Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend meant a 4 day weekend for both Preston and Regan and a 3 day weekend for Karley. Plans originally were to head west to Devil's Tower and camp there and see what was to been seen. The weather ended up being against camping as thunder storms and rain were forecasted for the whole weekend. So with those plans down the drain we tried to come up with something else. We wanted to make a trip for the weekend but we seem to be too far from most everything to make a quick weekend trip. SO we settled on seeing local things on little day trips and fixing up the house.
On Saturday we decided to once and for all, get Preston's room ship shape. We put up his pictures and other decorations and got him some cubbies to store his books and toys in. His room now seems to be the best in the house! He's got some cool furniture, nifty pictures, lots of toys, and a bed he can't get out of decorated with his dinosaur friends. Heck, he doesn't even have to go anywhere to go to the bathroom! He can just poop his pants and people change his clothes on his own changing table! I threw some photos of the completed room in the picture section of the blog.
Sunday, we got out of the house and headed for Wind Cave National Park (about 40 miles south of Rapid City). The weather cooperated with us for the drive thank goodness. To get there we drove through Custer State Park which is quite beautiful. We saw a couple herds of buffalo in the mountains and some pretty cool scenery. I gotta say, we are getting our fill buffalo! We seem to see them everywhere we go here! We decided that we will have to come back later to fully explore the park. We got to the cave and signed up for the next tour. Learning our lesson from the last spelunking expedition, we got Preston strapped into the front carrier from the get go this time! The Wind cave turns out to have over 100 miles of mapped tunnels, most of which are no place to be taking an 8 month old, even if he is well versed in the art of cave exploration. Our tour only took us on a 1 hour loop on a concrete path but was still very impressive. The cave was much dryer than the last and because of that, there were no stalagmites or bats or anything else you would normally find in a cave. We ended up following a couple from DC through the cave who were here on vacation with their daughter and her friend. The ladies were totally in love with Preston and seemed more interested in him than the cave! All ready hitting it off with the ladies, we could be in trouble! The father seemed hell bent on letting Karley know where every low ceiling or slippery spot was on the whole tour! "Ooo, watch out, here is a step." "Watch your head, there is a rock here." "Make sure you put one foot in front of the other when you are walking." "Use your lungs to suck in air so you don't die." Didn't let up for the whole loop. Preston handled being underground like a champ again and even entertained the group with his own comments every now and then. He has been very good to us on these trips we keep dragging him on.
Once we got topside again, we headed to the town of Hot Springs to see the Mammoth Dig site. It is a big building built up over a prehistoric sinkhole that was discovered back in the '70s when a developer was plowing to build houses. The sinkhole made a pit where a bunch of Mammoths and other animals fell in and died. Their bodies were covered over the years and preserved. Archaeologists are still digging there today and let people come and see their work in progress. It was a pretty impressive site to see. Hard to imagine that there were these great elephants and lions and huge bears all living right here! It was pretty amazing that they were able to stumble upon such a unique phenomenon as this sinkhole, makes you wonder how many other places there are similar to it (if any) still waiting to be discovered or perhaps already destroyed unknowingly! We grabbed some dinner at a local Mexican place (which ended up being better than anything we have around) and Preston got his first experience with Zwieback toast! It was like a toy he could eat! Needless to say he loved it.
Monday ended up being a lazy day for us. We slept in as much as Pres would allow and hung around the house most of the morning. We then went and grabbed some lunch and headed to Karley's favorite local pastime.....Bear Country! The weather did not cooperate with us then as it rained the whole time we were there. Luckily, it turns out that most of the animals don't really care if it's raining!
So there you are, the weekend is coming to a close and we are home and pouting because we have to go back to work. Maybe not the getaway weekend we had planned but an enjoyable one none the less! Hope everyone had as much fun this weekend as we did and we hope to see you all soon. Please be sure to check out the picture page to see the photos from the weekends adventures!

Take care!

Regan, Karley, and Preston (spelunker, archaeologist, and wildlife expert)