other kids up to the base of Devil's Tower. We saw a 10 year old boy climbing up the tower with his parents, then rappelling back down, and Noah decided that he wanted to do that someday as well.

So we had to drive from the top right corner of Wyoming to the bottom left corner, and holy cow, that was the longest drive EVER. We made it to my parents' house by about 9:00 p.m.