Ivy's 9 Month Well Child Check

Ivy's 9 month well child check was this morning.  Dr. Miller is continually impressed that she isn't too far behind on her growth and development. He asked about crawling/scooting and I told him not yet but I think she might crawl because she gets up on her hands unlike the older 3 did. He said its possible, but also possible she will scoot since the other 3 did. So we will have to just wait and see. He also commented on her weight saying this will probably be as high in the percentile she will ever be because once they start moving they "slim down".

Weight: 15 lbs 6 oz - 10%
Length: 27 1/2" - 50%
Head: 17" - 25%

South Dakota - Custer

Today was probably or low key day of our whole vacation. We woke up, got breakfast and then headed to get tickets to do the Jewel Cave Tour. As I was standing in line, at 9:30 a.m., I was hearing that we probably wouldn't be able to get tickets until the 12:00 tour. Just as the people in front of me were getting to be the next in line they opened another tour for 10:20 a.m. because there was so many people. We were willing to wait and do the visitor center and activities. They had Junior Ranger books for the kids and Emily and Mordecai completed their tasks to receive a Junior Range Badge and patch. Our tour started and we had an AWESOME tour guide. The cave was really neat and I was impressed with the kids because Emily and Mordecai walked the entire thing which had 723 stairs and was 1 hour and 20 minutes. Ruby and Ivy also did awesome. Ivy fell asleep before we even entered the cave and she slept the whole time, which meant I carried her. She didn't wake up until we were getting on the elevators to exit the cave. Mike carried Ruby and she fell asleep about half way through the cave.

For lunch we headed to Black Hills Burger and Bun. I overheard some people at breakfast telling another couple to go there because it was so good. I had also seen a line out the door for dinner time the night before so we thought lunch would be ideal. We got there about 1:45 and they closed until dinner at 2:00. It was a little building that reminded me of a college town joint, but thee burgers were so good and Emily, Mordecai, and Ruby had good food too.

After lunch we decided to do the Needles Highway because that was the one thing people would tell us to see when we asked recommendations. It was pretty and scary all at the same time. Luckily we were on the side of the highway that didn't have drop offs.

As we were headed back to the hotel we told the kids we could stop at the Purple Pie Place for Ice Cream. Whenever we would drive by the place was always busy so we knew it had to be good, and it didn't disappoint. Then from there it was back to the hotel for more microwave dinners and swimming. We head home tomorrow and I am a little sad that our vacation and family time are over, but glad to be going home too.

South Dakota - Rapid City & Keystone

Today we headed toward Rapid City to do Bear Country. We decided the earlier the better that way it wouldn't be too hot and the animals would hopefully be out and about. It was a pretty neat little place. You drove around these passages and there were cattle grates after a mile or two to keep the animals separate. Emily and Mordecai loved taking pictures of all the animals and Ruby sat up front with me and Mike held Ivy. After the drive through bear country we got out to see baby land, which is exactly what you think it is, a bunch of baby animals. The one cute thing was there was a grounds crew mowing in the baby bear area so the cubs, like 5 or 6, were up in these little tiny trees barely able to hold their weight.

After Bear Country we were pretty hungry. Mike and I had decided last night that we would try to pack lunch since we were getting tired of eating out. We took some extra peanut butter and jelly from the breakfast buffet at the hotel this morning and were just going to pick up some bread. We headed into Rapid City to find a store and we both realized how much we had missed 'suburbia'. We found a Safeway and ended up getting some meat (since Mordecai can't have peanut butter), crackers, bread and fruit snacks, I also grabbed some to go packets of mayo and mustard from the deli so our sandwiches wouldn't be dry. From there we realized we weren't far from Dinosaur Park so we headed over there for our picnic lunch.

After lunch we headed back to Keystone to the 'Big Thunder Gold Mine'. We took a tour and then the kids got to pan for gold. They all loved it. Since we did something fun for the kids Mike and I decided that we wanted to do something the adults wanted to do so we headed over to the National Presidential Wax Museum. It was an audio guided tour and pretty interesting to hear the tidbits about past presidents, even though Mike and I felt it was pretty liberal. It was also very cool because some of the wax figures looked so real...almost like they should move.

By the time we were done there the kids were past being done, and they were pretty sassy that we didn't want to take them out to dinner. We hit a local grocery store once we got back to Custer and I picked up some microwave dinners, then it was back to the hotel for dinner. The kids are all fast asleep and I'm almost ready to pass out.

South Dakota - Hot Springs & Keystone

We got up a little earlier than most people would on vacation, but there were/are lots of things on our list we would like to see and do.

Today we headed down towards Hot Springs, SD area to do the stuff down there. First was to let the kids have a little fun and do some fishing at Trout Haven Ranch. The kids all put their lines in the pond and Emily was the first to get a snag, except that she didn't know what to do so the fish got away with her corn. It was pretty funny because Ruby and Mordecai caught their fishes pretty quickly and Emily had a hard time with the fish stealing her corn. They had so much fun, and Mike especially had fun watching them do it.

 

After fishing we headed over to the Mammoth Site. We got there just in time for the kids to go on their "Kid Dig". Emily at first was timid. I don't know why she thinks that we are going to have her do something she will hate or be afraid of, but nevertheless she enjoyed it.

 

Next was lunch. We did Dairy Queen and the kids loved it because they got ice cream with their kids meals.

 

 

Finally we headed over towards Keystone to see Mount Rushmore, but we did a detour through Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park. In the Wind Cave Park we ran across this huge herd of buffalo. It was another one of those in the right place at the right time moments. After that we finally got to Custer State Park  and did the Wildlife loop. Again right moment at the right time where we ran into some wild donkeys where the kids and Mike got to feed them. There was this one funny moment where Mordecai was scared and he decided he didn't want to feed them but still had bread in his hand and started to walk away. All of a sudden the donkey came up to him and he looked so scared and ran away so fast he reminded me of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. 

 





 

Finally we hit Keystone to see Mount Rushmore, after we drove through this wicked hail storm that seemed to have come out of nowhere and a very twisty road that made everyone car sick but Mike. We had dinner there too which was nice because it was home style cooking and not fast food. It is so impressive to think that someone could do that so many years ago.

 





South Dakota Trip - Custer

We got on the road this morning about 7:30 a.m. Our plan was to leave about 7:00 a.m. so that wasn't bad. We drove for about 5 hours and then decided to stop for lunch at Subway because the kids were hungry and Ivy was done. I think I set a world record for the number of time I climbed into the back and hung over nursing her.  It was a good thing we stopped when we did because while we were eating our sandwiches a line formed that went out the door. We ate in about 30 minutes and then loaded back up for the remaining hour we had left to drive.

 

We got to our hotel (Holiday Inn Express) about 2:30 p.m. Even though check in time wasn't until 3:00 p.m. we decided to see if by chance they were done cleaning it. They weren't, so we decided to go check out the town. Just as we were getting ready to leave the front desk receptionist told us our room was just finished so we checked in and decided to go swimming, which was a good thing cause it helped to break Ruby's fever that she had started with last night.

After swimming we headed out to get some dinner. Custer is a pretty small town so we didn't have a lot of options and there weren't many big chain options that we knew would be safe. When we checked in the front desk gave us a list of local places to eat so I just picked one that said "Family Friendly".  When we pulled up to the Frontier Bar & Grill the first thing out of Mike's mouth was, "I don't think you're going to like this place."  He was right. It was a whole in the wall biker bar. I was afraid to sit down and let the kids touch the tables. There were flies flying around and no air conditioning but I sucked it up, mostly because Ivy would not have gotten back in her seat that quickly, and just tried to go with the flow. The food was okay, but the best part was that there was a juke box that I let the kids pick songs from and they danced on stage while we waited for our food.

After dinner we headed over to Crazy Horse Memorial. Mike and I don't think it was worth the money that we paid to get in because you can't even get close...but it was one of the things Mike had wanted to see.

Now we are back in our room and all in bed. Our two-room suite is pretty nice. Mike and I have a king size bed with enough room to put Ivy in her pack-n-play. In the other room there is a queen size bed and a pullout twin couch bed, that the kids fought over...go figure. We only have a fridge and microwave, kitchenette would have been nice, but we really can't complain. Mike is mapping out what we are doing tomorrow and now I'm off to bed. Here is hoping Ivy and Ruby sleep well.

Firefly 5K

Ever since I have been running, before Ruby, I have wanted to run a real 5k race.  A few months ago I was looking on living social deals and saw a discount deal to run this race at night but I didn't want to run it by myself so I browsed on by. Fast forward a day or two later I get an e-mail from Marci saying that we should do the Firefly night run that she saw on living social. So we all signed up. I had been running 3.1 miles or more at least 3 times a week since having Ivy so I felt pretty confident that I could do it.  My goal was to run it in under 35 minutes. 

This past Tuesday Marci, Mine, and I got together to make shirts for our run. Marci, being the smart momma she is knew that the kids would want in on our shirt action so she picked up some shirts for the kids to paint.  We had lunch, set the kids up and then once they were done we did ours.

 

 



Last night was our race. I beat my goal with a time of  33:26, but was pretty disappointed that Marci and Mine did it faster than me. I knew that they were fast but frustrated because I had been running on a regular basis and was still 4-5 minutes behind them. I don't know if I will ever want to do an actual race again, but am still glad that we did it.

After the race the girls and I hit a taco joint for some eats, and then over to Sonic for mini milkshakes.  It was a fun GNO.

 



4th of July Weekend

We had a busy 4th of July weekend this year. Keith & Kim and their girls came to visit in addition to Julie. We headed down to squires park for our Ward Pancake breakfast. Mordecai talks about that all year long. We also did the pool and the girls went and got pedicures and of course fireworks. Its always fun when family comes.