Needles Highway and Mount Rushmore

Day 2
Monday, June 30, 2014
Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore National Monument
South Dakota

We spent a lot of time in Custer State Park.  Your pass is good for a week and we used it almost every day.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  We went on several scenic drives and a few hikes and I never got tired of the views.  Our first day, we took the long way to Mt. Rushmore and drove the Needles Highway.  We got out and took pictures and let the kids explore along the way, which was their favorite thing to do.  They just wanted to climb the rocks and pretend they were elves and hobbits and wizards fighting evil orcs and goblins.

(And seriously, if Peter Jackson couldn't have filmed in New Zealand, South Dakota would be have been a great 2nd choice.  With all the elves and hobbits running around me fighting orcs, I thought I was on the set of  "Lord of the Rings."  But I digress.)

So we spent the morning driving through/exploring Custer State Park and the afternoon at Mount Rushmore.  It was SUPER windy that day, and we ate a hurried lunch on a bench there, and had to hold on tight to our bags of chips so they wouldn't blow away!

While we were there, I learned that the idea for creating Mount Rushmore was conceived because South Dakota was one of the most "depressed" states during the Great Depression, and they were trying to boost their economy with a tourist attraction.  TOTALLY worked!  People from all over the country and the world come to visit the monument.  And, lucky for us, because there are no decent sized airports nearby, everyone drives there, making it one of the best places to play the license plate game.  We found 43 of the 50 states and 4 or 5 Canadian provinces to boot.  You should have seen us scouring the parking lots for Rhode Island.  (Never did find that darned state!)

a little cave/hole in the rock thing

Needles

More cool rock formations on Needles Highway

Obviously.

Mount Rushmore!

Bennett's face looks like it belongs up there next to Lincoln, don't you think?

This is the last to scale model built by the sculptor Gutzon Borglum.  It's a 12:1 ratio, so every inch on the model is a foot on the mountain.  We learned that because of the rock content on the mountain, they had to dispense with the jacket lapels on most of the presidents, and also, that Jefferson was originally built on the left side of Washington but they accidentally took a chunk out of his nose, that apparently ruined his face, and they had to blast that Jefferson off the mountain and replace him on the other side of Washington.  What a bummer to have done all that work only to take him out and redo him!

Just a cool view of Washington on the way back down the mountain.

The Black Hills of Dakota

June 29, 2014
Beaverlake Campground
Custer, South Dakota

On a road trip a couple of years ago, we were talking about places we wanted to take our family.  We had a pretty great list of places to visit together.  Then Arthur said, "You know we better start doing some of these because Dallin will be leaving for his mission in 8 years."  I couldn't believe that was only eight years away, and we only had 8 summer vacations and spring breaks to squeeze all those trips into!  So on a piece of paper, we wrote down our list and started plugging in possible dates to do them.  I am happy to say that this year we have checked off two of our family vacation bucket list items.  Harry Potter Land was one of them, and Mount Rushmore was the 2nd one!

Originally we thought we'd cover a lot more ground in this trip and visit Yellowstone as well, but as we started looking into it, there is a TON of stuff to do in the Black Hills area.  So we spent a week up there exploring Custer State Park, and a lot of the little towns in South Dakota.  It was a blast!  And I'm gonna do a separate post for each day, so brace yourselves for a lot of pictures.

Day 1
We arrived in Custer, South Dakota, at Beaverlake campground.  We stayed in a tipi, which was novel and fun and better than I expected, actually.  We cooked most of our meals at camp, and roasted marshmallows and the kids ran around the grass chasing the bunnies that were everywhere.  There was also a playground, a pool with a SUPER cool waterside that you had to pay extra to go on, (which we did for one day and had a blast,) and tons of bikes that were free to use at the campground.

We couldn't have squeezed one more thing in that car if we tried.  It was a miracle we got all that gear in there and a special technique had to be used to open the back door without everything falling out on that person.

Home, Sweet Home, for the week.  The tipi was pretty cool actually.

Bennett would point to the fire and say, "Huh.  Huh."  (Hot?  Maybe?)

Sydney the Birthday Girl

Sydney turned four on June 25th.  She got a card from her great grammy and grandpa with four dollar bills in it, and she went around for most of the day telling anyone who would listen to her, "I have FOUR dollars!  1-2-3-4.  See?  FOUR DOLLARS!"  It was a pretty exciting event in her life.  Nona and Papa also sent her a birthday check, which I was instructed to cash and give her twenty ones so she can have even more fun counting!  :)  She had her favorite friend Audrey over to play on her birthday and I took the two of them for Frosty's on the way to drop Audrey back home.  

friends and frosties

As requested, I made her a pink birthday cake.

And she got three "Ever After High" dolls which is all she asked for besides the pink cake.  She "accidentally sneaked into them" before they were wrapped, so there were no surprises here, but she loves them anyway, and always asks Daphne to play "Ever After High Dolls" with her.

Oh how we love our Sydney.  She is stubborn and feisty, has curly hair and wears skirts every day.  She loves to draw and play dolls and watch princess movies.  She sings to herself while she colors or builds with blocks, is learning how to swim, and is a good big sister to Bennett.  She looks out for him and tries to carry him around even though he is a little too big for her arms.  She has a cute sense of humor and requires the silence of everybody in the family when she speaks--a feat that is very difficult to accomplish, much to her frustration.  Happy Birthday, sweet Sydney.  We love you!

CMT 2014 presents a Broadway Extravaganza!

June 16-21

CMT's Broadway Extravaganza

This year CMT was a little different in a lot of ways.  First difference is that we did not do a musical as in past years; we did a musical revue--songs and dances from several Broadway shows, both classic and contemporary.  It was fun--easier to rehearse and we were able to feature many more children in this format than a traditional musical.  Plus the kids got to learn music from shows that CMT will NEVER do (South Pacific, Hairspray come to mind.)  I'm thinking I will alternate between this format and a play every other year.

The biggest and best difference was that this year we had a CMT committee.  I worked closely with the Shepherds who were co-directors/ co-producers/ production managers/ Awesome people.   And in addition to that, we had parents who chaired costumes, props, set, refreshments, backdrop, rehearsal snacks, cast pizza party, registration, etc.  It was AMAZING!  The whole process was much more fun, and the other parents did a WAY better job than I could have at their respective roles.  Huge thanks to all the parents who helped make CMT a success!  

And now, a bajillion pics of CMT 2014!

Painting the set

Dads and sons helping set up and strike the set

Rehearsals.  

Yes, this is a picture of one of our rehearsal days.

One of the kids threw his shoe up on the roof.  

Thank goodness for Ryan, we got it back down.

it was a little perilous.

"Seize the Day"--Newsies

"Naughty"--Matilda

"I Won't Grow Up"--Peter Pan

"Elegance"--Hello Dolly

"Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile"--Annie

"Hard Knock Life"--Annie

"Nothin' Like a Dame"--South Pacific

(turned out SO cute!  These boys were hilarious!)

"I Know it's Today"--Shrek

 "Under The Sea"--Little Mermaid

"You Can't Stop the Beat"--Hairspray

"When I Grow Up"--Matilda

Notes after the first run-through

Cast Pizza Party

CAST PICTURES!

Just the cast

Cast + 4 directors, + 5 youth helpers

Sydney enjoyed the dress rehearsal while Arthur worked on the lighting.

And the costumes/props were ready . . .

the "Candy Bonanza" was ready . . .

The kids were ready . . .

And the directors were ready!

Showtime:

CMT is brought to you today by the Number 5 (5 rehearsals) 

and the Letter "C" (CrAzY!)

Not very many pictures of performance day, because I am too busy with everything else that day, but I have a few either from other people or taken after the performance.

Dallin singing "Arise and seize the Day!"

Dallin & Curtis

The Three Fiona's, Sophie, Lucy and  Daphne

my friend Tamera and I after the performance.  

We did it!

Love these Shepherds.  Seriously could not have done it without them.

Top 4 reasons I do CMT:

The kids all did so great--I was smiling the whole performance and sometimes tears popped into my eyes too.  Maybe because I was tired and stressed, but also, because I think CMT is  beautiful.  And when you have 66 kids up on stage singing "When I grow up I will be strong enough to haul around the heavy things you have to haul around with you when you're a grown-up," sometimes tears happen.