Here are some pictures of our Summer Vacation:

We spent our first night in windy Rawlins. But the fun started out at Martin's Cove. No, we didn't walk back into the cove. It was chilly and Kendal wasn't feeling well. I think every missionary talked to us. They were very friendly.We climbed to the top of Independence Rock.

The second night we camped at the bottom of Devil's Tower and hiked around it the next morning.

This was our camping spot in South Dakota. It had a huge meadow where the kids flew kites and played baseball.

Of course, our first stop was Mt. Rushmore. We ended up going there 3 times. One of those times was for the evening patriotic program when they lit up the monunment.

We were able to see a blast at Crazy Horse. Way cool!

Here ia a picture of the lake that was in the movie "National Treasure 2." It was at this lake that our biggest adventure of our trip began.

We decided to hike Harney's Peak. The trailhead started at this lake. Harney's Peak is the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains and at the top of this mountain is a fire lookout. The trail is a total of 7 miles (3 1/2 up and 3 1/2 down). We were only about 1/2 mile into the hike when we got this view of it:

It was SO far away that we didn't know if we really were going to make it. But we did!

It took us 2 1/2 hours to get up it and 1 1/2 to get down. It was pretty tough and we were sore for a couple of days.

We drove out to Badlands National Park.

We visited the Minutemen Missile Site out in the middle of no where. But Brian's dad used to go out to South Dakota to service these when they were active. So it was a must stop for us.

We drove through Custer State Park and on the Needles Highway. The tunnels were very small.

This is the smallest tunnel with a width of 8'-4". We had to put the mirrors in on the truck and Bryce could reach out and touch the walls.

This is way they call it the Needles Highway:

The highlight was to see the burros. The kids thought they were fun.

We went to a reptile place and all Kendal wanted to do was go for a ride on the 100 year old giant turtles. (They wouldn't let her).

We came home through Nebraska. So we saw Chimney Rock.

And we camped under Scotts Bluff. We drove to the top of it and we walked along the Oregon Trail.

We talked a lot about pioneers and presidents on this trip. The Black Hills and prairies of South Dakota and the flat farmlands of Nebraske were beautiful. We had a lot of fun and we are excited to see where we will go next year. Any ideas? We refuse to drive through windy Wyoming ever again.