Day 8: Rapid CIty Part III

Today we started off the day by going underground! We took the kids to the Beautiful Rushmore Cave. (That's it's name-I didn't make it up) According to the info we found about this cave it was the closest to Mount Rushmore, you did not ever have to crawl, and they offered baby carriers. It was really cool! It was not too hard of a hike which was good when you consider we had 6 children under the age of 9 with us. Mabry and Lincoln got the best tour as they did not have to exert any energy! There was a ton if cool things to see- like Stalactites and Stalagmites. There was also a room they called the Image room, where you could see animals in the rocks. (Kind of like seeing images in the clouds!) Everything was going well until about halfway through all three of the bigger kids needed to use the bathroom-so the way out was a little longer than expected!
After the cave we grabbed lunch- so as not to forget again! Then we headed out to an Indoor Waterpark called Watiki. They were running a special where you can get in for half price but not until 11 and you have to leave by 4. We did not get there until a little after 12, but by the time 4 o'clock came around we had had plenty of time in
the water. They had an entire area for the kids, but once we got the older 2 to ride the big water slides there was no going back for them. But of course for the most part they did not want to ride by themselves, so Rachel, my Mom, and I took turns going down with them. It was really fun, but there were a lot of stairs you had to walk up in order to come down.
Lincoln tried to swim on his own today at the park. I was actually going with Emerie on the slide so I missed his attempt. But according to Rachel, he was playing ball with some kids in the pool area (he would take the ball and then throw it to them)
when he decided he wanted to try it out! Somehow he slipped and flipped over and into the pool. Luckily Rachel was close, but the kid he was playing with was quicker. He grabbed him and handed him off to Rachel. I guess he was really ticked off but not hurt in any way!

After the water park we decided to take the kids Miniature Golfing at a course right down from our Hotel. It is called Pirates Cove which of course answers the question about what the "theme" was! Cutler was so excited about going "golfin". He did not really want to follow the rules of the game but was very excited any time he got the
ball in the hole. The only problem was the weather- it was not cooperating! We only got to hole 5 before the staff made us clear the course. We got rained out!! But we did get a rain check, so we are going to try again tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!