Water Park and Other Hotel Fun

The girls' favorite part of our vacation was being at the hotel.  The hotel we stayed in was attached to an indoor water park.  What more could you ask for?  There were several big slides and play areas to occupy them.  Joseph wasn't really big enough to enjoy it, so he and I didn't spend too much time in the water, but the girls could have just spent three days there!

The hotel time also allowed for some mind-numbing television viewing.  It is hard to keep the kids happy and not getting into everything in the hotel, so we were much more lenient about the amount of TV the kids watched.  This translates into a happy boy.

Bear Country USA

Everyone loved going to Bear Country USA.  This is like a drive-through zoo.  There are animals in a large habitat with roads through it.  The animals are very accustomed to all the cars driving through and will walk right up to the vehicles.  There were a wide variety of large animals, including elk, bighorn sheep, bison and wolves.  But the largest exhibit was that of the bears.  There were many bears and they weren't shy at all.  Joseph was a little nervous when they came right up to the van, but he got used to it and enjoyed it along with the rest of us.  After driving through the animals, there was an area with the baby animals that we walked through.  Lots of fun!

Chuck Wagon Dinner

Wednesday evening we went to a chuck wagon dinner.  It was at a fun ranch outside of town.  There was an 'Old West' town set up, with pony rides, panning for gold and lassoing while you wait for dinner.  Then there was a shoot out where the kids all go look for the bad guy.  Dinner was traditional cowboy fare.  After dinner there was music for entertainment.  We enjoyed the evening.  Rebecca especially enjoyed this activity.

Dinosaur Park

We thought it would be good to let the kids run around and play that afternoon, so we went to the Dinosaur Park.  It wasn't quite what we were expecting, but it was an interesting area in Rapid City.  At the top of a hill, the city built a park with these huge cement dinosaurs.  The kids had a great time climbing all over them.

1880's Train Ride

On Wednesday we went on an 1880's train ride.  This was one of my favorite activities.  We rode on a train that had been built and used in the 1800's and were able to listen to a tour guide tell about the area we were riding through and the history of the area.  

Cosmos

After leaving Mt Rushmore, we went to a tourist attraction called "Cosmos Mystery Area".  The idea behind it is that there is a place there in the hills where there are three different vortex (not sure what the plural is there...) that cause people to appear shorter or taller and attract objects to them.  The kids thought it was amazing.  Jack and I thought it was amazing that they could build a whole tour around, um... gravity. 

Mount Rushmore

The week after school got out, we took advantage of no school for a whole week before Memorial Day (and thus fewer crowds) to visit Mount Rushmore and the surrounding sites.

The drive up was pretty miserable-- there was rain, hail, sleet and horrible wind.  We actually saw a semi that had been overturned by the high winds.  Luckily, the weather improved drastically for the days we were actually in Rapid City.  

Seeing Mt Rushmore was neat-- I had never been there before.  The kids enjoyed it for a few minutes, but were quickly ready to move on.  I was glad we managed to get in a tour group with a park ranger to explain about the carvings, the Presidents, and the man who took on the project.  Without it, I don't think the outing would have lasted very long.

We found out the people rappelling down George Washington's face were actually doing scans of the rock to test for stability.  Interesting.

Joseph Turns Three

Joseph is such a sweet boy.  His third birthday landed on the day after school got out, so we had a fun time having a picnic at the park with his big sisters.  Joseph loves Rebecca and Miriam, and so he was thrilled to get to play with them.  For dinner, we had homemade pizza (his favorite) and some yummy birthday cake.

Joseph loved opening his presents.  It is so fun when they get to this age when they really understand presents.  I loved seeing the excitement and joy in his eyes.  He loved his new tricycle-- now he just needs to figure out how to pedal it!

Joseph is a joy to have in our family.  We all love him so much.  Happy birthday, big boy!

End-of Year Awards

This year the kids' award ceremony was in the evening, so we went as a family to celebrate all the hard work Rebecca and Miriam put in this year.

 The awards the teachers came up with were really cute-- focusing on what each child's personality and learning style is like.  Rebecca got an award for being a voracious reader, as well as for earning the National Fitness Award in PE.  Miriam got an award for her cooperative, responsible and generous personality as well as for excellence in reading.

That same evening was the awards ceremony for the District-wide Art Show.  Both girls had artwork selected to be in the show, and Rebecca's Picasso face won an award!  Great job, girls! Jack and I discussed it and aren't sure where they got their artistic talent from...

Miriam's picture is the purple and orange one above her.

Funny Kids

Jack and I were talking and joking about the theme song of "Rocky".  The kids asked what we were talking about.  We explained we were talking about a boxer.  Jack asked if they thought he looked like a boxer.  Rebecca said no, and Miriam said yes.  I asked them if they knew what a boxer was.  They both said yes.  Then Miriam said, "A dog!"

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Joseph was very excited about going to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  He was tired of waiting for us to be ready to leave.  Jack told him we needed to have prayer before we could go.  When we finally gathered together for family prayer, Joseph looked up and said, "Ma, say a prayer please."  I guess Jack wasn't fast enough!

Boredom Buster

Miriam made a comment one day that she was bored.  We are not very sympathetic parents to such comments, so Jack told her that she could go weed the garden.  Amazingly enough, she took him seriously!  She got her gloves and a plastic bag and went to work.  She worked on it until a bee came out to visit, and Miriam decided she was finished.  Too bad it snowed again after that, and the weeds managed to grow back before we actually got the garden planted just this last weekend.

Grandma Fong's New Place

After Tommie died, Grandma wasn't really sure what she was going to do.  She couldn't live in her apartment by herself for any extended period of time, and so the family started exploring different options.  Jack's dad and uncle live in the area, but neither of their homes seemed like a good fit.  So they looked at some assisted living facilities.

They found a fabulous place for her to live.  She has her own studio apartment, but there is a dining room with nice meals all day.  There are lots of activities for her to be involved with, and the facility provides transportation to her doctor's appointments.  She is more active than she has been in years!

We went to visit her in April, and she seemed so happy.  We had a nice lunch with her, and even had the opportunity to explain why each place was set with two forks (and it's not so you can shovel in food twice as fast!).