Great Faces, Great Places

South Dakota's license plates read "Great Faces, Great Places." And that pretty much sums up our first two days in that state!

Thursday: Great Places

South Dakota's landscape impressed us from the moment we stepped off our plane in Rapid City. (Well, from the time we stepped outside the airport to find our rental car, anyway.) The sky seemed so vast, so open. We suddenly felt quite small.

By the time we'd loaded children, carseats, and bags into our SUV (which, thanks to providence was equipped with four-wheel-drive) it was too dark to appreciate the landscape as we drove from Rapid City to Deadwood, where Aunt Annie would be married. We could certainly see the snow, though! It swirled in the light from our headlights, fascinating the girls. They couldn't understand why we wouldn't drive down the interstate with the windows open. Madeline made a habit of cheering, "I see snow!" (Incidentally, that sounds more like, "I see no!")

We stopped briefly in Deadwood, visiting with Annie and her fiance, the Golby Grandparents, and some other family members. After some catching up, we loaded everyone back into the SUV and followed Margaret, Craig and (COUSINS!) Ali and Lizzie out to the house we'd rented for the weekend. We'd share it with Katherine, Eric, Sarah and Melissa, too. We'd figured that the extra space would make it easier for cousins to play and littles to nap and parents not to lose their minds. As it turns out, we were right about that.

What we hadn't realized was that the house we'd rented was out. in. the. country. We were so, so grateful to be able to follow Craig and Margaret on our first trip out in the dark and snow and unplowed roads. They'd made their way to the house earlier in the day, so they knew what they were doing. We couldn't even tell that the road to the house was a road at first. Who knows when or if we'd have found it without them!

To get to our (otherwise fantastic) house, we had to follow a dirt (not paved, not gravel -- dirt!) road for two miles as it twisted and turned through the hills. But first we had to pass through an active mining area. We couldn't exactly tell what was going on that first night, though we could see the lights of the big trucks moving around in the quarry. We snapped some photos of the crossing in the daylight. It was a little intimidating. We found it even more so as the giant mining trucks barreled by us!

Once the treacherous drive was behind us, we settled into our house. It was more than big enough for the three families -- boasting five bedrooms, a finished basement (with foosball!), and a living room with a vaulted ceiling and a stone fireplace. So, the cousins explored and played, running off a bit of energy until the littlest ones were bundled off to bed. (Madeline slept in a bed! Fortified with chairs, but still, a bed!) Then the relieved and travel-weary parents enjoyed a glass of wine in front of a roaring fire before we, too, collapsed into bed.

When the sun came up the next morning, we could finally see where we were, and the snowy views were incredible!

We'd managed to find a "great place" to stay!

Friday: Great Faces

Later that morning we headed out (through some pretty serious snow, at points) to see South Dakota's famous " great faces" -- on Mount Rushmore -- for ourselves.

It was entirely worth the drive.

The whole crew at Mount Rushmore. (From left to right: John David, Mama, Kathleen, Daddy, Aunt Eileen, Lizzie, Margaret, Ali, and Madeline.) You might not be able to see it, but Lizzie is holding her social studies book. With Mount Rushmore on the cover!

Indy wasn't too happy about the cold, fuzzy bear-eared coat notwithstanding.

Madeline didn't seem to mind as much. (How much do I love the photos from Mount Rushmore? They're almost too much fun to be real! Though they are, in fact, real.)

We went into the park with our family, Margaret's family, and Daddy's Aunt Eileen. While we were there, Katherine's family joined the party on their way in from Illinois. We had an enthusiastic reunion just outside the park's theatre. The movie was quite good, but the arrival of an aunt, an uncle, and two more cousins totally eclipsed it, at least for our girls.

On our way out of the park, we got an up-close-and-personal moment with a mountain goat.

Kathleen and Melissa ventured closer than Mama would have...

In addition to great photographs and an introduction to a goat, our trip to Mount Rushmore afforded us the opportunity to purchase and stamp Indy's own Passport to Our National Parks. It was his first national park -- many more to come!

The rest of our trip was devoted to wedding activities, which deserve a post of their own. But our introduction to South Dakota's "Great Faces, Great Places" was wonderful. We'd love to take the whole family back again sometime (we'd even stay in that same house -- though maybe in the summer!) to enjoy more of that beautiful state. (We want a meet-up, Hendersons!)