Vacation 2012 Part 1

Our vacation was scheduled around my husband's family reunion this year.  He's from Iowa, so that's where we were headed.  I was excited to get to see his family again.  I happen to love his side of the family and I wish we got to see them more often.  Then Ben gets a call from his mom saying that we could just cut our trip there short by a few days and head up to South Dakota and go see Mt. Rushmore and other landmarks in the area.  Ben and I discussed it and decided that it would be a great experience for the kids and for us as well.
So our first stop was IA where the majority of Ben's family is.  Well in the surround area's anyway.
The few days we got to stay were great.  We stayed with Ben's aunt who is the most amazing hostess.  I always love getting to stay with her.  The morning we left she made the best breakfast I've had in a long time. The sticky buns were out of this world.  I didn't get a whole lot of photos of the family, but I did get to snap some at the reunion.


The two girls in the bottom photo are 2nd cousins.  The first is my daughter and the one smiling is Ben's cousin, Tina's, daughter.  Her name is Callie.  I like to show people photos of Callie and then tell them it's not Maci.  I get the best reaction every single time.
The photo on the top is Tina's whole family.  Mom, dad, brother's, sisters-in-law, etc...

More of the family reunion...
 


The day after the reunion, we hit the road.  First up...The Great Plains.  I have always read about these in history books and have seen countless photos in magazines and travel brochures, but to see them in person is amazing.  Land goes on and on and on for what seems like forever.


I love how the hay gets stacked.


All along the way there were signs in fields.  We got to see a few pieces of art also.  I liked this one.
Indians chasing...

Cowboys!!!  Go figure.

When I was in high school my parents and brother made a trip to Montana.  To this day, I can't figure out why I didn't go with them.  Anyway, they came back talking about this place along the side of the interstate called Wall Drug, which was located in Wall, SD.  Then about a year ago I saw something on the Travel Channel about it and thought to myself, 'My family got to go there.'  I had completely forgotten about it.  Then about 300 miles east of Wall, we started seeing signs for Wall Drug.  My heart jumped into my throat!!  I told Ben we had to stop there.
These were only a few of the signs.

There were way to many to count.  Oh and if you are a honeymooner, they give you free coffee and doughnuts.

Wall also had an 80 foot dinosaur.  Jordan, my brother, had a broken arm at the time when he had his photo taken in front of it.  So in honor of him, we put our arms in the air. :)  And the photo on the top is the view behind the dino with the sun shining on it.  I just thought it was so pretty.


My kids are crack-ups!  They keep my husband and I laughing constantly.  And my daughter, when she's in the mood for photos, loves the camera.  Example:

The picture to the right is her winking face.




Ben and I at the fake Mt. Rushmore.


And this is just my husband being himself.  Now you know where my kids get it from.



Wall Drug's big thing is the free ice water.  They've been doing this since they opened.  So Ben of course had me take a photo of his excitement over the water.



This is all for part 1.  Next up in part 2:  The Badlands!  Most beautiful land I've ever seen!


Live Greatly, Love Softly