We just took a family vacation to South Dakota. It was so super fun that I’m determined to over share about document it here, even though it has taken me three days so far to do so. My husband keeps gently reminding me that I have a lot more family memories recorded from when the girls were little and very few for these baby/toddler years with the boys. He likes that I blog so that we have something to look back on. I like looking back on the old posts too, so here are our fun tales of our recent trip (which might even be helpful to someone else who might be planning a trip to SD??).

We decided on the last week of September to go on vacation, because I cannot stand crowds, and I knew the tourist rush would be over with all the kids having gone back to school. I think I’ve told you all before that one of my favorite things about homeschooling is that it allows me to wait until all the kids have gone back to school to take my kids to the places that everyone else goes to in the summer and on weekends. You won’t find us in a museum on a Saturday (or in a grocery store for that matter)! As a result, there were a few things that we couldn’t do because of being “out of season,” but nothing crucial, and nothing that would be worth braving the crowds (and the heat) mid-summer. I wanted a slow-paced vacation so we could focus on our family and not be stressed. My husband’s and my mantra for the trip was, “We aren’t in a hurry.” For us, it was absolutely worth it to miss out on a few attractions in order to also miss out on the crowds and hustle.

We stayed in Hill City at the High Country Guest Ranch, which was just lovely. I rented a little three bedroom cabin, which was a tiny bit cramped , but mostly perfect for our family. There was room for our kids to run around outside and they loved playing around a little stream that ran right behind our cabin (and the horses right outside were a nice touch too).

I found Hill City to be a great central location, not very far from any of the things that we wanted to do, except Wall Drug/Badlands, and with a very cool downtown area.

Given that we were a bit far from Wall and the Badlands, I had a plan in place that we would go to the Latin Mass on Sunday in Rapid City and then continue on over to Wall Drug and eat lunch/get donuts before heading down to do some light hiking in the Badlands. However, we ended up stopping at Wall Drug on the way to our cabin on Saturday night, because passing Wall happened to coincide with dinner time during our drive.

Wall Drug was weird and fun and a nice way to break up the drive towards the end. But it wasn’t something we felt the need to do twice, so we decided not to go back to Wall on Sunday but to go hiking around Lake Sylvan instead.

Things actually played out like a comedy of errors that afternoon, but we managed to have fun anyway. To start with, I made sure that all the girls brought a change of clothes and shoes for after Mass and then ended up forgetting my own comfy shoes for hiking. By the time we finished having lunch, stopping at Walmart for some groceries, and stopping back at the cabin to put groceries in the fridge and grab my shoes, it was getting a bit late in the afternoon. Recently-potty-trained Bubba had fallen asleep in the car, and though he usually does well to avoid accidents when awake, he’s not so reliable when sleeping. So we got to the lake only to find out that he had peed in his seat, and while I had a change of underwear for him, somehow I neglected to bring a change of pants.

Then when getting changed in the van, my husband realized that he had also forgotten his walking shoes. So he put his dress shoes back on, Bubba put his pee-pee-pants back on, we loaded the boys in the stroller and began to walk, only to find out that the trail quickly got too steep and rugged for our stroller. We rolled it over to the side, I put Brother in the Ergo, my husband carried Bubba, the girls climbed alllll the rocks, Lake Sylvan was gorgeous, and everything seemed fine.

And then, inexplicably, Bubba peed all over my husband while being carried up the trail. I have no idea where that came from, as he has never had an accident like that before. Maybe he figured it was fair game since his pants were wet anyway?? I don’t know.

But since he and my husband were soaked in urine, we decided to abort the hiking plan and just go back down to the beach for the kids to play in the water. This seemed to salvage the afternoon, as the girls made a new friend and played happily with her, while Bubba threw mud into the lake and got his pants even more wet. My husband hid out a little distance away on the grassy shore with Brother, his dress shoes/white socks combo, and his pee shirt.

We made it home in time for my husband to grill hotdogs (after changing his shirt) and the kids to play (fairly) peacefully until dinner, which was a lovely way to end day one.

All of the weather forecasts I saw leading up to the trip said that Monday was supposed to be rainy, so my plan for that day was to take the kids to the Museum @ Black Hills Institute so they could see all the dinosaur skeletons (namely Stan the T.Rex). This was one thing my kids seemed to be looking forward to more than any other, so it had to happen. The Institute did not disappoint.

Happily, it was right in downtown Hill City and the weather was actually much nicer than it had been predicted to be. So after we spent lots of time looking at all the skeletons, fossils, and other interesting artifacts, we took a nice walk downtown. We intended to go to the South Dakota State Railroad Museum, took a very circuitous route to get there, and serendipitously ended up at a neat little park along the way. We did eventually make our way to the SDSRM and then to an amazing lunch before managing to get back to the cabin in time for naps (for both boys and me!!), which was a huge bonus.

In the caboose at the SDSRM

There was lots of playing outside in the afternoon, more hotdog grilling for dinner, and some game time with the new board game we bought at Walmart the day before. (Catan – it’s SO FUN!!) Day two was a very easy, low-key day.

But day three was my favorite. My plan was to go to Mt. Rushmore and do gold/gem panning on the same day, since both are located in Keystone. In fact you could see Mt. Rushmore from the gold mine place, so it was super convenient.

We started the morning with a gold mine tour at Big Thunder Gold Mine. This lasted about an hour and was very interesting. The tour guide did a great job and did not seem phased at all that my two-year-old was being a bit noisy at times during his presentation.

The same guy set us up for our gold and gem panning experiences, which my girls were super excited about. Gold panning was a lot more tricky, and he really helped the girls a lot to find their little bits of gold. I was really pleased with the experience at Big Thunder and would highly recommend it. My girls especially enjoyed the gem panning, which was very easy and fun for them.

Gold panning (you can just see Mt. Rushmore in the upper right of the photo)

Gem panning was much easier

After the gold mine experience we went out for lunch in downtown Keystone and then headed for Mt. Rushmore. It was such a cool experience to actually see this huge monument in person. We were only able to walk part of the Presidential Trail, because some of it was closed, but it was still worth it to get as close as possible.

One part of the monument that I never paid attention to in photos but that was interesting to see close up was the pile of rubble spread out all down the side of the mountain where it fell after being blasted off. You could see where the holes had been drilled for the dynamite to be inserted.

We were able to learn a lot more about the creation of the monument than I ever knew, including why each of the four chosen presidents was selected (chronologically in a nutshell: foundation, expansion, preservation, development). The girls enjoyed climbing the rocks up the side of the trail as we walked back to the information center area. Even though it was chilly, we treated ourselves in the ice cream shop for a perfect way to finish up the afternoon.

The last day was a tiny bit of a failure, but not too bad, because we were all tired and probably needed to have an extra slow day anyway. My girls wanted to go the the Black Hills Caverns, which I thought looked like it would be fun for them, and the best way for them to experience a cave tour in the area (the other caves would not have been doable with the boys). It’s in Rapid City, so we planned to make a day trip and include some other fairly quick stops up that way, such as Reptile Gardens and a new-ish Dinosaur Museum next to Reptile Gardens.

Since Reptile Gardens and the Dino Museum are on the road to Rapid City, we stopped there first before going to the caverns. Oddly, I think the two favorite things of the morning were the bird show at Reptile Gardens and the mirror maze at the Dinosaur Museum.

As we got ready to head to the caverns after these stops, I called and found out that they are only open on the weekends during September, although their website says in one place that tours are offered daily May through September (the actual calendar page of the website shows the correct information, but I didn’t see that). So, my mistake for not researching the hours better, and we couldn’t do this one.

This turned out to be okay, since my girls mostly wanted to have a chance to go back to the Black Hills Institute again, which we did while the boys were napping.

We got to spend a lot more time looking at the exhibits, they all finished picking out their souvenirs for the trip, I got a few early dinosaur Christmas presents for Bubba, we treated ourselves and got a gift for my parents at a local sweet shop, and got home for more game-playing (Taboo and Catan) and relaxation in the evening.

There were lots of things that we just couldn’t fit into a four-day trip, but the one thing we felt truly bummed that we missed was the Badlands. It was over an hour to drive out there, and we did not make the trip during our stay. However, we had to drive right north of the area on our way home, and decided to go ahead and take the scenic drive through the national park so we could at least see it before heading on home. It was worth the time it added to our drive for sure, and if we ever go back, I absolutely want to make a point to take a day to spend there exploring it more.

Overall, the trip was a wonderful success. We all had a lot of fun and didn’t get stressed out or overly exhausted from doing too much. I think the key to this for our family was to go and do activities mostly in the mornings, get lunch out somewhere, and then go back to our cabin for playing/resting and an easy dinner in. And also crucial was that my husband and I made the above-mentioned point of reminding each other before and several times during the trip that we were on vacation, and we absolutely did not have to be in a hurry to get anywhere. My favorite part of the trip was actually playing games together every evening (seriously, check out the game Catan).

A close second in the favorites list was enjoying lunch out together each day. We tried some really great, interesting new foods, went to fun restaurants, and enjoyed this time together a lot. There was only one restaurant that we went to for lunch that I didn’t think was all that great, and it was one that I hadn’t looked into ahead of time or had recommended to me. Here’s a quick run-down of the restaurants:

Stonewalls Kitchen in Rapid City – We went here for lunch after Mass on Sunday, and it turned out they were still selling breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite, so this was good news. The food was wonderful, and the highlight of the meal was their serve-yourself coffee bar, where Miss and Lass tried decaf coffee for the first time ever, doctoring it all up with cream and sweetener and cinnamon (??) to their liking.

Alpine Inn in Hill City – This was our lunch destination on Monday. The food was phenomenal. Everyone tried something new (Monte Cristo sandwiches, spaetzle, etc.) and it was all so, so good. Plus the dessert was amazing. I’m not sure about the dinner experience, as they seem to only have two items on their dinner menu (we tried to get takeout from there on Wednesday evening so we could enjoy our lunch favorites again and couldn’t get them!), but the lunch was well worth the stop.

Ruby House in Keystone – This is a restaurant that is said to have been a former “house of ill repute,” though if you look on the website, the history does not include this in its story. It does have interesting antique decor and a good menu, and the girls enjoyed being able to get “fancy” drinks there.

Tally’s Silver Spoon in Rapid City – This place is very highly rated and the food was fine (though it seemed like they were trying too hard to be “edgy” with some of the items). I didn’t really enjoy our lunch here because the restaurant is not well-suited to accommodate a large-ish family. They sat us at a huge round table right by the kitchen/food prep area in the back. The table was large enough for 10-12 people, so we only sat around one side of it, and couldn’t really have a conversation with each other very well. Then an older couple came in and got seated at the table with us, which was weird. So, while I can’t say that I wouldn’t recommend this place, if you have more than 4 people in your family/party, just be aware it isn’t well set up to handle you.

And that’s it.

I realized when writing this that this was the first vacation what we have been on as just our little family since we went to Arizona when Lass was six months old (or maybe we could count a short, overnight stay at Disney when Miss turned four, though that was part of a larger family-visiting trip in Florida). We have traveled a lot to visit family, for various family functions, and for big family reunions (we went to Steamboat Springs, CO this summer with my husband’s whole family). I have also taken the kids plenty of places by myself when my husband has been working. But this type of straight-up vacation (not visiting) just for our family hasn’t happened much at all, and certainly not in recent years.

We have learned that this type of trip is priceless. The time spent together as a family, just me and my husband with our five kids, making memories, is something we will always hold dear. Experiences like these have just climbed to the top of our list of travel priorities (though we will always make time for visiting family too).

According to my girls, our next trip will be to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. Let the planning begin…