Well, it has been a long time since I have had a chance to write. We just arrived home from a wonderful trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. It opened my eyes to a brand new meaning of God's creation. If you have never been there, I would suggest a visit. It was an amazing week.





My mother's family has held a family reunion for 26 years. I have only made it to one; and that was before I met Mark. My mom has wanted us to make it back to meet her family for such a long time. We were finally able to work things out so that we could make the trip. I had dreaded the trip, not because of the reunion, but because of a 20 hour car ride with a 17 month old. I should have known that God would use that time to remind me of Him. What I feared, never happened. I feared that Elizabeth, who HATES the care seat, would scream the majority of the way. But, just as God always does, he showed me His grace. She was an incredible traveler. She took it all in stride. Between the help of the other incredible travelers (Emily, Erin, Sam & Jacob) and the fact that we drove through the night, she managed to make it with smiles almost all the way!

But boy was the beginning of our adventure an adventure all of its own. Dad came out in the morning to help us with a few things. We made him breakfast and enjoyed visiting a little. But as the day progressed, I begin feeling a little sick. I figured it was just because I was tired from packing and probably a little stressed about thelong ride ahead of us. I had done almost all of the packing the night before. Saturday, all I needed to do was finish the little things... you know.. the things only mom can do and only mom knows what needs to be done. But as I began trying to put the cooler together, straighten up the house, finish packing the things noone else remembers... I just felt sicker and sicker. About an hour before we were ready to leave, all I felt like doing was laying down. I couldn't think about what needed to be done, let alone do it. I tried to direct everyone... but failed miserably. When it was time to go, I still wasn't ready, but I really didn't care. We climbed into our 7 passenger mini van (did I emphasize mini-van?) Did I tell you that we found out 2 days before we left that we were going to camp for 3 days???? Ha Ha. Try packing a mini van with enough clothes for 7 people, for 7 days, and 2 tents and 7 sleeping bags, a cooler, food, cooking utensils, propane stove, 7 pillows and whatever else you need for a vacation! It was quite comical!! Here is a brief glimpse into our van. Now the kicker... we drove 26 hours straight...with a 17 months old and 2 teenagers and 2 preteenage boys! God is so funny.

Ok, on with my story. I was feeling sick, but figured that it was just my stress and maybe what we ate for breakfast. I didn't figure anything else. I only knew I felt pretty miserable at this point and wasn't really looking forward to 20 hours in a van. Well, 20 minutes into the drive, I was asking Mark to pull over. At that point, I opened the door and totally humiliated myself as I proceeded to be sick. My poor family. I don't think they have ever seen me so sick. Mom is always the one who is taking care of them. Not this time. At this point, Mark is telling me that this is crazy and we were turning home. I knew, like most moms know, that if I have it, it was only a matter of time that someone else was going to have it too and if we waited, we would never make the trip. So I convinced him to go onward.

We left at 3:00 in the afternoon. I felt better as the day went on. I never need to have Mark pull over again. But, at midnight or so, somewhere in Indiana, Emily woke up to the sounds of Jacob behind her. She whispered as loud as she could to get my attention to inform me that Jacob was getting sick. Yep... in his sleep.. all over the van seat, the car seat, and him. Poor guy. I felt so badly for him. Mark pulled over quickly to a gas station and I ran in for Pine Sol. It was a toss up which was the worse smell, but pine sol won. I wanted to disinfect and get rid of all the smell I could. Elizabeth slept right through it all. It took us a good 20-25 minutes, a lot of rags, a lot of bags of water and cleaner. We managed to save almost everything and head onward. He was such a trooper. Ok... 2 down. We think Sam might have had it a week earlier and figure that Elizabeth is the one who gave it to me. So, we were hoping that 4 were through it already. But, in the morning after driving all night, Mark started feeling badly too. By God's grace, he never ended up as sick as Jacob and I, he only felt miserable. 3 down.. for sure, maybe 5. The girls just looked at each other saying ... uh oh, we're next. To top the ride off, I took the driving reigns over around 4:00 am or so. Mark told me to stay on 90 and not turn off. So I didn't turn off. The problem was, 90 did. I missed that part. I ended up on 94. I drove an hour before Mark realized what I had done. Ugh. At this point, I broke down sobbing. What a trip so far! My husband, though, was a gem. He just kept on smiling and encouraging me. What a blessing that was.

When we hit South Dakota, we visited the Badlands before reaching our final destination. For Mark and I, the Badlands were scarey. Watching the kids climb these rocks was nerve racking. The girls had flip flops and slid everywhere while the boys just wanted to climb everywhere. These rock formations went on for 37 miles. It was beautiful.

We then headed for the luxury part of our trip.... camping! It is the first time we have camped since we camped when Erin was 8 months old. Having no idea what to expect, we were surprized at the size of the campground. There were 1/4 million dollar rigs everywhere. We were quite intimidated knowing that we had 2 little tents. We went to set up the camp site only to discover that the site they gave us was all gravel. Ha ha! 26 hours on the road and now we were facing the comfort of gravel on our backs. I couldn't help but laugh.... then go to management and explain that we just couldn't set tents up there! They agreed. We found a spot we felt was good and set up our tents. The kids were very excited. NOtice I said "the kids". Mark had slept maybe 30 minutes the whole trip. He was ready to lay down and rest. Around 10:00 that night, we were finally able to lay down. It was then that we discovered that our site was centrally located for all the traffic. There must have been 30 cars/campers/vans that went right passed us. It went on for 30 minutes. I couldn't believe it! Poor Mark never did get to sleep until about midnight. The next day we realized that the traffic was due to people coming back from the lighting of Mt. Rushmore.

Anyways, here is a popular activity of the kids. Sam and Emily spent much of their time fishing. It was a great time of relaxing and fun. We all discovered how much of a girl Emily has become... she refused to touch the worms!

Thanks for a gift from their grandparents, the kids were all able to rent "banana bikes" a couple of days. It was a blast. They bikes were unique and quite fun to ride. It gave us a good work out! Here is Erin taking Elizabeth for a ride.


One day we went to Deadwood. We really didn't know why we were going. We kept hearing about shootings and wanted to see one. We got there and weren't real thrilled that we had made the hour trip, but figured we would make the best of it. The town is beautiful. It is famous for Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. Saloon #10 is where Wild Bill was shot. We found out that a reinactment was done everyday, so we decided to hang around for it. It ended up being my highlight of the trip!! Mark went ahead of the kids and I and got us a table right next to the place the reinactment was going to take place. When it was time, the room was filled with people. Mark and I gave our seats up and stood by the wall near the table that Wild Bill would be at. It was time for the "play" to begin and in walks Wild Bill. He starts giving instructions to the crowd and moving people so they would not be in the way. He then looks to our wall. There were 4 couples standing there, we were one of them. He points to each man and tells him to come here. Then he moves us women down a little. Mark was one he chose. Then he grabbed hats and coats and threw them at the guys telling them that they had now volunteered. It was hilarious. Mark was so perfect for the part! He had the crowd laughing. Anyways, Mark was Charlie Rich, a man known for his gambling and one of the men sitting at the table when Wild Bill was shot. Here is Mark "acting" . The kids and I had a ball watching him.



After the big shootout, we laughed and laughed. On our way back to Hill City, we ran into a place that took old fashion pictures. We stopped and had the whole family dress up in old western garb. It was another highlight. The kids had more fun there then just about anywhere. Here is the result of the kids dressing up:






On our way to the family reunion, we stopped in Wall to visit the famous Wall Drug Store. In its backyard, the kids were able to climb on a jackalope. Sam just purchased his cowboy hat and lasso (a result of our western picture).