Little House Feels Like Home

We woke bright and EARLY as the HOT Wyoming sun was beaming down on our tent. We all rolled around for about 45 minutes pretending that we weren't miserably hot and might go back to sleep before we finally gave up and left the tent. I am pretty sure it was about 6:30 am . We stuffed some bagels and Pop Tarts down the kids (I know my Dad will be mad at me about that!)  and went to get Kathleen and Tammy at their hotel.

This was the big day that I had been waiting for. We were finally going to be in DeSmet, SD and go to the Ingalls Homestead! This may not seem like much to some people, but I grew up memorizing everything about Laura Ingalls. My sister and I played Little House On The Prarie by the hour.  It was not uncommon for me to walk around for the entire day with a pair of my Mom's pantyhose on my head, pretending that each leg was one of my braids. 

We drove, switching driving partners and kids along the way.  When we got there we walked into the Visitors Center with Tessa nipping at my heels like a small dog, begging me for a bonnet. Of course I bought her one right away, Matt had to hold me back so that I wouldn't buy her the over-priced matching dress and pinafore. 

We walked all around the homestead and visited the barn, with 4 new kittens and a calf. From there we went to the house that Pa built and made butter, rested on beds filled with hay and tested out the old fashioned system for washing clothes. The kids could of made rag dolls and button string toys but they were very egear to get to the next thing, a covered wagon ride to the school house. We got into the wagon and the driver let all the kids take turn driving. 

The end of covered wagon ride brought us to the little school house. We put on our bonettes, and pinafores and sat at our little desks. The teacher talked to the kids about what life and school would have been like in Laura's day and what she might have eaten for lunch. 

After that we rode back to the barn and the kids took little pony rides, pumped some water from the well and we payed another visit to the kittens before we left. 

After we left there we drove to our hotel. Yes, I said hotel. After 2 nights of setting up our tent in the dark and waking up really early Matt agreed to a hotel :) We got there and Kathleen and I asked if  they could put our rooms close to each other, so Matt and I got an upgrade. It was heavenly. 

Fort Laramie, Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore

After our first KOA experience, we woke up ready to go the next morning. I was really excited about getting a shower first thing in the morning until I saw the huge line of teenage girls also waiting.  I decided it was worth it to wait in line, but after 30 minutes of standing there and listening to the girls talk about hair, make-up and boys in what seemed like a whole other language, I decided to just get dressed so we could go.
We got on the road and, after a breakfast stop at IHOP that left us feeling slightly sick, we were on our way. Our first stop was Ft. Laramie. We didn't expect to be so impressed, but the walking tour was amazing. We loved looking inside all of the houses, and the rooms were decorated with all of the artifacts that archeologists had found on the site. The kids loved it; Tessa especially enjoyed looking in all of the children's rooms. There were several rag dolls and dolls with glass heads that she liked.

There was a group of archeologists there and they had just uncovered a plot of boots, shells from rifles and a perfectly intact and beautiful perfume bottle that was absolutely beautiful. 

From Ft. Laramie we went to the Crazy Horse exhibit in the Black Hills. As soon as we rounded the corner up the hill we saw a huge mountain looming in front of us, we could immedietly see that it was the side of a face. We didn't have any cell service for the majority of this time so of course we were seperated from Kathleen and Tammy the majority of our drive. Once again though, we ended up running  into them right as they were pulling into Crazy Horse. It was a happy reunion as T & K had been chasing a few hours behind us all day. 

We went inside of the muesum with Brodie, Vera and Tully holding hands and Tessa, Fiona, and Ashton chasing along behind them. They spent some time examining all of the buffalo hides and Indian Teepee's. We watched a short movie on the history of Crazy Horse that Tully loved. After that we had dinner at the reasturant at Crazy Horse, I think we almost gave the staff a heart attack when we walked in with our SEVEN hungry kids dancing around. 

After that we headed off to Mt. Rushmore trying to get there before dark. I have to admit that after a really long day and seeing how huge Crazy Horse was, Mt. Rushmore was a little bit underwhelming. It was really pretty and very cool, but we were so tired! We stayed for a little while but we didn't make it to the light show. Matt and I drove off to another KOA to set up our tent in the dark and K&T went to a nearby hotel. 

Check out Matt's $3 Mt. Rushmore shirt that he got at Wallmart. The scary thing is we saw whole groups of people wearing the same one. 

Rocky Mountain National Park

We left Denver on Wednesday and drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. The drive was beautiful and as we approached the park we noticed the hue thunderheads rolling in. We entered the park and stopped along the road several times to look at the view, the higher up we got the colder it got. I dug out the jackets from the back of the car and we went to the top of the mountain.  We were supposed to met up with Tammy and Kathleen somewhere along the way but as soon as we got into the park we lost cell service. We looked around the visitors center for awhile and saw some elk in the distance. The bad weather was really starting to roll in and so we decided to keep going and see if we could find K & T. As soon as we started to roll out of the parking lot they pulled in, lucky break. Tully and Tessa immediately broke into happy hysterics and as kids started piling out of various cars the rain finally let loose and in minutes we were all soaked and running to the shelter of the visitors center. We left from there and started down the mountain, we stopped and did a nice steep hike on the tundra. The view was amazing and the wildflowers were beautiful!

On our way down we watched pika, and marmots running around and all the kids thought they were so cute and funny. 

We ended the day pulling into our campsite at 9:30 pm!

KOA

OSo, KOA. Awesome and funny all at the same time. It was perfect for what we did tonight, pulled in at dark, set up the tent, set up the sleeping bags etc. But imagine sitting in your camp chairs, staring at the huge Wyoming sky and...... watching the trucks pass on the freeway, while surfing the internet on your computer. Totally strange. It's just like staying in a hotel, without having to adjust

the air conditioning. 
We spent an awesome day at Rocky Mountain National Park, extreme beauty, fun hikes, LOTS of animals, thunder showers etc. Meeting up with K & T has been very fun, the kids are all very cute with each other. I think they are happy to have some help! it is semi- chaos everywhere we go and a quick potty break is not so quick when the kids outnumber the adults so much.:) Still I have to say, very fun and worth it. 
Tomorrow we head out early (yeah right, I am praying to get out of here before 10) to Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands. Matt has been quizzing the kids all day and both of them can now tell you every president who is carved into the rock. (and he bought a REALLY tacky shirt of Mt.R at Wallmart for $3 that he is planning on wearing all day tomorrow) Should be fun! We are planning on staying at another KOA tomorrow night, we had thought the whole time that we were going to have to splurge on a hotel room in somewhere around Rapid City but you can't find one for less than $100, and that would be a really yucky hotel. For T&K it's fine because they are splitting but for us it make way more sense to camp. 
Good night, I have to go and watch the trucks pass the freeway, while I pretend to be in the wilderness. Lucky for us our noise maker has a 'wilderness' sound! 

Denver!

We finally made it to Denver, CO and GOOSE GOOSE!!!! It took about 9 hours but the kids were troopers. We drove through Wyoming and watched a awesome thunder storm. Tully was trying so hard to see  the lightning but he kept missing it, he is still sad.
Today we did some sightseeing and then went to the Rockies game. It was very fun but VERY hot. We picked up stuff to make dinner on our way home and the kids got a movie. Everyone is very tired. Tully's lips are still blue. Kori and I are about to make dinner. Tessa lasted about 5 minutes before she fell asleep. All and all a good day.