Our first stop was at Martin's Cove.
We took a small tour and then walked to Devil's Gate.
We stayed there for the evening and the next day got up and drove to Devil's Tower. It is a huge mountain that just juts up in the middle of no where. We took the mile walk around the base and it was quite interesting to see.
After seeing Devil's Tower we drove the 2 hours to Mt. Rushmore.
We arrived at our hotel to check in and then went to spend the rest of the afternoon seeing Mt. Rushmore.
We drove towards it and Jason said, "Look, there it is!" I looked and saw the faces and said, "I thought it would be bigger." I guess after seeing it in pictures all of my like, I expected it would look big from any angle. :)
We arrived parked and walked into the monument. It has a walk way you go through with flags from each state and territory. On the pilars it lists the state name and when it was admitted into the union. You then arrive on to the Grand View terrace which faces the president's faces. Below the terrace is an amphitheater where we watched the lighting ceremony at 9 p.m. At the ceremony they talk about the contribution of each of the presidents. Washington got the country going, Jefferson helped with the laws that would keep it going. Lincoln helped keep the country together, and Roosevelt helped the country continue to progress and move forward. Afterward they had all veterans, who were in attendance, come down to the stage to help take the flag down. Then they had each of them introduce themselves and tell which military branch they served in. It was quite good.
Before the lighting ceremony we took the Presidential trail, which leads you up and under the faces so you can see them closer. There was also the sculptor's studio where it explained how the faces were planned and sculpted. It took 14 years to finish....they blasted, carved and chiseled. That was very interesting! We were there from about 3:30-9:30.
The next day, Wednesday, we drove through Custar State Park. We did the wild life loop and drove
through Needles. This is actually driving through the eye of the needle. Here you can see us approaching the "eye" and then as we are driving through it. It is very narrow!
We arrived at Crazy Horse Monument and saw a movie to introduce us to it. It was started in 1948 and is STILL being built. As compared to the 14 years it took for Mt. Rushmore. It is privately funded and sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski started carving, by himself, in 1948. Ruth arrived about a year later (along with others) to help with the monument and she and Korczak married. They had 10 children, 6 of whom still work on the monument.
This monument is much bigger in scale than Rushmore. The president's heads from Mt. Rushmore could fit into the feather section on Crazy Horse's head!
Of everything we saw, this was the thing Jacob seemed to love best. The Viewer!
After coming home we spent our final few weeks going to Cowabunga Bay and Seven Peaks. One day when we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa Wong, Jacob saw MarySue's foot bath. He asked what it did and thought that sounded great to have warm, swirling water shooting at your feet. He decided wanted to make one of his own. We found a bucket, he put the hose in to start filling it with water and then added Jason's pump to pump air into the water. It was harder than it looked...he was done with it after a few minutes.
Almost annually we get together with guys from Jason's MBA class. Here is 2013 and 2015 (sans Ryan).
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| Ryan, Roger, Chip, Jason |
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| Jason, Roger, and Chip |
In August Jared and Stephanie moved back down fom Idaho so Stephanie could begin working in Provo District. Some of the kids stayed with us the first week of August while Jared and Stephanie were back and forth, packing, moving etc. We went to the park and splash pad. Had a fun time!
Toward the end of July, Dad began to have some heart problems. The upper section of his heart was not in rhythm. They went in to make sure there was not a blood clot behind the heart and then shocked it back into rhythm.
That seemed to help and he began to feel better.
Ah, then the day arrived! Back to School! Here he is on the first day of school. Jason was in Thailand for work, but Jacob and I went to breakfast with out him. This year we went to Penny Ann's Cafe.
Yum!!
To finish it off--Jacob made our bed for us a few times! :)
