South Dakota

Every year when I was a child we would go on vacation over my birthday because it's a holiday in Utah. I hated it. However, somehow I always convince Taylor to take a road trip over my birthday. After this year he told me no more.

We went up to South Dakota and camped for two nights. The boys were in heaven. Taylor found a pretty little spot by a lake. South Dakota is super pretty, the Black Hills were amazing! And there are the coolest rocks for climbing everywhere. Right by our camp site the boys found some great rocks. And Hannah kept saying, "want climb" and trying to follow them up. The boys also rode their bikes a ton.





Friday we woke up and went to Mt. Rushmore, saw a bunch of Model T Fords, hiked up to the Cathedral Spires, swam in Sylvan Lake(?), went to a chuckwagon dinner. While on the hike Matthias chucked a rock at my head. I was trying so hard not to cry and got a huge goose egg. Taylor was livid and Matthias had to sit on a log for a really long time.
















Swimming in the lake was the best part. The kids had a great time and Taylor swam out to a little island. He made friends with some 12 year old boys that dubbed him Aqua Man and tried to get him to swim around with them. I started to swim out to the island and then realized if I didn't turn around and go back I was likely to drown. The water was so cold I was already having trouble breathing when I started out. Then half way when I couldn't touch bottom any more I started to hyperventilate...same problem I have with snorkeling I think. So swam back as fast as I could since I couldn't really breathe at all any more.