Black Hills Roundup

I'll warn you that this post may be a bit long.

We decided to go to the Black Hills and invited my parents and younger brother and sister to join us (or we may have hi-jacked their vacation and told them where we wanted to go--you can decide what story to believe).

Only after we started researching and making reservations did we realize that Sturgis was going on. And we decided to go anyway. Because we are hard core like that.

First we hit up Wind Cave. It was awesome. Easton HATED the total darkness bit, but other than that did great. He we are inside the cave.

And here's the rest of the crew.
They had this awesome stuff all over the cave. It's called boxwork and is super fragile. Luckily I just broke off a little tiny piece for myself. [just kidding!]

And of course, we were able to see the main attraction. The sky was beautiful and weather fantastic. Not too warm, but warm (got that?).

And then we tried to get a few shots with the family. Harder than you think.
And here we see the parentals and the Wyo family that still lives at home.
We then took the presidential walk to get a closer look at the memorial. I was amazed at how they made the eyes look the way they do. Those columns for pupils? Brilliant. [and now you know how easy it is to amaze me--just carve a gigantic sculpture and show me the eyes]
And then Ronnie asked if that gray blob on Lincoln's head was supposed to be there or if they just didn't finish. And I informed him that that blob was his hair. It was precious.
After Mt. Rushmore, we visited Bear Country. All the men drooled over these babies.
And then tried to pretend that they weren't behind that huge fence. And then planned where they would hang the antlers if they could kill one.
We saw lots and lots of bears. This one had some pretty "human-like" tendencies. He looked just like Ronnie while watching sports.
Next, we took a drive up to Crazy Horse Monument. Here you can see the prototype of the finished mountain and well as what they have done so far. I'd say they have a ways to go--no?


Finally we visited Devils Tower. You can't live in Wyoming for almost 20 years and never see this bad boy.
We did a hike [and when I say hike, I mean walk on a paved path] around it and stopped to take obligatory shots.
Back in the parking lot, we realized that this was a much easier picture opportunity. Here's the whole group minus Ronnie.
And here is our little family.
Easton was a fantastic traveler--although I'm sure he would be okay with a rest from the car seat for a while. And that whole Sturgis thing? Not a big deal. In fact, all of the places we visited were less crowded than when we were there 14 years ago. We decided that families avoid this week and so, if you don't mind the constant roar of Harleys, it is a great week to take the trip.