The Long Haul

At the end of August, Ryan was headed back to China for 3 weeks and I didn't want to be alone with the kids that long. So, we decided to make the long haul to Utah. All I have to say is, thank goodness for portable dvd players! Hayden watched movie after movie. The main downside was Cole's binky. It got thrown about a million times. Which means, whoever wasn't driving had the job of climbing in the back and searching for it a million times! Other than that, it really wasn't a bad drive and we had a lot of fun together. We made a few quircky stops along the way, and that made it interesting...

First we hit Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace. It's not as cool as it sounds, but was fun to see. They change the corn design every year and supposedly they've been featured in magazines and some tv shows.
They also happened to be having Corn Palace days, so Hayden got to play on some fun bouncy stuff. After all of this excitement, we headed to our dinky hotel there in Mitchell. Took a swim in a super cold pool and tried to sleep in the not so clean room. Cole would not sleep. So, about 4:30 am we decided to just get ready and get back on the road.

Our next stop was Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota. There are signs for the place for hours and hundreds of miles before you actually get to it. They have been featured in People Magazine, on the Today Show and some other stuff.

The founder started this drug store forever ago and discovered a natural spring running there. He then started advertising free water. More people started stopping there and the drug store expanded. Now there are little shops, weird taxidermy animals, a restaurant, and pretty good donuts.

It was fun to check out all the weird, random things they had displayed.
After that stop, we were back on the road, again. I want to remember the beautiful sunflower fields. I tried to get a picture as we were driving by but it didn't turn out at all. The fields were so glorious though. Huge fields, full of giant, bright yellow sunflowers. Awesome!


Then we made our way to Mount Rushmore. We've never been and really enjoyed it.


We checked out the displays, hiked a little around the monument, and about an hour later were on our way. We didn't feel like there was a ton to see, but it was definitely worth going to.

As we left, we headed down through Custer state park. In the above picture, you can see Mount Rushmore in the distance from this lookout point in the park.
We saw 4 buffalo,
A ton of deer like animals (I can't remember their actual name now). And a ton of wild Burros. These burros were fearless, as you can tell by the picture. They came right up to the window begging for food. It was crazy.

Then we went down through the Needles Highway. It is such a beautiful place and made for a very enjoyable drive. We were going to stop for a second night but decided just to keep on trucking. We finally arrived at Ryan's parent's house in Taylorsville about 2 am, and crashed. Then it was on to many, many activities. So, be ready for lots of posts and lots of pictures!