The Black Hills

This weekend we returned from our 2nd Annual camping vacation to the Black Hills. It was a good trip, if not a bit unconventional. Due to weather (lots of rain and cold) we didn't have a single night where we all gathered around the fire after dark. That's the best part of camping, so it was a little disappointing. We also had the joy of keeping Norah under raps. We learned two things last week: (1) she's really fast, and (2) she doesn't listen very well :-)

We did go to Sylvan Lake about every day. They have a somewhat easy 1 mile hike that takes you around the lake. We walked that trail and then would head to the beach to let Norah play in the sand and water. This was about the only thing we could do to keep her happy. We also ended up hiking to Harney Peak. It was a grueling hike for someone as out of shape as me, but it was awesome. Harney Peak is the highest point east of the Rockies and west of the Pyrenees. We got a bunch of pictures, but they are on the Nikon, so I'll download those later.

We took one day and went to Old McDonald's Farm. (See all the pics below). This was a small little place that had just about every kind of farm animal imaginable. They had chickens and turkeys just roaming free through the park and Norah immediately started chasing them.

Norah and Ellie hanging in grandpa's trailer

Norah and grandpa with the goats

Washing grandpa's truck. This went on for 3 days.

Um, that's just nasty.

Getting ready to hold some baby chicks.

Eagerly awaiting the start of the pig races

Playing at the beach

4th of July

We had a fun and exciting weekend. On Saturday we took Norah to Whitewater State Park to do some hiking and swimming. The Alderman family joined us for the day. We hiked up the 500 or so stairs on the Dakota Trail so Norah could get a good look over the park. She walked only about 20-30 steps before wising up and asking daddy to carry her the rest of the way. After that we headed over to the Chimney Rock Trail. It too was pretty much straight up, but she a lot more walking on that trail.


After we finished the two hikes we went to the beach and swimming area. Norah loved playing in the sand and in the water (which happened to be about 5 degrees above absolute zero). We got lots of great pictures of her playing in the water and on the beach with Isabelle, Alex, and Will.


Then on the 4th we went down to Stewartville to catch the parade. We were a little uncertain if we would stay since it was raining all day long. We stopped off at the Pizza Ranch first and had dinner since it was raining and we didn't want to sit out and get wet. It was still sprinkling after we finished and got downtown. But we stuck it out and it payed off. The rain stopped as soon as the parade started and then picked up again as soon as it was over. Norah was pretty stoic for the first 15-20 mins. I don't think she really knew what was going on. But then the horses came and she started waiving and screaming, she loved it! From that point on she had a great time. She is still a little too young to understand the candy aspect of the parade, so I made sure I collected for her :-)

Jamie already has Norah on the bottle (don't worry, it was empty)

waiving to the horses

this was before she got excited, as you can tell.

This sucker lasted her the entire parade!

Finally, having a good time

Mmmmmmm

One piece of flair...

Lots of flair! We told Tim Walz to take his sticker and "stick it".

Update: We had the pictures from Whitewater on a different computer since I used the super-duper expensive camera. Here are a few of those.

Up to Chimney Rock.

My favorite from the beach.