Summer Vacation

This year's family vacation was a quick trip to South Dakota. We weren't sure what it would be like to travel with a new baby, so we opted to stay close to home. Turns out that Leah is a superstar traveler and we probably could have gone anywhere. But Ryan and Luke loved Mount Rushmore and it was a great trip, overall.

Both boys were pretty amazed at the size of Mount Rushmore. We visited the site the first afternoon that we arrived and we heard lots "wows" and "awesome" from them both.

While were were on our trip Greg and I came to the realization that we will be repeating many of the same vacations we've had with the boys once Leah is closer to their current age and the boys will be in college. Here is Leah's selfie at Mount Rushmore - I'll need to be sure to take another one in the same place with her in 10 years or so.

We had a good time in Rapid City - it really is a good place to go with kids. The boys and I hung out at an indoor waterpark on one day while Greg worked. That evening, we had dinner downtown and visited the many life-size statues of all of the presidents. The boys were very excited to see "Abe."  We took a picture with Lincoln to send to Grandad.

Luke's favorite president, Theodore Roosevelt.

Greg was amazed to find a cigarette vending machine inside a hotel - he liked telling the boys all about it and why you don't see them anymore.

The next day we headed to Deadwood - the boys were too small to drive the go carts, but they had a good time on the bumper boats.

I don't know if Leah was as impressed with Devil's Tower as much as Greg and the boys were.

On our way home, we had a picnic lunch at a natural land bridge in Wyoming. There really is a whole lot of nothing while driving through that state.

Leah was an amazing little traveler. She spent a lot of time in the car and in her carseat. She decided she had had enough when we crossed the state line into Coloroado on our way back home. She screamed much of the rest of the way.

She did great in the hotel - slept great and stayed happy - she loves to be around everyone, so she rarely gets fussy when she can watch her brothers.

Ryan and Leah hanging out together.

First vacation as a family of 5.