Rushmore Shadows, Rapid City SD 8/2/2012 - 8/9/2012

When we set up our reservations for Rushmore Shadows, we had no idea that it was the same week as the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.  As we came through Sturgis on our way to Rapid City, there were already quite a few motorcycles and we could see lots of tents and canopies set up for vendors in all of the fields along the way--but no motorcycles there yet.  But, a couple of days later, there were motorcycles everywhere.  We never made it back to Sturgis, but there were plenty to see, even in the Rapid City area.  Later on in the week, everywhere you were, there were "tons" of motorcycles!

We got a good site in the park.  The front of our Journey looked out on a big grassy area where the playground and the pool were.  It was great when Jill and Dan and the kids got there because there was an empty space right behind us!  The park filled up with a lot of people who had come in for the Sturgis Rally.  They usually road their motorcycles out fairly early in the mornings and then came back in the late evenings.  It was fun to see all of them.

One place we went to see before Jill's family got there was Wall Drug Store.  In 1931 Dorothy and Ted Hustead bought the only drugstore in a little town called Wall on the edge of the South Dakota Badlands.  After almost five years, the business hadn't grown too much, so Dorothy suggested giving away ice water to everyone.  Before they could finish putting up the signs along the road that advertised free ice water, their store was full of people!  Now, this block-sized-plus emporium draws up to 20,000 people on a hot summer day, and they still give away free ice water!

They have everything you could think of in their store, including this monster dinosaur who "jumps out and tries to eat you!"

Terry caught me trying to ride this giant jackalope in the patio area. . .

. . . and I caught him out in the front of the store looking for a Cushman scooter amongst all of the motorcycles there!  We had a good time exploring this huge Wall Drug Store.

Next, we drove through the Badlands National Park.

65 million years ago, this area used to be a sea.  Weather patterns shifted and the Badlands was lifted.  Volcanoes, wind, and rushing water eroded soil, coursing through different layers of harder and softer rock, gouging out channels and gullies, and carving cliffs, spires and other rock formations.

There were a lot of movies taken in the the Badlands area.  Parts of Terry's favorite movie were taken there--Dances With Wolves.

There were walkways that you could follow to go out into the middle of the rock formations.  You could also take off on your own, but we decided we didn't want to get lost in the Badlands--they would never find us!

It was fun to see these wild mountain goats.  We also saw a buffalo, but he was quite far away.  It was a fun day spent at Wall Drug and the Badlands.

We went into Rapid City on Saturday to a farmers market.  While we were there, we walked the streets where they have statues of the Presidents of the United States on each corner.  They were really something.  I forgot my camera, so I got no pictures!  We had this little tour book that told a little about each President--some things that weren't commonly known about them.  William Henry Harrison, ninth president, died from pneumonia one month after his inauguration, and his grandson, Benjamin Harrison, became the twenty-third president and was inaugurated 48 years to the day, after his grandfather.  I also didn't realize that Bill Clinton's name was William Jefferson Clinton (I probably should have known that!)  Anyway, there was a little scavenger hunt to find certain things on some of the statues, like a rose boutonniere, a toy airplane, a baseball, and other things.  When you finished, you could take the little booklet and get a free Presidential Soda in a special bottle.  We did that and got a Presidential Creme Soda!

Dan, Boe, Kamber, and Jill got to our campground a few days after we got there.  They are posing in this sign that was out on the lawn by the playground.

It was fun having them there.  Of course, one of the favorite spots was the pool and the hot tub.

One day we all took a trolley tour of Rapid City.  It only took about an hour and we learned a lot about the city.

After the trolley tour, we went to the Town Square where there is a water fountain.  Boe and Kamber had a lot of fun playing in it.  It was a pretty warm day and I think the rest of us would have liked to join them!

Dan's sister, Candie, and her hubby and three boys, came and stayed one night with Jill.  Boe and Kamber had a "sleep-over" with us to give them all a little more room in their trailer.  We all went into town the next day.  One place we went was Storybook Island.  It was great.  There were play things and rides depicting almost every fairytale and nursery rhyme you could think of! 

Jill will probably shoot me for putting this picture of her riding the little horse . . .

but we will be even by my posting this picture of Terry and I on the gorilla swings!

Here are Kamber, Dash, Colt, and Boe on a little ride.

Next, we went to Dinosaur Land.  It was a pretty long set of stairs to climb to the top, and it was quite warm out, but we bought ice cream cones and popcorn and headed up the hill

Boe, Dash, and Kamber climbed up on this dinosaur.  The younger kids were pretty impressed with the dinosaurs.  But, Boe thought they should have been painted a different color other than "all green."  They were supposed to be life-size, though.  They have found a lot of dinosaur bones in the Rapid City area and out in the Badlands.

The evening before Jill and Dan left, we went to Mount Rushmore.  We had all been there before, but none of us had seen the lighting ceremony they have in the evening.

They showed a movie, in the large outdoor ampitheater, about the making of Mount Rushmore and then they had all of the veterans and military people in the audience come down on stage.  Terry usually doesn't participate in things like this, but I whispered to him that he really should this time--for his grandkids!  So, he went down.  There were over 50 men and women.  They had them say their names and the branch of the military they served in.  We all sang the Star Spangled Banner and then they asked for six volunteers to take the flag down and fold it.  It was really nice and I know that Boe and Kamber thought it was special that their Grandpa was down on that stage.

At the end of the ceremony, they slowly lit up the statues on Mount Rushmore.  It was really something.  I am so glad we took the time to go, even though it was a little late when we got home.

Jill and Dan got a special rate to stay in the Park for three nights, but they had to listen to a sales pitch on the camping program.  After two hours of presentation, they said, "Thanks, but no thanks," and recieved two tickets to a chuckwagon dinner and show.  Because they didn't stay long enough to use them, they gave the tickets to us.  We had a great time--the food was tasty and the show was good.  We also got to see the film set that they used in the movie, Dances With Wolves.  They had the office where the Kevin Kostner got his orders and where the Captain shot himself in the head, with the bullet hole still in the window.  Thanks, Jill and Dan, for treating us!  We will miss our kids and grandkids the next nine months until we get to Arizona.  We haven't ever gone that long without a grandma/grandpa fix! 

Idaho Falls, Yellowstone 7/31/2012 - 8/1/2012

Back in May we got an e-mail from our Bishop in Emmett asking us to be Girls Camp Directors.  He told us that everything was taken care of and all we would have to do is show up.  In his words, "I think most of the training will be done before and it will just be the week of camp for you... I will check on this more and let you know... We will assign people over all the activities and the kitchen and your assignment will be to schedule and keep it moving. It would be great if you could fit it into your schedule."  Right!  Anyway, after doing all of the pre-camps in June, changing the date a little, and moving the place from Stanley (100+ miles from Emmett) to Montour (10 miles from Emmett), and then leaving for the month of July and getting home just a few days before Girls Camp, it turned out to be a great camp.  We had terrific people to help us and the girls were great. 

After Girls Camp and after getting our air conditioning repaired (it went out in Hell's Canyon and took us three trips to Boise to get the board replaced--at least it wasn't the compressors), we finally got to take off on our new adventure of traveling back East.  We will be going across the middle of the states, down the Atlantic coast, and then along the southern states, to end up in Arizona in May, and back in Idaho by July.  Come along with us by reading our BLOG.  I promise to TRY to keep it updated regularly!

Our first night was a stop in Idaho Falls.  We camped at a City park along the Snake River.  It was very peaceful and quiet.

When you looked down the river, you could see the top of the Idaho Falls Temple!  We stayed just one night and went to Shay's and had pizza and played games with his family.

We had a hard time getting our bike rack to work.  Finally, we had to take the front tires off so they wouldn't hit the tongue of the car dolly.  Then we ended up taking off the tire, that Terry so cleverly attached to the tongue of the dolly, because the bolts were so high they "chewed" up the front of the car!  Hopefully, he can get them cut down so we don't have to carry the dolly spare in the car the whole way!

The next morning we took off towards Yellowstone Park.  On the way, we came fairly close to the Teton Mountains.  They are very majestic!

It was kind of misty that morning so we couldn't see the Tetons too well.  But, we figured that going East we may not see too many more mountains like these.

We have been to Yellowstone one other time--back in 1993 when Terry drove the High School Band to Cody WY, and Sarah and Jill were both in the band.

We were excited to see some wildlife, but every time we saw a bunch of cars stopped and we got stopped, the animals had already disappeared,

But, finally, we saw a herd of buffalo.  I zoomed in on these pictures, but they were really pretty close.

This guy must have been the granddaddy of the group!

We didn't drive the route that took us by Old Faithful, but we did see a few steaming pots along the way.

And then, this big old guy stopped traffic and we were right in the front!  We stopped and he walked right in front and along side of us.  In fact, if Terry would have put his hand out the window, he could have touched him.  Terry said he thought about it, but was afraid maybe the big guy would throw his head around and put a hole in our little Journey!

 

There have been so many fires in Yellowstone--quite a few years ago--that it looks pretty bleak in some areas.  It sure takes a long time for things to grow back after a fire.

It's a little different driving a motorhome on some of these narrow roads--especially when there is a long drop-off on the passenger side!  I am glad Terry is an old bus driver--he does a good job!

That day, we went a lot farther than we had intended to go--almost 12 hours on the road.  And at the end, over an hour of that was climbing a huge mountain at 17 mph!  The Journey had lots of power to climb it, but if the RPMs got too low, it would heat up (being about 95 degrees outside may have helped a little.)  So, we just enjoyed the nice slow ride!  We got to the neighborhood Walmart in Sheridan WY, ate dinner and bedded down with all the other RV and truck drivers in the parking lot.  We were very glad for a place to park!  The next day we were headed to our park in Rapid City SD.

McCormick Park, Hells Canyon ID 7/12/2012 - 7/19/2012

After a great time riding the bike trails in Northern Idaho, we headed back down to Hells Canyon to meet up with the rest of our kids and their families, and other family and friends.  We stopped at a pull-out along side the road just above Riggins ID and spent the night along the Salmon River.  We have never done that before, but we felt pretty safe with the three of us traveling together.  It was so hot that night, and with no power for air conditioning, we almost put out our lounge chairs and slept outside!

 Here we are at McCormick Park at Hells Canyon, doing what we do best there--sitting around relaxing and trying to keep cool in the triple digit weather!  Here are Shay and Heidi,

 Dan and Jill,

 Terry and my niece Danielle,

our friend Larry from Oregon and my brother Bill (who started this get-together about 20 years ago),

 my brother Ron and his wife Kathy,

 and our daughter-in-law Shannon and their son Josh,

Another favorite thing to do at McCormick is fish!  A favorite spot to fish is from Grandpa Howie's pontoon boat.  Boe and Sean and diehard fishermen!

These are only a few pictures of all of the fish we caught!  Here is Sean with a couple of his catches.

Boe and Tyson hold up some of their trophies!

 Chaz and his fish share the limelight with Uncle Ryan (Sarah's hubby).

The adults tried to keep up with the kids.  Here, Dan (Jill's hubby) shows off one of his many fish he caught.

Our friend Elaine from Oregon, went out with Bill in his boat and showed the guys how it is done!

I think that Bill got the trophy for the biggest crappy!  That is always our goal--to catch that big crappy. 

Uncle Bill (all of the kids' favorite uncle, of course) kept his boat busy pulling all of the kids on the tube.  His goal was to "dump" the bigger kids, but he was careful when Kamber and Emily asked, "Please don't dump us!"  and just gave them a fun ride.

All of the cousins (plus friends) had so much fun together.  I don't think I ever saw even one disagreement between them the whole time!  Here are Jenna, Aleksia, Kamber, Emily, Luke, Trestin, Cassiah, Wesley, Karch, Zoe, Ryley, and Josh.

More cousin time with Aleksia, Destiney, Nate,Sean, Marissa, Spencer, and Emily.

Josh, Nicolas, and Wesley are hanging out--maybe looking a little bored.  Could that be because they have video games in their hands instead of fishing poles!

Lots of water fun every day, especially when we brought out the water guns!

 

Shay, Sean, and Dan floated the river in the float tubes.  They caught quite a few fish.  Shay said he out-fished the other two because he was fly fishing and the fish liked his flys better than worms or grubs.  He is really getting pretty good at fly fishing.

 

Shay actually gave his dad his very own "fly rod" a while back.  It also did a very good job during our stay at McCormick!

 

Uncle Bill found a special gift for Kamber--a beautiful monarch butterfly.  It had been injured and I am sure it enjoyed all of the attention from Kamber and everyone else during the time it spent with us until Kamber turned it loose under a bush where it "disappeared" by the next morning.  She was sure it made it into butterfly heaven!

Lindee, along with all of the other girls, had fun spending time with the only baby in camp, Becky's granddaughter from Oregon.  They all got to take turns helping to babysit her and then Elaine "paid" them all with beautiful rings she got from Heidi at her jewelry display (which was next to my Scentsy display.)

Another favorite thing we do when the Howards get together is play pinochle.  Here, Terry, Travis, Ryan (with Chaz coaching him), and Jill playing the first game of our stay (the first of many.)

We also like other games, like Mexican Train dominoes.  Everyone seems to have their own set of rules.  Bill, Tyson, Ryan (taking the picture), and I had a hoot playing with Larry and Elaine.  Jill and Terry watch in the background.

Well, here we are, taking it easy again--Jill, Ryan, Ryan (Sarah's hubby), Travis, and Terry.  McCormick if a really pretty park!

Our kids convinced Terry's brother and his wife Alice to come to McCormick this year.  Here they are, standing with Larry (friend from Oregon) and Jill.  One night all the kids, Travis, Shay, Ryan, Sarah, and Jill, talked Ron & Alice into a game of pinochle.  They played until about 1:00 in the morning and Ron & Alice came out the grand champions!

Michelle, Ron & Alice's daughter, and her daughter M'Kenna came for a couple of nights.  She grew up around all of our kids and now they don't see each other very often.  So, it was really fun having her there.  Hopefully, this will start an ongoing tradition for more Ron & Alice's family to join us at McCormick.

Marci, my sister Lorrie's daughter, was there with her family--Taylor, Tanner, Tianna, and Trista.  They are all such cute kids!

One evening, our grandson Spencer, Travis's son, put on a concert for us.  All of the little girls did a cute pre-show performance for us, and then Spencer played the guitar and sang.  I counted about 63 people there in our group!

Spencer does a good job.  He has actually recorded some CD's.  I really like his pink guitar strap!

That crazy red-headed son of ours, Ryan, actually brought his ping-pong table with him!  It was a great hit.  Here he is playing Shay, with the kids watching (well, some of them are watching and some playing under the table!)  I don't think anyone ever beat Ryan--although Jill came pretty close!

Danielle had all of her bow-making stuff with her again and the girls totally enjoyed making beautiful bows for their hair.  Thanks, again, Dano!  Sarah with helping her with Emily, Kamber, Destiney, Josh (just watching,) and Lindee.

And Danielle's hubby, Than, brought back the popular activity of making of fishing lures.  Here he is with Chaz, Wesley, Garrick, and Michelle's daughter, M'Kenna (watching.)

 

Kathy also helped the kids make sets of Jenga blocks.  Tyson built a tower with his.  He was very proud of it and I had to be careful opening and closing the door when I went into their trailer to take a picuture of it!

Late afternoon of the last day Travis and his family were staying, we had a terrific storm--wind and lots of rain!  We lowered their tent, with a lot of their stuff in it, and they had to bail water off of it before they could even raise it again.  Needless to say, there was about four inches of water inside of it.  They had been trying to decide whether to stay the night or go to Emmett and spend the night at Lorrie's (actually, our house.)  Well, this helped to make up their mind!

All of the tenters had all of their stuff out on the lawn, trying to dry them before it got dark.  Danielle's tent pole broke and their rain fly got torn.  But, other than that, things just got wet.  I can't believe Bill's 25+ year-old tent made it through another storm!  Lorrie and Ron are getting the wet things spread out.

The tents all got put back up and air mattresses dry before bed time.  With borrowed bedding and clothes, everyone survived the night.

 

We had quite a clothesline stretched out among the trees!

My brother Mike and wife Janet came up.  Here they are, visiting with me and Lorrie after the storm.  They had several extras in their camper during the worse part of storm, after we got all of the tents laid down.  We all had extras in our RV's.  I think Jill counted about 14 kids in her trailer!

While everyone was trying to get things put back together after the storm, the rest of us put all of our food together and we had a big buffet!  It wouldn't be McCormick without at least one storm while we are there!

After the storm was over, the kids were kind of restless.  So, they started gathering up all of the limbs that got blown out of the trees.  Here are Kamber, Jenna, Ryley, and Emily (with Uncle Ron in the background) doing their part.

Some of the boys, Wesley, Nicolas, and Boe, with Ryley, Zoe, and Kamber in the back, pitched in to help, too.

The next morning, the camp host, Everett, was so surprised, especially when all the kids started helping him load the limbs into his Mule.  That evening, he came over and gave all of us a free pass to stay one night.  He said he couldn't believe the kids had done what they did, especially without anyone telling them to!  Good job, kids!

We did a special thing this year.  I brought all of my Mom's jewelry that had been in her hope chest since she died in 2004.  Lorrie and I had already gone through it and kept a few things.  We laid all the rest of it out and the granddaughters took turns taking the things they wanted.  The granddaughters there were Marcie, Jill, Destiny, Sarah, and Danielle,

Then the great-granddaughters got their turn.  Jenna, Emily, Kamber, Ryley, Zoe (a friend), Aleksia, and Tianna are in the picture.  Also there were Taylor, Trista, Lindee, and Cassiah. Some of the boys didn't think it was fair that only the girls got something, so several of them also got a keepsake.

All of our kids and grandkids were at McCormick, except Ryan's wife Lori (we missed her, but she had another reunion she needed to be at).  So, we got to take a family picture.  It had been two years since everyone had been together.  I will list names for all who aren't sure who is whom, starting with the top row:  Heidi & Shay,  Spencer (Travis), Travis & Shannon,  Susan & Terry, Dan & Jill, Ryan, Sarah & Ryan.  Middle row:  Sean, Marissa (Shay), Ryley (Ryan), Nathan, Nicolas (Travis), Jenna (Sarah), Boe (Jill), Wesley (Ryan), Luke (Sarah), Tyson, Emily (Shay), Kamber (Jill), Josh (Travis), Lindee (Sarah), Chaz (Ryan), JT/John (Sarah).  What a great family and what a great time!