Lovin Rapid City!!!

We just got back from Rapid City, South Dakota. Now Rapid City may not seem like the best place to vacation, but let me tell you---IT IS! It is absolutely fabulous there. We loved it so much. There were tons of things to do, so many that we didn't even do 1/10th of the things we could have, and it is gorgeous. Some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. We didn't want to leave.
I thought I would show you a little bit of what we did. I think that I am going to do it one day at a time. You should know ahead of time that all pictures taken of humans were done in protest.
Nobody willingly had their picture taken. I am going to have to trade them all in for a family who smiles on que. (just kidding)
So here is day one--the drive! It is about 8 hours from Fargo and well there is not much going on between here and there. One of the coolest things is called the Enchanted Highway. I have only two pictures to show of the highway because that is all I saw. Randy wouldn't take me (boo hoo).
I really don't think you get the feel of how cool this really is. It is like 6 stories high and is all made of metal. It is pretty freaking cool!
This picture, I am sad to say, is one of few Grizwald family moments that we had. We actually pulled off of the highway to have our picture taken with the sculpture.

We had dinner at the Firehouse in down town Rapid City. The restaurant was really cute and the food was really good. We had a killer dessert. I don't remember what it was called, but it combined brownie and cheese cake. It was served warm with vanilla ice cream. All six of us shared it and had plenty. Yum Yum.
Our next stop was Storybook Island. This is the cutest park and talk about photo ops. Unfortunately, I didn't check the park hours and we arrived like 10 minutes before the park closed, so this is one of a few pictures. The kids really liked what they saw though.

We then made our way to the KOA where we slept for the next three nights. I am not a camper, by any means, but it really wasn't that bad. That being said, I would love to tell you about a night I will not soon forget. We slept in a little pop up trailer that Grandma and Grandpa brought for us. We all had plenty of room to sleep and feel asleep pretty quickly. About 2:30 the thunder and lightening started. It wasn't too bad, but it was bright and loud. Then the rain started and it was raining pretty hard, which was noisy in the trailer. Between the rain and the thunder we were all awake. Sometime around 3 it started raining really hard, the thunder and lightening got worse, and the wind started. The only way I can think of to describe the next 2 or so hours is it felt like we were in the middle of the tempest. We were being rocked like a boat with no water, not to mention that the thunder was so loud it was shaking the trailer. A lady the next morning said that they watched us for awhile and was surprised that we just didn't blow away. It was crazy.... Randy and I ended up sleeping with the kids and they each had their own way of reacting to the storm. Ryen cried. Poor thing was scared out of her mind (to be honest I had some moments myself) and Ali just put the blanket over her head. She did yell at me once or twice to stop rocking the bed. It was crazy.
So you will understand all of Ali's happy pictures tomorrow. They were troopers!