Gigglesandgumballs: Nebraska and onward...day 1 & 2

We took our first family vacation last week. I was a little nervous about taking the kids so far without help from family. We love going down to Missouri to spend time with family, however this year we went up North to South Dakota. You are probably thinking...why on earth would you want to go to South Dakota. Sounds pretty boring. Well it wasn't boring. I would highly, highly, highly recommend going up to the Black Hills. We had a blast. There was so much to do and our days were filled with one activity after the other...we could have stayed another week and we still wouldn't have covered everything. So for this next week I will be posting several of the almost 300 pictures that I took from our vacation. Enjoy!!

Day 1: Sean and I have been talking about taking the family out to Lake McConaughy in Ogallala, Nebraska. We heard it was a great lake and everyone in Nebraska just raves about it. Well here is a picture of it. We stopped here for a picnic lunch. Not sure if we will be making a special trip out here to go boating. Ever been to Missouri? Those lakes are ten times more exciting. I guess it wasn't really what we were expecting.

We then drove a few more hours and visited Chimney Rock. It was kind of cool. We spent a little time at the visitors center for a break.

The kids spent some time loading a wagon with goods.

We ended our first day in Chadron, Nebraska. Sorry no pictures. We were hoping to have a good time at Fur Trade Days...booo! Totally not what we expected, so we took the kids out for Chinese and to the park.

Day 2:

We headed a few hours north to South Dakota. Our first visit was to Wind Cave. It is one of the world's longest and most complex caves. I was extremely nervous about taking the kids on a cave tour. The tour guide did not recommend taking kids under 4 on this hike. Um...we have 3 under age 4. I was not doing very good in the world of walking and our ticket said you must be in good physical shape for this hike. But why listen to the experts...lets give this one a try! We chose the easiest one...300 stairs and 1 1/2 hours long. I was nervous...but all in all...I did quiet well and so did the kids. The cave was really cool and was covered in box work.

Sean's very first time wearing this sling...he wasn't too thrilled, but it had to be done...Weston wasn't thrilled either so I ended up carrying him on the cave hike. Love them both!

After the cave hike we drove through Custer State Park. This park is awesome!! There were many roads and scenic drives that we could have chosen...the first path we took here are a few of our finds.

Some obstacles along the way

Our family!

Beautiful scenery

Lots of narrow tunnels!

After we checked into our quant little hotel in Keystone, we headed out to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial. I remember visiting it when I was little and little progress has been made since I was last there. We took a stroll through the museum and took a few photos.

Here is a sneak peek about what is to come tomorrow. It was a long first few days and some how the kids had plenty of energy when we got back to the hotel....not sure how that happens...Sean and I were tired!