Day 6: Rapid City

Well, like I said I knew it would be a full day and it definitely was. We did start our day a little later than we would have liked. Between eating breakfast, getting the kids bathed, and deciding what we wanted to do first it was after 10 before we headed out the door.

We started our day at Bear Country USA, a drive through wildlife park. Basically, you stay in your car and drive through the different animal habitats. And it was a good day to see wildlife. I think we ended up seeing at least one of every animal they offered - except as Rydman pointed out the baby red foxes. But even though we did not see the fox we did get to see tons of Bears, Reindeer, Mountain Goats, Big Horn Sheep, Elk, Bison (including a white albino buffalo), Porcupines, Wolves, Badgers, Miniature Donkeys, and a variety
of baby animals including 14 baby bears. It was fun to try and pick the animals out, although you usually have a little help in the fact that the car in front of you slows down so you know they are looking at something!

After Bear Country we headed up the canyon to see the main attraction! Mount Rushmore!! And although I have been there before, it was still a magnificent sight. I know Lincoln won't remember it, but at least I can tell him he has seen it! I think the kids were pretty impressed by it. We had them complete the Junior ranger program here as well- which was a little more intense than the program at Devils Tower-but they all completed it and got sworn in as Honorary Rangers!!
We even took the hike around to the bottom of the memorial and visited the small Indian Village there. Lincoln and Cutler liked the fact they they could climb in to the teepee, especially because in there Lincoln learned he could eat the dirt without anyone stopping him! We could not take the babies all the way around as it is not stroller accessible, but my Mom took all the older kids and hiked the entire path. (Rachel helped me push the two babies back to the main terrace, and then went the back way to help the kids with the stairs if they needed it!)

We left the Memorial and headed back to Keystone, the small town 2 miles down the road. We grabbed what I thought was going to be lunch but was then told it was 6:00 at night. (We had neglected to feed the kids lunch!! Poor guys! Good thing we had had a late breakfast!) I don't know where the time went but we filled it again. And we were not done! We fed the children and then decided to take the kids on the Alpine Slide there in Keystone.
It was so much fun. Cutler and Quincy rode with an adult while Rydman and Emerie got to go down all by themselves! The two older kids were a little worried because they were not sure if they would be able to control their sleds, but once they got on and saw how easy the controls were they loosened up a bit! I even had a hard time catching up to Rydman after leaving a spot after him, so he was doing good. And Emerie did awesome for her first official time as a lone driver. They all wanted to ride again, so I think they had fun!

Even after all this excitement we still had one more stop. We actually went back up to Mount Rushmore for the evening program. They hold a small lighting ceremony where they give a 10 minute briefing, show a movie, light the memorial and then hold flag ceremony were they invite all the current and former military personnel to join them on stage. I did not get to enjoy most of these proceedings as Lincoln was not too excited about sitting anywhere. He wanted to walk and would not let me just sit there with him. He was causing such a fuss during the talk that I figured it was not fair to any of the other people around us who were trying to hear, so I left the amphitheater. I tried to let him walk around at the top, but he just kept finding the stairs, so I had to keep picking him up, which he did not like. To make a long story short it was not a fun time for Mom! But we made it and I even got to see the actually lighting of the memorial- they slowly bring the lights up on the memorial itself until you can see it in the night sky. It was pretty cool!

After this we finally decided it was time to take our children back to the hotel. But of course there was still one adventure left. When we tried to get into our room here at the hotel, the security lock was on. So our door would not open! We were a little concerned they had given our room away. But in actuality the dumb lock is loose and when you close the door, it has a tendency to swing shut. Which is not good if you are the one locked out. Lucky for us they have a special tool at the front desk that they can use to push the lock back and allow access to the room! We were very grateful to get into our room!