11-12-13

Today is 11-12-13.  I am eighteen days away from being exactly a year behind on my blog.  I may never catch up in the manner I would like and I (of course) don't remember all the little tidbits of Ellie I created this blog to write about.  Luckily I take a lot of pictures and occasionally write something down.  The last year was probably the most expensive and the most action packed year of my life.  I am sure there was time to blog, but every down moment we had was needed and then the task of catching up on the blog was just entirely too daunting.  I am going to do a year in summary with just one or two pictures each month.  If I get time I will finish some of the longer blogs I created this year and post more pictures.  Picking just one picture a month and not giving all details will be really hard, but it is likely the only way I will get anything for the last year done.  Ready....set....go!

Quick monthly recaps:

December 2012 - I love this month and everything about it.  We had our tree, we had our elf, we had our family, we had the best week of Christmas activities and I have a lot of pictures.  I also have an almost finished blog post of that month, so I will finish that soon and stop details here. We enjoyed our time off of work and school way too much and January was a kick in the pants.

January 2013 - A kick in the pants.  We struggled to get back into work and school.  Homework became a never ending battle.  Ellie sold Girl Scout cookies, we went snow shoeing for the first time.  We got a visit from Uncle Jonathan.  We relished in memories of December.

February 2013 - I rekindled my love of snow skiing.  I took Kevin to a concert he actually enjoyed.  Ellie and Grams went for a weekend trip, by plane to California to see Mason and her family for Logan's birthday party.  I was super nervous about her flying without me, my mom reminded me that she was MY mom and that she had this!  Kevin and Ellie completed most of Ellie's first science project without me as I was traveling.  I left them Valentine presents to open each day I was gone.  We went to the RV show with our friends the Vanderlindens and we bought a camping trailer.  Kevin gave me skis for Valentines - we then bought him some.  Ellie had no interest. We delivered all of those girl scout cookies.  I was able to go to the school for both the science project presentation and the oral book report.

March 2013 - Ellie turned 9!  She grew 4 inches and only gained 5 pounds.  She was 51 inches tall and 52 pounds on her birthday.  She still HATED homework and struggled each day to complete it.  She started to realize that the older she got, the more responsibility she had.  We had often said "Eight is Great!" yet when she turned nine she said "Nine is only fine."  On her actual birthday we had lunch with her at school.  We all got a little annoyed by Carter.  She was amused that he was too much for even adults to handle.  After school she wanted a cake she could stuff her face in.  That weekend we tried to give her the greatest birthday party ever.  She wanted to ride in a limo so we rented one, took her and two friends in their fanciest clothes to eat at the Grand America, we had a dance party in the limo and enjoyed a very magical day.  Spring soccer started and Ellie got even better.

April 2013 - Ellie got her braces off.  Mason and Logan came to visit.  We spent spring break on a Disney Cruise.   Ellie is a cruiser, she loved all of the activities and even got up eventually to participate in some of the games.  We left her retainer on the lunch tray, but were lucky enough to recover it.  We dressed up for pirate night and had fun playing shuffle board and the pirate dance party.   We went to Key West, Nassau and our favorite, Castaway Cay.  Uncle Jed got engaged.  We celebrated Kevin's birthday, we gave him a fire pit for the back yard and enjoyed making our first s'mores around it.  We helped grams with her yard sale, Ellie wanted to keep everything.  We planted our garden.  Ellie lost three teeth in one month.  She is quick witted and funny.   Ellie improved with each soccer game and I went to Taiwan.  I spent much of my free time searching for a Hello Kitty toy Ellie had found online.  I never found it, but returned with many other Hello Kitty items.

May 2013- Ellie got a funky rash and stayed home from school one day.  We bought all new furniture for our back yard to go with the new fire pit.   Uncle Levi came to visit for a day.  Our garden grew, Ellie continued with soccer.  We celebrated Mother's Day.  I got a new hammock for the back yard.  Ellie had her piano recital, she lost another tooth.  Her school program was awesome.  We bought Ellie a new bike and all of a sudden she was amazing on it and finally found her love of riding a bike.  She accomplished riding both up and down our big driveway.  We took Ellie camping to Wasatch Mountain for her first time in the trailer.  We did awesome hikes, flew a kite, did some of the Jr Ranger program and rode our four-wheeler.  Logan and Titus came to visit at the end of the month. Ellie still enjoys playing more than pretty-much anything else.  I love this about her.

June 2013 - The school year ended, soccer ended, the struggle with homework ended and an awesome summer started.  We went to South Dakota for a 10 day trip in the trailer.  We helped grandma move.  Ellie had summer camps, we went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo with our friends the Dubois family from PG.   We enjoyed time at the zoo and Cowabunga Bay.  At then end of the month we went to Ohio and spent several days in Amish country and then several days in Perrysburg over the 4th of July.

July 2013 - We started the month in Ohio.  Our garden grew,we got our first tomatoes.  Ellie got to go with Grams to St George to pick up Mason for the month.  Ellie, Mason and Grams did a two day trip in Zion.  Mason was here the rest of the month.  The girls had zoo camp and golf camp.  We bought dresses for the upcoming wedding, we went on bike rides, grams took the girls to Cowabunga Bay, we went to Flaming Gorge camping for the Heath family reunion.  We all tried paddle boarding for the first time.  The girls spent time trying to knock Kevin down.  Mason won twice at family Bingo including the grand prize of $100.  She gave Ellie her first prize.  The last day of the month I made them breakfast in bed.

August 2013 - Uncle Jed got married!  We had the reception in our backyard.  Ellie enjoyed running around with her cousins.  Mason and Ellie both cut their long hair into bobs.  We went to the zoo, had sleepovers and enjoyed a family BBQ and water-slide bounce house for Mason's birthday.  Mason and her family left.  We went to the farmer's market, made salsa and rhubarb pie from our garden.  Ellie had a few last summer camps and a couple last visits to Cowabunga bay before school started.  We took one more camping trip to Deer Creek with the boat on the last weekend before school started.  Ellie tried water-skiing for the first time. I had the best mom moment when she tried and then again later when she told me I was a good teacher.  School started.  Homework pains started, but not quite as bad as the year prior.  After the first day of school we went for family yogurt.  Ellie saw a Parenting magazine with an Elf on the Shelf idea.  Ellie questioned if he was real or not.  She is still pondering, but as we get closer to Christmas she is telling us she believes in him.  Fall soccer started, we have a new team and a new coach.  Ellie doesn't like this team and coach as much and the coach always plays her on defense.  She has a good attitude about it.

September 2013 - We spend a day at Raging Waters as a family - super fun.  Ellie does all the big slides, even one she didn't want to do at first.  She surprises us by doing it a second time!  Ellie LOVES swimming this summer, wants to always swim.  She also loves her bike.  We take grams to the fair, we celebrate my birthday in Park City, Ellie swims while I get a massage they planned for me.  We go back to the fair for the demolition derby - which only had 4 heats - we were disappointed, but still had fun.  Ellie was mostly sad we were home in time for her to go to bed on time.  We go to a Luau at Kevin's work.  Ellie loves crazy socks and hates to get rid of her favorites.  She rarely wears socks that match.  We take grams to a Vintage Market.  I leave for Japan for 12 days.  Grams and Kevin share my role as mother and do amazingly well at it.

October 2013 -  I returned on the 3rd - we went to St George to stay in a condo with Levi's family and grams and supported Uncle Levi in his marathon.  The kids swam.  We came home on the 6th, picked our only pumpkin from our garden on the 7th and I left again on the 9th for a conference in Las Vegas.  I came home the 11th, we went to Ellie's soccer game the 12th had dinner at grams on the 13th and I left on the 14th for Boise.  My family met me in Las Vegas on the 16th and we did our annual shopping trip to California with the Nissons and again got to spend time with Levi's family.  Ellie has gained noticeable weight for the first time in her life, so we bought lots of new pants.  It's the first time she grew out of them instead of "up" of them.  Grams dropped Kevin and me off in Las Vegas and took Ellie and the truck home.  Kevin and I stayed in Las Vegas for his conference and I worked until the 25th.  I did most parenting via phone and Facetime.  I got several "I miss you pictures" when it was bedtime.  Ellie got to spend one night at Uncle Jed and Jessica's house while we were gone.  She had to do the dishes, which she said was "Slimy" - they also carved a pumpkin, played games and she got to stay up late with Uncle Jed watching Duck Dynasty.    She told Jed he was a good uncle and a good husband.   The 30th we went to the pumpkin patch, carved our pumpkins and had a wonderful time as a family.  On Halloween I was able to go to the school to help with the craft and game, but didn't get to plan either.  Ellie dressed up as a baby.  She planned it with her friend Abi.  We had planned earlier for her to be Mulan.  I got all of the stuff while I was in Japan and then she decided she wanted to be a baby with Abi.  We are now at the stage in her life where friends are starting to have more influence.  And so it begins.....

And in the famous words of Paul Harvey (which totally reminds me of my dad)...."And now you know, the rest of the story."

Magical and Miraculous

When I think of Christmas I think two words best fit my memories:  Magical and Miraculous.

Lots of other words also come to mind...but I think I can fit them all into those categories.  The feelings that the memories produce are what I picture as magical.  Not pull rabbits out of a hat magical, but the feeling that you might get when seeing that for the first time ever.  I don't mean to compare the miraculous event of Christ's birth with magic, but more the feeling of the word magical.

Maybe another example....last year when Ellie and Mason were playing with their LaLa Loopies Mason wasn't treating her toy lifelike and Ellie said to Mason, "She doesn't know she's a toy.  She thinks she's a real girl!"  There is magic in that.

Hopefully your Christmas season is still magical and of course, miraculous and you just get what I mean.  Anyway, that is how the season is for me and hopefully you will get that from reading.

We started our season as we traditionally do, picking out a tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  This year we didn't go far and it didn't take long.  In less than thirty minutes we drove to the tree lot, picked out our tree, and had it back to our house for trimming.   (The tree was dead in less than two weeks, so next year we may need a new plan.  I knew in the first week when it stopped drinking water and the smell changed that we were in trouble. )  We had a great time singing Christmas songs on our short ride.  Our tree was beautiful and Ellie loved it so much she wanted to hug it.  (It was still soft and alive then.  :D)

I think getting our tree is the first of the magical feelings.  Year after year we continue our traditions and although some years they are executed better than others, they are still ours and wonderful.  Kevin puts the lights on the tree while Ellie and I get the house decorations out.  Ellie assembles the Nativity as I place things around the house.  Ellie dances in the tree skirt and gets all of the Christmas chocolates on a tray.  Of course the lights are a BIG job so Kevin continues dedicated to perfecting the placement of each bulb as Ellie and I go about the rest.

As Ellie gets older, she gets more and more personality.  Not entirely related to this video, but just as I think of it she is getting quick on pointing out irony and puns, she is also getting quick with sarcasm and jokes.  She makes us laugh and I'm often surprised by how quick and bright she is with every day conversation.

This year, Kevin and I had just returned from Las Vegas with a Gangnam Style shirt for Ellie.  So towards the end of the night there was an extra dance as Ellie showed us her Gangnam Style dance moves.

I had once told Kevin that after all of the lights are on the tree I like to squint so the lights are a bit of a blur and look at the tree.  So once Kevin was done this year he tried his to get his squint on.

The next morning our elf, Chip, returned to our house.  He first arrived in Ellie's room under her tree as he had in previous years.

He is a bit magical, but this year also a bit mischievous.  After arriving in Ellie's room, he was found many other places throughout the month.  He turned our milk green, flew Kevin's helicopter into the tree, fished in the tub, rode our train, got wrapped up in twine and got himself stuck between the window and the screen - among other things.

Santa also sent an elf to Mason this year.  She named him Chip Jr and called him CJ.  It was fun for the girls to talk about their elves and I assume it was fun for the elves to discuss the girls as well!

But back to our tree.  Because the lights and the rest of the house usually take us an entire night, we decorate the tree the next day or so.  We didn't get the train out last year, but decided we should this year. Ellie remembered  that in prior years she had put her smaller stuffed animals on the train.  Ellie loves our traditions and so didn't want to go without doing it again!  I love love love this about Ellie.

Ah...the finished tree.  It was as beautiful as any tree really can be.  I loved it so much and was only sad that it died so quickly.

On to our next tree....We learned from last year that we needed to get our Angel from the Angel tree earlier this year, but thanks to our endless search last year, we knew the spot to go.  So that week after school we ran over and picked out a name.  I often feel year to year my posts around certain months and events are the same as they were the year before.  The Angel tree, for example, is one of my favorite things we do as a family.  I love that Ellie always wants to pick a child her same gender and age.  I love that we get to pick things that Ellie would love.  In fact this year we bought her Angel the exact same winter coat Ellie had.  We were able to find everything on her list and get it back to the drop off location a few days later.  It's a small opportunity to give, and each year the story may be the same, but I'm thankful for it and hope that Ellie always remembers to give and to find joy (and magic) in giving during Christmas.

All season, we stuffed as much in as we could and celebrated and spend time with family and friends.  I took Ellie to see A Christmas Carol for her first time.  I was a bit worried that some of it may be a bit dark for her, but luckily for me a few things worked in my favor.  Firstly, we went to see it in Orem with Sage, Taj and Leea who have all seen it before, whose family owns the theater, and of course were super excited.  Secondly, Ellie's friend Clare from school played the part of the Ghost of Christmas Past.  So with Taj and Claire both intimately familiar and in love with the play, Ellie was set to enjoy.  And that we did.  She loved the play and was excited to not only be with Taj, but to see Claire and we also ran into her teacher, Mrs. Nielsen.  

The next night day was actually December 1st so Ellie's advent calenda

That night we went to dinner and to see Zoo Lights at Hogle Zoo with the Vanderlinden family.  We LOVE these girls.  They each have their own personality and Ellie does really well with every single one of them.

Kimese had a pre-light craft for the girls.  They used their hands and feet to make reindeer shirts, which they all wore over their coats.  Ellie did NOT want to wear hers over her coat.  She was not happy about the way it looked and I really can't blame her, but I made her wear it anyway.  It was easy to find the girls and Kimese had gone to such an effort to include Ellie.  Ellie loves the shirt, she just doesn't love it over her coat, but has worn it several times since as an over-sized night shirt.

But look how stinking cute they all were with their over-sized shirts and their special 3D glasses.  As a side-note the glasses transformed each point of light into either a reindeer, a snowman or a snowflake.  They were pretty awesome and free with our entrance!

Also included in our visit to the lights was a visit to see Santa.   I love this Santa - although he never gets Ellie's name right - but he takes his time to sit and really visit with each child.  He asked Ellie about school and what she wanted for Christmas and also what her favorite zoo animal was.  When she answered it was a monkey he talked about a specific orangutan at the zoo and didn't rush her off his bench.  

After we visited Santa the girls ran around the zoo like they owned it trying to stay warm and see all of the lights.  We made a pit stop to ride the carousel and then at the end of the night Kevin, Ellie and I made a pit stop for some hot chocolate.

 In this section of the zoo the lights would change colors and the girls would run up and down chasing the change (not sure if you can spot them in the picture).  I had to stop Ellie against her will to get a quick picture.  Admittedly, I take too many pictures, but I love her so much and love to capture the fun we have in pictures.  She is such a good sport to stop so often for me!

Grams had us over to make our traditional faux gingerbread houses.  They were....well....art?  If nothing else, they were memorable and delicious!

Of course in December along with the other reoccurring posts - we have the piano recital and the school program to brag about.  For the piano recital Ellie was a little nervous to get started, but then picked up perfectly half way through her performance.  We still love her teacher and push forward at an Ellie pace at the piano. ( An Ellie pace means, we do it with as much practice as I remember to enforce as there is no way she is going to do it on her own.)

In the school programs I am always impressed by their diversity in the program.  The recite poems, they sing in rounds, they sing with the piano, they sing a cappella, they dance and have animation in most songs, and they do it all from memory.  Like I said, impressive.

This happened to be one of my favorite of the program.  Probably because it looked like the song the kids enjoyed the most and sadly, my camera memory ran out part way through!

Mid- month exactly - on December 15th we had the Heath family Christmas party at our house.  It is always super stressful to me to have that many people in my house.  I think we counted over 60!  Ellie gets super excited to have that many people at our house and asked all day long how many more minutes until people started coming.



In December, I still tried to have Ellie keep her room clean.  We tried everything from asking nicely, to chore charts, to nagging, to bribery.  One day Ellie said, "My room is always so messy, but I am not a chores person, but I need money."  Another day she said, "I don't like cleaning up."  I said, "But your room is always so messy." She said, "It looks good in my room."  At that point I just had to laugh.  She basically said, I make this mess look good!

When Santa came to the Heath family Christmas party he said to Ellie, "I noticed that you're doing good in school."  She said, "Thank you."  He then said, "Remember to keep your room clean!"  She said, "Okay."  He said, "Merry Christmas."  

There was slight improvement on the cleanliness of her room, but nothing spectacular past Christmas.

(Since I am writing months later, I can give the update that I have given up since then.  I ignore, for the most part, the messy room.  I just don't look down the hall.  After having time off in December from school and enjoying life to the fullest - our larger battle became homework.  Homework was honestly a struggle every night and entirely too painful for all of us.  Ellie has decided that responsibility and growing older isn't always that fun.  You will see more of this in future posts.)



Kevin asked Ellie what she wanted most for Christmas this year...after some internal debate & some "from who" questions she finally decided, "I want Mason to come early for Christmas."

A few weeks before Christmas Ellie and I were talking and she said, "On no, we are going to have another bad Christmas." I asked her why and stated that we've never had a bad Christmas.  She then explained, "Because we aren't going to get any snow!"   I am pleased to announce that we not only had an amazing Christmas, but we also had snow on Christmas Eve.  It was about as magical as it gets.

When I asked Ellie what she remembered most about Christmas, she said it was watching the movie Christmas Oranges with Grandma on Christmas Eve.

The last day of summer - 2013

The last day of summer.

We had, what I like to call, a pretty kick-ass summer.  (Pardon the swear.)  We started the summer with a 9 day trip to South Dakota, we took a trip to Ohio and visited family and Amish country.  Mason came to stay with us for a month and the girls went non-stop.  Ellie had zoo camp, golf camp, and five Thanksgiving Point camps.  We went camping in Flaming Gorge for our family reunion, tried paddle boarding for the first time, we had Jed's wedding in our back yard.  Ellie went to Lagoon, Cowabunga Bay, Strawberry Days Rodeo, Hogle Zoo,  Mason's birthday, Analia's birthday.  She played night games, rode her bike like a champion and had a chore-free, homework-free summer.  (Basically, just one big run-on sentence of a summer.)

On the last day of summer Ellie did something I never thought she'd do this summer.

We were camping and boating with our friends the Vandlindens.  We had been playing and skiing.  Ellie had mostly been playing on the beach.  We had just gotten back to shore from taking Paige skiing and I asked Ellie if she just wanted to try on the skis to see how they would feel.  She said no, but then Reagan said yes, which prompted Ellie to try also.   Reagan then decided to give skiing a try, which again, prompted Ellie to try.

I couldn't have been more excited.  (Likely because this was how I spent most of my childhood.) I helped her get the skis on nice and tight and then held her in the water (which gave me so many memories of my dad doing this for me) and then I coached her through it.  On her first try she was up!  It didn't last long and she made a typical beginner mistake (bending her arms) that made her fall,  but who cares?  She did it and it was awesome and I was so proud and you can totally hear me screaming in the background of the video.

Later that night at dinner we were talking about it and she said, "You are a good teacher.  You should teach other people."  As if my day wasn't already amazing - that finished it up as the best last day of summer.

Ahh....summer

It was like someone turned on her happy button - the day no more homework for third grade was announced, Ellie was a happy, happy girl.  (It is seriously amazing to me how enjoyable, agreeable, and perfectly content Ellie is when there is no homework.  I'm not sure I can express how much better life is at our house when there is no homework.)  All of a sudden Ellie didn't want school to end, because when school is just a social event, school is pretty great.

We really struggled the last semester of school. And by we, I mean all of us.  We got a bit lackadaisical correctly homework, we rarely encouraged reading, Ellie often missed turning in homework or turning it in late.  We all really just did the minimum to get by, and to keep us sane.  

At the end of the school year when it was time for the merit assembly, I hadn't heard if Ellie was going to get an award or not.  When the school called the night before I was a bit surprised.  I had fully been expecting Ellie to get her first B of her school-life, which I thought meant no award.  The next morning when we were at the assembly they gave the Academic Achievement award, which I didn't recall seeing in prior years, but it was for A's AND B's. I thought, "Oh, this makes sense now, Ellie will get this one."  Of course internally I was really hoping they wouldn't call her name but was surprised when they didn't.  I really couldn't believe it - yet let me be clear - I know that Ellie is bright enough to get all A's every year and with just a tiny bit of effort I wouldn't have even questioned it.  But her pure disinterest in school, when at home, is what I was questioning.  

In fact, I asked Kevin to give me one word to describe how Ellie felt about homework, he said, "hatred".  I asked for one that described her attitude towards it, he said, "disgust".  I think you get the idea.   I was so proud of Ellie for getting the Exceptional Academic Performance award (all A's) and I am really proud of the kind of student Ellie is in class.  Yet even Ellie agrees the reason she got it is because in school, while in class, she does her best.  Homework, on the other hand, will go down in history as her third grade nemesis.

This summer we are all trying to convince ourselves we will try harder next year and her attitude will be better.  :D

Regardless, it's an amazing achievement (for the third year in a row) and I am still a very proud mother.  She is also above the 90% percentile in the standardized testing.  So after school, we went to the mall to get her teacher a gift and used to time for a little celebration.  She chose pretzel bites as her prize and then we bought her a pair of red Toms.  

I got to spend a couple of hours at the school on field day.  I'm happy that Ellie still wants me to be there and it's fun that all of the kids seem to enjoy having me too.  I'm the one constant mom at every school event and I'm really proud of that.  I'm so thankful for a job that is flexible enough to allow for that to happen.  I was chatting with one teacher and she said, "Oh, YOU'RE Ellie's mom, Mrs. Nielsen talks about how great you are."  I know I'm not perfect, but it's nice to occasionally hear positive things about your parenting.

The kids had a great day with all of the fun activities that were planned and even Mrs Nielsen and I took a lap inside the bouncy house.  

Like last year, we wasted no time getting right into our summer vacation.  In fact, within thirty minutes of Ellie getting home from her last day of school, we were packed and on the road for our nine day adventure to South Dakota.  Before I get into that, I better go backwards a bit.

The first Saturday in June was the last soccer game of the season.  It was amazing to see how improved Ellie was from the first day of soccer to her last in the season.  She was a true team player, she kept to her side and played her position.  She went after the ball, she remained fast and until she got worn out, was one of the hardest working players on the field.  I was again, so proud to be her mother.  She was so incredibly awesome in the last few games of the season.  The team ended the season with a win and with a winning record.  Quite a change from fall ball, when the closest to a win they got was a tie.  Not only did Ellie improve, the entire team improved and they really played so well together.  It was a great season to watch and we hope many of the same girls will come back and play on the team again in the fall.  Go Giant Pandas!  (Ellie named the team!)

After soccer, Ellie I went to the Girls Scout Cookie Party.  Ellie got in free for selling more than 500 cookies.  When we arrived, Ellie wasn't quite sure that she wanted to stay or that it would be fun.  We decided to eat lunch and then go to the store to spend the cookie money she had earned.  She had a great time spending her money and left with a couple bags full.  There were these little coin purses and one had a bike on it.  She said I just had to have it and used her money to buy it for me.  A couple of times I tried to get her to put it back, but she was adamant about getting it for me. 

After shopping I convinced her to look at a few of the booths, and then I was able to convince her to play a few games and as the prizes started rolling in, she was happy to play them all!  We had so much fun playing small carnival type games that I'm pretty sure that we will have the same people come (on a smaller scale) for her next birthday party.  

As we were leaving she was carrying all of her goods and noticing a strain on her muscles.  She said she had the weakest muscles in her class and decided to use the bags to try to build them up.  It made me laugh.

The other noteworthy item on that same day is that Ellie finally lost that tooth that was literally hanging on by a tiny piece of skin.  I just touched it and it was out.  It was a bleeder because I think the gum tissue would have held onto that tooth forever, even though it no longer had roots.

So now back to our trip.   For our first trip of summer we teamed up with the Vanderlinden family and headed East.  We had been working on our agenda for over a year.  Mainly because it was last year we decided to do this trip and we got some good ideas from Hugo's family that had been the summer prior.  We left right after school and decided we drive as far as Casper, Wyoming.  We told Ellie we would be camping overnight in the Walmart parking lot and that was all she could talk about.  We decided to camp there because 1-we weren't 100% sure we would make it that far so we didn't want to book a spot and 2- it is free and 3- Walmart lists itself as a spot for exactly that.  We rolled in just after midnight and settled down for the night.

It took a bit for me to settle with the noise of the cars outside.  We didn't have the stabilizers down and so every time the trailer would move I thought someone was trying to break into the truck.  I was a bit uneasy sleeping in the parking lot, but when morning came, I was amused.  A motorcycle came first thing in the morning and parked right next to us, literally in the same stall we were using.  I mean, we were using several, but there were PLENTY others he could have used.  I think he was likely an employee that parks there every day and was pretty upset we were in his spot.  It made me laugh.  

I also got a kick out of being naked and showering in the Walmart parking lot.  We took full advantage of being so close to the store.  While I was naked and showering, Kevin and Ellie went into the store to get some items we needed.  I admit I felt a bit like Griswold's cousin Eddie in my free, very public, parking space.  Ellie thought it was awesome.  In her words, "It was awesome, it was my first time staying at Walmart!"  Personally, I hope it was the first and last, but really it was quick, easy, likely better than a truck stop, and definitely memorable.

We had a shorter drive the second day and arrived at The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs South Dakota around 12:30.  The Mammoth Site is a working excavation site where there was at one time a 60 foot sinkhole.  To date, the Mammoth Site has found 61 Mammoths (58 Colombian and 3 Woolly) along with 85 other species of animals, plants and several unidentified insects.  They estimate the bones to be over 26,000 years old.  It was truly amazing to see the fossilized bones, some of them in complete form.

The tour was short enough to keep the girls' interest and then they had fun running around the exhibits and browsing in the gift shop.  It was a perfect first stop.  Ellie said she loved the "pit" and enjoyed learning about it.  She thought it was cool that they had found SO many mammoths.  I have to agree.

From there we made our way to our first real camping site, Flintstones Village.  We were pretty excited to stay there.  Our spot backed right up to the woods and while we were there we saw several deer and a rock chuck.  The girls quickly found the playground and spent some time there while we got the trailers settled.  And as soon as we could get to the swimming suits, the girls had them on and we were at the pool.  Ellie loves to swim and Kevin and I were glad she had other little girls to swim with on this trip.   Sadly, this would be the only time on the trip Ellie would swim.  Our other two camping locations had pools but we were either too late to swim or there was a storm.

Speaking of storms, it was this night we had a VERY close encounter with lightning.  We decided to grill burgers at our trailer and then go for a walk around the park and explore a bit more.  We found Dino, stopped to play some mini-golf, found the Drive In we would eat at the next night, found the amusement park and gift shop, found and hiked to an even larger Dino and then decided to make our way back.

The sky was getting dark, the clouds were rolling in and we could hear and see thunder and lightning in the distance.


The storm was beautiful in its own way and we tried to get a picture of it.  Of course the delay in the camera missed it each time so Kevin decided to take video instead. In a total of 56 seconds, part of the storm moved and lightning struck literally in front of us.  The ground shook, Kevin could feel electricity in his feet, I felt it in my hands and Ellie was horrified.  I kept trying to assure Ellie that the lightning wouldn't hit us, but as we quickly walked back to our trailer and the storm got closer, she was not convinced.   I could not console her, it was the worst feeling.  We got back to our trailer and the girls in the other trailer asked Ellie if she could play.  She responded that she couldn't and rushed in the door.  That may be the only time Ellie has ever turned down playing.  She was so frightened.  I told Ellie that it would hit tall things and she reminded me that Kevin was the tallest thing in the field.  I have to admit she was right and it was the closest any of us ever care to be near lightning.

On the video you can hear Ellie warning us, "You know I think we should really go, the clouds are coming over.  We've been standing here for a while."  I laugh and prompt Kevin not to give up because each time he had shut off his camera or video he missed it by seconds.  A few seconds later I can sense Ellie's concern so I tell him Ellie and I are giving up and Ellie says, "Well, you can come back whenever you get shocked."  At the time I thought she was joking, and we have had some good laughs about it since.  But in that moment it was no joking matter to Ellie.

To try to calm her and to distract us from the storm we played Yahtzee.  The dice were loud and  they were a good distraction to muffle the outside sounds as we played.

The storm quickly passed, but we have now given Ellie a justifiable fear of storms.  This is only the second time I've seen Ellie unconscionably frightened and sadly, we took her to the Tower of Terror also.  :)

The next morning it was time to go caving!  We explored both Wind Cave and Jewel cave on our third day.  Each of them are over 145 miles of cave and each have unique formations.  They were both discovered by wind blowing out of a small hole in the rock above ground.  In fact that is how Wind Cave got its name.  It was the first National park to be dedicated to a cave.  We spent just over an hour in Wind Cave exploring its tunnels and admiring the boxwork type formations it is famous for.

On our way out of the park we saw this prairie dog eating a Twizzler.

After lunch we visited Jewel Cave, which is currently the third longest cave in the world.  In both caves they mentioned that they are still exploring and discovering new length.  Jewel Cave has many spar crystals that look like jewels and that is why the name was given.  I think Ellie wanted to find real jewels in the cave, but was still happy with the crystal formations we saw.

That night, we considered a magic show, but found ourselves enjoying the Flintstones Village amusement park too much.  Kevin pushed all the kids around on the merry go round, in fact some of the other kids in the park latched on and wanted him to push them there and on the swings.  I am so glad we have Kevin to play.  He is so fun and even though I wanted to tell those kids to go get their own lazy dad off his duff to push them - I'm glad I never have to think that with Kevin.    And speaking of getting off our duffs - even the adults had fun playing at the park.  I must have had slick shorts because I would fly down the slides and catch air.  One time I caught air and landed on the side of the slide and had a nice big bruise as evidence that I was playing like a kid.  Ellie wanted to trade shorts so she could go as fast.  I have to admit between the slides and the 60 year old man giving rides in his Flintstones VW cruiser - I had as much fun playing as I think all of the kids did.

The next day was pretty monumental (pun intended).  I don't know how many of our trips or experiences Ellie will remember in years to come.  I don't even know that I will fully remember them, but hopefully we both remember the day we saw Mt Rushmore for the first time.  We started the day in Custer State Park and we were thrilled with the all of the animals we were seeing.  We turned into the park and within a couple of miles we had huge American Bison crossing the rode right in front of us.  Ellie said, "Why did the bison cross the rode?"  "To get a drink a water!"  And that was exactly what they were doing.  Kevin pulled forward a bit when one was crossing back after his drink and the bison stopped dead in the middle of the road and turned his enormous head to look at Kevin as if to say, "Really guy - I wouldn't come any closer if I were you."  As then, after Kevin was at a complete stop, the bison slowly went on his way over the road.  It was pretty obvious who was in charge in that situation!

We turned another corner to enter the Wildlife Loop and there was a small pack of wild burros.  They call them begging burros because they come right up to you and beg for whatever you will give them.  We didn't know how friendly they were until we got out of the cars to take a few pictures and they walked right up to us.  We were cautious at first (I mean they are wild animals!) but they had no reservations with us.  They loved the attention and we got to spend quite a bit of time petting them.

Around another bend we found a massive herd of bison with their calves.  I think there were mostly female bison, as they weren't as large as others, but still massive and impressive to see so many with their babies.  We did not get out of the car for this herd, but that didn't stop them from coming to us.  We had one literally licking our tires and the side of the truck.  Another one behind us was using a car hood as what appeared to be a scratching post for his head.

A few turns later and we found a herd of pronghorn.  They were beautiful to see, but kept their distance.  Our final stop on the Wildlife loop was to watch the prairie dogs.  The girls thought it would be fun to see if this group also enjoyed Twizzlers so they found their way to one of the holes, placed the Twizzlers, but the little guy never came back up for it.   I assume he eventually did, but not while we were there to enjoy it.

We stopped for lunch in the Summer White House.  President Coolidge and Eisenhower both occupied the buildings in 1927 and 1953.  It is now an inn and restaurant where we enjoyed one of probably only two decent restaurant meals we ate on the trip.   I should mention that we arrived in South Dakota a few days before their summer season actually began so most of the staff was just getting