Back on the Fourth of July....

Well look who's back to blogging!  Me!

I figured I better write about last 4th of July before the next one approaches.  And, at the speed which the year is flying by already, I'd say that's right around the corner.

What a great view!

Here we are!  Holy crap, my family is huge!

The heads.

Me with the kids.
(Notice the little girl in the bottom left corner.
Several times that day, I thought she was our Destini.)

Here we are with the father of our country, George Washington.
Wait, where's Ethan?  (Did you even notice?)
The amazing photographer said she had everyone in the shot.
Thank goodness I didn't pay for this.  Haha!

We were also lucky enough to get our family picture taken with Abe Lincoln but because of cropping issues as well, that one wasn't even salvageable.  It was either, cut the whole family off to see Abe, or cut Abe off at the belly button to see the fam.  I figured you'd have enough family shots.

Jett was getting so tired and it felt great to be in the shade with dad.
Notice the puppy "backpack" he's wearing.
He's an adventurer and likes to wander.
This way he doesn't wander too far!

This guy was done.
He didn't even care to stay awake for some good pizza.

Our next stop was to Crazy Horse Monument.  I remember visiting this right after I graduated high school on my way to Utah.  Not much has changed.  I'm not being sarcastic, I just mean, usually you visit some place many years down the road and you can hardly recognize it.  Not this one.  Take your time people.  These rocks aren't going anywhere fast.

I better add: the entire funding for the blasting is all from donations and there's been a good change since I was last there.  BUT, because of cost, and the final size of the monument, I'm not even sure if this thing will be done in my lifetime.  No matter though.  It was still really cool to see the progress, which was noticeable, (because of the progression pictures they have on the wall).  The gift shop was cool and, of course, the kids wanted to blow every penny they brought with them.  It's so hard to teach control while on vacation.  Many times we opted for the "squished penny" keepsake.

It turned overcast very quickly after lunch and I
wasn't able to get a good picture of the mountain.
You'll have to settle for the scale model on the patio.

Jett hangin' out in the sling.

So there's a funny story here.....  After lunch, Jett still wasn't quite awake so he opted to be carried around.  Who wouldn't?  He didn't make a fuss, and only asked to get out once when it started to rain outside.  He wanted to see the Coi fish in the pond and play in the raindrops.  So, we're getting ready to leave and an older man says to me,
    "It's so nice to see you carrying your baby in that and not on one of those dog leashes."

My quick response was,

    "Well then, it's probably good we didn't run into each other at Mt. Rushmore."

'Mom-of-the-Year', right here, folks!

Round 2.  I would say this vacation was kicking his booty
but he was sick almost every single night we were there.
There's more to that later....

Ok.  There you go.  Another installment of our life that passed by so long ago.  I really have a ton more to update, and I think I'm finally feelin' my mojo.  This could be good people!

Thank you to everyone who's patient with me, and I hope you still enjoying reading it.