Something Beautiful: Black Hills Vaca {Post 2}

I have so much to write about, I don't know where to start! It has been such a fun and fulfilling summer and I feel that I could write about work experiences, vacations or daily crafts. But for tonight I will tell you about the second half of our wonderful vacation we had in the Black Hills.

Tuesday (July 2nd) afternoon we went to Wonderland Cave. My brother had been wanting to go to a cave and that one seemed to be the best in the area. So I rode on the motorcycle with my dad and the rest of the family drove in the Morano. It was a long trek there and were signs that would say "Wonderland Cave this way" or "Almost there" or "200 yards". My dad kept saying "this cave better be worth it!" and it was a pretty neat cave! We went on a 45 minute tour through the stalagmites and stalactites. I loved riding on the bike with my dad and even though it was a little scary at first I trust him and he was pretty cautious just because he hasn't been riding that long on it. I will cherish that moment on the bike with him forever. It was good to have that quality time on the open road with my dad. We totally didn't look like the "biker" type though. We had just jeans on, and I had sandles on. We kept trying to figure out the "biker signal" that every biker uses when they meet on the road but we still don't know if we got it right..haha!

Mom & I after our muggy run

Wednesday (July 3rd) The guys went to a course and golfed 18 holes and mom and I had breakfast at the lodge while watching Kathy Lee and Hoda (one of my guilty pleasures). We decided that we should check out the running/bike trail that was very close to our lodge so we headed there around 11:00 am. It was already pretty hot and we set out on a walk. Soon I ditched mom and jogged up the trail on my own with my pandora playing :) It was a great run and somehow I had the energy to run a total of about 5 miles. Like I said before, during my runs I feel close to God and this run was no exception. Being among such beautiful nature and able to have the motivation and endurance to run that far made me feel truly blessed. I always think of that ability God has given me and think of Fidel or my patients that can't run that far because of their conditions. It makes me very thankful for what God has given me.

After the trail we met up with guys and went horse back riding. We went to a nice little horse back riding place that had many beautiful horses and even a few little colts that were just the cutest. We all were assigned horses and quickly shared the horses names with everyone.

Me = Colby

Alex = Jamie

Mom = Trigger

Alex G = Sky

Mike = Baby

Michael squishing mom before the trail ride

Alex learning how to handle his horse.

Mike made a hilarious comment by saying "no one puts my horse in a corner" haha! I loved the Dirty Dancing reference. We set off on the trail with 2 young girls that were leading us. They were really great because they told us a lot about the horses and by the last part of the ride we were able to gallop on the horse which was fun. That was the fastest I had ever gone on a horse and was really exciting! The area we traveled was wonderful! The horses had to go on some pretty tricky terrain but they did great! Horseback riding is something that I have been wanting to do for many years now and was so happy that we got to in the area we did.

My Beautiful Horse!

That night we ate at restaurant in Deadwood and then I played a little roulette at the casino that was connected to the restaurant. They had the electronic roulette game that I played in Las Vegas so I texted my friend Kelli and told her I was going to play. She told me to put money down on number 1 so on my first turn I put money on 1 and it HIT!! I won $18 on that spin so was feeling pretty lucky. I ended up winning $14 total after going back and forth. We were going to head to a movie after that but sorta got lost in Spearfish and would have been really late so we just decided to get ice cream instead at DQ. I had a s'mores blizzard that was delish!

The fourth of July started off really rainy and stormy so we waited to do anything until a late morning. Dad and I started off on the bike while the rest of the family followed but we had to park the bike in Deadwood because it started raining again. We all hoped in the truck and headed to Mount Rushmore. We stopped in Hill City to grab a bite to eat and went through some of the tourist shops there. I bought Easton (Alex's nephew) the book "Who Pooped in the Black Hills".

It was really neat getting to be at Mount Rushmore on the 4th of July and I thought it would be more crowded but it wasn't too bad. I had been to Mount Rushmore when I was younger but it was really neat to see it again. I still can't imagine having a vision to create the four presidents' faces out of a mountain! And the whole project happend from 1934-1939. The monument was orinially going to show the presidents from the waist up but did not have enough funding to sculpt that much. As you walk to Mount Rushmore there is a aisle of all the state flags which is a really cool sight to see.