Vacation 2009 - Part 1

I will probably bore most of you with the posts I plan to write over these next few days, but being the blog is meant to be a record of our family life, as well as a way for distant friends and family to stay in touch, you will have to bear with me. :-)

We left for Wyoming Wednesday afternoon and drove several hours, spending the night in Mitchell, South Dakota...Yes...the home of the world-famous (ha) Corn Palace.

The next morning, the children were so excited to see it again that they could barely corntain themselves! Did you know that the earchitecture is so amaizing that if Corn Palace burned down, it would be a complete corntastrophe? Yes, we know the jokes are corny, and after hearing them several times we were downright earitated with the kids. We even threatened to send them to the corner :-).

Seriously, Seely and Random have a routine of corn jokes that will make even the most sour person smile eventually (and then plead for them to be quiet!). While the Corn Palace is not really all that exciting, it is located across from some of the first western souvenir shops where the kids had the opportunity to spend some of their money from Grandma! Monkey picked out a toy gun and a plastic snake and was quite pleased with his purchases!

Later that day, we visited the Badlands National Park. Last year, all five of the kids chose the visit to this park as one of their favorite things, so it was one of the things we said we'd do again on our way out to Basin.

It truly is a place of incredible beauty, and if you ever get out to the Black Hills area, I strongly encourage you to take the time to drive through. Pictures can not do it justice!

We spent Thursday night in Wall, South Dakota....again, giving the kids a chance to spend some of their souvenir money. Being we visited Wall last year, we knew the best spot to shop for souvenirs in there, and were in and out within half an hour, which has to be some sort of record for a family of seven!

The animal above, for the un-initiated, is a jackalope. It can only be hunted on February 30th and 31st. Yep, you read that right. Licenses can be purchased in Wall Drug. :-)