South Dakota

We have been wanting to head up to South Dakota for awhile because we heard it was such a neat place to visit. On a whim we decided to go during Labor Day weekend and got a hotel room at Ellsworth Air Force Base. I really wanted to stay at one of the State parks, but pretty much everything was booked due to the Holiday weekend and our last minute planning. We got there late the first night and the next morning we headed out and stopped at Bear World first. The kids were so excited about this! It was neat, but pretty costly and there was a huge line of cars and we had to go pretty slow. Of course right when we got to the Bears, Meika announced that she had to poop and was acting like she was struggling to hold it. The bears were literally right outside our car doors, so she has no choice but to hold it.

















After you drive through all the various animals, you end up at a parking lot where you can park and walk around "Baby land". It was pretty much like a mini zoo and at the end there were cute little Bear cubs running around and playing.









We stopped a random little food shack off the side of the road to get some greasy food for lunch and let the kids run around.







Next stop, Custer state Park. Custer was AMAZING and so pretty!



We stopped at Sylvan Lake to walk around, explore and play in the water for a bit. This place seemed a little bit magical.





































Before we left the park, we went on a little drive through a bunch of Buffalo. The girls thought it was so neat! Well, Norah and Adeline did, but Meika was terrified. Every time we would roll down a window, she would freak out that they buffalo was going to come get us.





On our way back to the hotel, Meika projectile puked all over the car! We weren't too far away from the hotel, so we made her hold tight till we could get her out of the car and properly clean everything up. Poor baby!



Once we got back to the hotel, we were able to clean the car and strip the car seat down and throw everything in the washing machine. Meika ended up throwing up a couple more time and took it easy. Of course about an hour later, Norah started throwing up too! Geez!

After a good decent nights rest, all the kids were running around the hotel room and feeling great in the morning. We were so relieved, because we wanted to hit a couple more sites before we headed home. First was Mount Rushmore.

















Right after we left we stopped and picked up sandwiches to eat in the car. Right after Meika started eating (and she had eaten breakfast just fine!), she started throwing up AGAIN! Poor little thing. She had been running around like normal all over the monument, but now looking back at the pictures, she looked horrible! Our plan was to stop and see the Crazy Horse Memorial, but Meika of course was not feeling well, so Abe sat in the car with sick Meika and napping Anders while Adeline, Norah and I explored the visitors center of crazy horse. It's crazy how massive this memorial is.