Devil's Tower, Wyoming

 

 The Native Americans share their belief that their

people were running from a bear years ago.

They made it to the top of this mountain and the bear clawed at the mountain,

leaving the lines, but never reaching the top.

 The night before in Rapid City, Kate got really dehydrated.
We hiked all morning and went to the water park all afternoon.
She spent the night throwing up.
Our sick Kate was a sport!!!
Somehow she made it to Devil's Tower.
We drove 6 1/2 hours and she didn't eat a thing.
That night we made it to Billings and she slowly began to feel better!
We are so glad she was so tough and made it through a rough couple of days!

 Before we left for our vacation,

we watched

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

This is the famous tower in that alien movie.

 Lunch in the shade.
No lunch for Kate! :(

 So long  Devil's Tower...we enjoyed your beauty
and especially the strong smell of pine trees.

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore

South Dakota

Hotel & Indoor Water Park

 Rapid City, South Dakota

We stayed two nights at this great hotel.

James was good to find aweseome hotels.

Our hotel had this amazing indoor water park attached to it.

 There were 3 giant water slides and

lots of kids slides.  Abby and I enjoyed the green slide, 

and went in a double tube.  So fun!!!

 

 The red and blue slide was like a giant toilet bowl!

So fast, so scarey, and so fun!

 There was a giant Monkey that filled with water

and flooded the kid area.  Here is Ella running from the monkey!

 Kate even got brave and went on the red and green kid slides.

Lucy & Ella did too!

Bathtime and movie time!

Lots of downtime!

White Fence Farm

 

 White Fence Farm

A Family Favorite

 Lucy loving the animals.

 Fun tree house, tire swing and playground!

 City girls learning about farm life

Happy Birthday Aunt Amy

Come again!

James & The Animals

SAI Conference - Denver

One year SAI brought  Jay Leno,

this year they brought a zoo!

 IZOD the Alligator

Holding a hedgehog.

 

The Lemur.

Denver Aquarium & Elitch Gardens

 Denver Aquarium

  This was our second time to the Denver Aquarium.

The kids were really nervous about seeing the sharks, that

scared them a couple of years ago when we were there.

However they were pleasantly surprised with ....

 A big fish.

 Worlds largest flower.

 And they especially loved the mermaids!!!

 It was amazing. This year they are doing a mermaid exhibit.

They have mermaids do a show and it was

like a dream for our girls....to get to see mermaids.

Even I was impressed.

It was so much fun to watch the girls faces.

They were in disbelief...even Lucy.

 We dined with the mermaids.  

We had perfect front row seats and they swam right up to the glass to say hello!

 Ella and Kate have been saving their money for this trip.

They each decided to buy a toy mermaid to take home.

I am so proud of them for waiting to buy something they

really wanted.

********

While we were at the Aquairum,

Abby and Aunt Amy went to Elitch Gardens.

Abby says, "The scarier the better."

They had fun and went on every single ride!

Fun day!!!