This was our last sightseeing day in the Black Hills and we decided to do Custer State Park. It was neat, but not as beautiful as our drive the day before. We did get to see the buffalo and the girls got pretty close up to them (well not too close).
The best part were the donkeys. Those suckers come right up to you (which freaked me right out, of course) and there was a guy with a bag of carrots that he gave to the girls to feed them. They thought that was pretty darn cool. As we walked to the van, they followed us and tried to get in, haha!
They loved to pose too!
Then we drove south of Custer on a random gravel road to find some cool rocks. Emma Jo is a lover of rocks and had a blast looking for rocks. Funny how she knew the names of them! The above pic was neat because there was a thunderstorm south of us and it looked so cool!
Rachel wasn't overly thrilled with our rock hunting and sat in the van...oh the fun of teenagers...
That night we made it back to Mt. Rushmore to watch the lighting ceremony. On our way to Mt. Rushmore we did Needles Highway which was gorgeous, but freaked Rachel and I out with the height. We did see a bunch of deer and even a couple mountain goats!
The lighting ceremony was SO neat. They showed a 20 minute video that gave a brief description of each president and what they stood for. About 2.5 minutes into it Alayna was asking if it was almost done. That kid does NOT like to sit...
After the movie they ask all past and present veterans to come down to the stage and they ask their name and which service they were in. About 10 of the veterans did the lowering and folding of the American Flag and then we sang the National Anthem. If you had any ounce of patriotism in you, you were bawling by this point. As we were singing, they slowly light up Mt. Rushmore. It was absolutely beautiful!
We got home around 10:30 and the girls went to bed, they were wiped! Brad and I sat on the deck and enjoyed our last evening before heading home. We seriously considered staying another night as the next day was our wedding anniversary. As fun as it would have been, we didn't need to spend the extra money, bummer.
Such a wonderful vacation, we can't wait to go back!
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