South Dakota

This last month our family went to South Dakota for a Puffer vacation.  We met up with some of Ben's family and got a couple cabins in the Black Hills.  It was one of the best vacations ever.  The icing on the cake was that my parents decided to come up at the last minute.  It was the best being around family again!  (Warning:  Lots of pictures)

Mount Rushmore:

The Needles in Custer State Park:

Sam - the ultimate in photo bombing. 

Grandpa and Drake

This will probably be our Christmas card pictures because I won't have any time (or really, the patience) to get another one with everyone in it.  You saw it here first folks.

 Lina and Stina - two peas in a pod.

Black Hills Caverns:

 

Cousin Josh saving the day.  Drake's bottle fell down off the bridge and he climbed down to get it.  Crisis averted.

Panning for Gold/Gems at the Caverns:

- With so many kids panning for gold and gems, the odds seemed to be in our favor that we might strike it rich.  Maybe next time. . .

It's a boy!!

I had a little cupcake party to reveal the gender of the baby.  You can't tell in the photos, but the icing is pink and blue.  They all had to choose the color of cupcake they thought the baby's gender would be.  Then on the inside I had blue colored filling.  The kids loved this so much I wish I had done something like this earlier.   I had no idea I had it in me!  My sister-in-law Lizzie would be proud. 

Homeward Bound

On our way home from Idaho we decided to take a different route so that we could go through Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore.  This time our return trip took 3 days because we didn't feel like rushing home.  We were glad to be home, but sad to leave family behind.

Yellowstone:

 Strangest traffic jam I've ever been in - waiting for a buffalo to get out off of the road.  

 On the way to Old Faithful.

 Old Faithful - Dayne wasn't too impressed.

 We traveled through northern Wyoming on the way to Rushmore.  I had no idea that there were parts of Wyoming that didn't look like southern Wyoming . . . you know, actually quite beautiful.

Mt. Rushmore:

 Oddly enough, Mt. Rushmore was not as big as I had thought it would be, but still pretty cool.

Crazy Horse:

 So they still have a while to go, but this was way cooler than I thought it would be.  I wished that we'd had more time to spend here.

This is what it's supposed to look like when it's done.

Idaho

The second part of our summer vacation was heading up to Idaho after being in Utah.  We went to visit Ben's brother and his family.  It was great because a lot of Ben's family were able to come and visit at the same time so we got to see a lot of family.  Thank goodness Steve and Liz had a great house!  It was so beautiful while we were there and another plus to going Idaho was that I realized Wisconsin is not the coldest place in the continental United States!

 Stina and her cousin, Lina, were best friends while we were there.  It was so cute to see them cuddle up to watch a movie and then take a nap.  So precious!

 Aunt Liz puts me to shame (on more than one level).  She made this barbie cake for Adi's first birthday.  I'm sure she enjoyed this more than the cake that usually make for the 1st birthday (gluten-free, sugar-free carrot cake with tofu icing - not as bad as it might sound).  We celebrated Miki, Aunt Liz, and Adi's birthday on the same day!

 Aunt Liz also does hair.  I don't have any idea how she got Stina to sit still and how she got Stina's hair to do this.  I can't even do a simple french braid on her because her hair is so fine.  She loved it!

On the campus of BYU-Idaho - another place we suggested Lexi look at for college. 

 Xilone and Lexi are alike in so many ways.  When they got their bathing suits on to play in the water they found out they had both picked out the same swim suit.

 Lexi, Xilone and I went on a walk and passed by the Rexburg Temple.  It's so beautiful and set up on a hill so you can see the entire valley from there.

Ben and his facial hair experiments.  He can't help but try different hideous facial hair ideas to show to his brother Steve.  I made him shave this off as soon as I took this picture.

Petting Zoo at Reed's Dairy (amazing ice cream there). 

I felt so sad making them part when we had to go home.