Grown Ups

One night this past December it was blizzarding outside. It was a Sunday night and I was forced decided it would be a good night to have a family movie night. The movie was chosen by Soy and it was called Grown Ups.

After watching this movie, Mom's lightbulb came on. She called her two best friends, Shel and Mel. Shel had already seen the movie with her family, Mel hadn't. They began talking... and decided that this would be a great idea for a family vacation for themselves.

The parents picked the dates, the place, and decided it would be void of (most) technology. The kids had to fend for themselves the whole weekend. There were 7 of us, and we were probably dreading it at first... a whole week without our boyfriends, friends, Facebook, Twitter, or TV??? What would we do???

On the way there, our fears were coming true...

James slept most of the way in her parent's van while HB and I tried to find different ways to pass the time (which was very hard when alls you saw was this...)

That's South Dakota for you.

 

But there is always some form of entertainment riding down the South Dakota Interstate system...you know how you always hear about the hicks in the movies? I promise you, we are not all like this.

We all wondered how good the mattress would be by the time it reached it's destination..

We stopped in Chamberlain and saw Aunt K and Baby Herman :)

HB, James, and I also learned how to ride a buffalo ;)



THE BLACK HILLS :)



We were ALL happy when we finally started to see this:



The Badlands

  


and finally, our cabin. :)

But before we could stay long at our cabin, we had to pick up a few groceries..

I had to add this picture because for some reason I just find it hilarious..

When we finally settled down and started the vacation nobody felt like driving into Custer to watch any fireworks. We spent the rest of the night laying in the hammock and sitting around the fire looking at the pond. (Stay tuned for a video of HB struggling with a hammock on the next post--if I can get it to work I guarantee a laugh.)

The next morning we got up to hike Harney Peak and let me tell you, as much running and lifting and workouts a person has... this definitely is some streneous exercise..but the view was well worth it.

The seven miles round trip was definitely worth it.. and it made Sylvan Lake at the bottom look so inviting.



But as you all know, South Dakota weather is..well...South Dakota Weather. It cooled off and started to sprinkle when we reached the bottom. Nobody was really in the mood for swimming by then. We were all just in the mood for a nap.

Here's some more pictures from the day:

I made it to the top!



There was a cute little pond at the top we were all enjoying...
until I found a dead and bloated gopher that is.




Me and HB



Day 2 was spent touring a cave. There was no service in the cave (imagine that!) so my phone wouldn't save any of the pictures I tried to take.. I will have to see if I can steal some of Mom's and put them on my next blog post with the Hammock Video.

During the evening we went to Keystone, South Dakota. You just have to be there to experience it for yourself :) it's something else... while we were there we rode some sort of ski lift with a view.

Looking down it was a good thing I'm not afraid of heights..

We of course visited Mount Rushmore from there.

The next day was for swimming at Sylvan Lake. It was really a cool experience.. the rocks were fun to jump off of (punishable by fines in excess of $100).

James, me, and HB on the way there.. I wish I would have gotten a picture of us on the way home because let's just say we got hit by a little something right before we stopped swimming for the day..

Typical South Dakota Weather.. sunny one moment, hailing the next, then sunny the next. :)

We also spent some time fishing.. although I think the contest may have been to see who could catch the smallest fish in the pond..

I'm not sure who won though..

Anyways, you may also be wondering what we did in our free time? We had a nice game of kick the can..i may have to steal some of those pictures from Mom also.

 

We also slept (sorry about that picture James- i couldn't help myself..) and spent some good quality time having James read to us. :) She was being a great mother figure to us all week. :P She was actually reading the book The Last Song which I got way more into than I thought..I am going to the library ASAP to check it out so I can finish it! I recommend.

So the week wasn't as bad as all of us kids thought. We were all begging to stay longer. I think the GROWN UPS egos probably grew in size because yet again they knew...

they were right.

Soy was loving me at the moment.