Trip Diaries

::In the Car::

On this much talked about, yet mysterious road trip, (I never did say where I was going did I? The destination was Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. However we made a major detour through southern Utah to visit an animal rescue called Best Friends) So on this wild and crazy ride we were in the car for hours on end for a number of days. At one point during a stretch of time Kelsey was letting the girls play with her make-up and passed some eye shadow back to Providence. I was quietly reading and only briefly glanced up to give an "um-hm" to my daughter after being asked if this one goes on the eyes. I continued reading but after a bit I realized Providence was actually putting the make-up IN her eye. Keeping her eyelids open she was carefully wiping eyeshadow all over her eyeballs. Thankfully no permanent damage done, and I learned a valuable lesson: three year olds quite literally mean what they say.

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::My Own Dad::

Providence could very keenly tell there was a special relationship between Uncle Aaron and cousin Hope. Being in such close proximity 24/7 with another family for a long period of time you see more of family dynamics then you would even when you see someone daily, or very nearly daily, for a few hours. With this heightened awareness she told me that she wanted to have her own dad. It brought us to converse about contentment and praying for hearts desires. Though she really is quite happy with her mother, as I am with my daughter.

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::Thinking Hot And Being Cold::

June. One thinks of hot lazy days, tanks and shorts, cold beer, swimming, water, playing outside, getting dirty, you know all that summer stuff. In an effort not to over pack, yet knowing that we may not have access to wash clothes I brought almost our whole summer wardrobe, plenty of tanks and sundresses for Providence and more of the same for me (though my shorts were not quite as short). As a last minute thought I threw in a sweatshirt for each of us just in case. Little did I know that's what we would live in for the next 9 days. Utah was a touch chilly, Wyoming more so, but when we got to South Dakota the wind and rain were freezing. The wind blew through anything you were wearing. I have to admit during the whole weekend there were a few non-windy sunny spots here and there, but they were few and far between. Even with the sun if the wind was a-blowing you needed something. So one sweatshirt, 9 days, no laundry, and I got along alot better then one could have hoped.

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::You Are My Sunshine::

"...My only sunshine..." Providence need only hear a word or two and her mind goes directly to Oma. They like to sing it together and it would be most endearing if it didn't produce sobs of the magnitude that it did...more then once. It was recommended that I remove said song from her playlist.

BTW this was a very sunshiney troll, which is why I choose it for this chapter of the diaries.

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::The Faces::

Seeing images carved into rock mountains was awe inspiring to say the least.

Crazy Horse just had it's 60th anniversary, and why is it taking so long you may ask (because I sure did). Well it's size, all of Mt. Rushmore will be able to fit in the head; funding, this is supported solely from interested parties, in fact the original sculptor twice turned down a 10 million dollar grant from the government; family operation, after Korczak Ziolkowski death his wife took over managing and I believe 8 of their 10 children are still involved.

Mt. Rushmore was quite the history in the making for myself. I have wanted to go there for sometime, and to see this monument to some of our great presidents was something I will remember all my days. Not only was the area beautiful (especially from inside the car where the wind couldn't touch you) but there was still so much around there that I would have liked to do. I want to go back some day, with warmer clothes.

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::First Knife::

Providence's chosen souvenir from Mt Rushmore was a little pocket knife. She is most impressed with it. When I flipped out the little 1/2 inch blade she held it and said with awe "Is this for killing?" I suggested that perhaps she could protect us from bugs, so every time a mosquito buzzed by she would whip out her knife ask me to open it and challenge the mosquito to a duel. She looked quite cute stabbing at the air with her bit of metal.

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::Blow Out::

The picture speaks for itself I believe. And if you can believe with all the car problems I have encountered (and believe you me there have been alot) this is only my second flat tire, and first full on blowout.

No persons or animals were harmed in the making of this picture.

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::Nebraska::

Some of you may know of my goal of somehow touching each of our 50 states, and of my on-going friendly competition of completing this goal before my brother-in-law Tommy. Being so close to a state yet unvisited I couldn't bare but that we would go a few hours out of our way returning home through Nebraska. The wish was very graciously granted. And though I read Jane Austen almost the whole way through you can chalk another state up for me Tom!

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::Cute Puppy::

Oh, yes she is. Good thing too because she's also incredibly annoying and loud.

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