After our reunion, John's family came with us as we headed to Devil's Tower and Mount Rushmore. We stopped in Buffalo, WY to look at a couple paintings in the Occidental Hotel. They were painted by our great great grandfather, Truman Fox (Neenaw's grandfather). It was so cool to see them displayed in such a neat venue!
The crackle on this oil painting was amazing!
After that, we headed towards Devil's Tower. It was really cool to see from far out- this lone tower in the middle of nowhere!
Legend has it that 8 Native American siblings were walking in the woods when suddenly, the only brother began to turn into a bear. He started to charge his sisters, so they ran to escape him. As they were running, a tree stump called out to them and told them to climb on and he would save them. They climbed on and as the tree stump began to grow taller, the bear grabbed at it with his claws, creating the deep grooves along the sides. The tree continued to grow and the bear could not reach the girls. The seven sisters then became the seven stars of the big dipper. Brook thought the story was really neat.
So fun to be with cousins!
A random deer was walking along the path, right next to us!
We could see rock climbers heading down
(little pink on the middle left)
After the tower, we got a restaurant recommendation from Ben's friend at Regis, Sarah, and headed to Rapid City to eat some amazing pizza!
Then we headed to our campground in Custer State Park, Grace Coolidge Campground. Unfortunately, it was so dark, we didn't get to appreciate the view of the drive. Once we arrived, we set up camp as quickly as we could. We finished at 11:15 and enjoyed a little campfire time.
Finally morning came and we got to enjoy the beautiful sight! This was Jack's first camp out and he did great! He was all snuggled in his little bed :)
Ellie also had some comfortable digs: a tent within a tent
We enjoyed breakfast of cold cereal and danishes, then roasted a few mallows. After, the girls and I took a steaming hot shower... no really, it was HOT. The facilities were so clean and nice! I wish it was closer so we could camp there often!
That is, until we went to explore nearby and found a lot of poison ivy!
We played the license plate game along the whole trip and fared pretty well!
Jack had his first real laugh that morning! It was so cute and not at all coincidental that it was on his first camp out! He's a future mountain man!
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