A Day at the Hatchery

There is a small fish hatchery on the west side of town that the kids love to visit in the summer. Unfortunately it is closed for remodeling until some time in 2008. Since the kids are missing the fish we headed up to Spearfish for the day last Saturday. There is a larger historic fish hatchery right beside the city park. It was a hot, hot day but wandering around the hatchery feeding fish, checking out historic buildings, looking at trout in the viewing tank, wading in the ice cold creek, and checking out the arts & crafts festival in the park was a great way to spend it.

Superstars

This month we bid farewell to our dear, dear friends the Maertzes. Fortunately we had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with them during their last days in Rapid. The four Maertz kids were friends and babysitters for our kids. Evan calls Ryan his best friend and Hans calls Alyssa his hero. We called Lydia and Alyssa clones since they have so much in common. Lynn was like a second mom the the kids and a kindred spirit to me. They'll be missed more than they know. We now are looking forward to visiting Watertown, SD several times a year. :)

At the Lake

These pictures are from the 4th of July when we spent the day at Sheridan Lake with Frees. We picnicked on the shore and spent a lot of time in the water to keep cool. We'd brought inner tubes for the first time and the kids loved them. Our canoe hit the water as did a couple of kayaks we'd borrowed from friends. Splish-splash. :)

Hans is 3

Monday Hans celebrated his third birthday. The kids and I were joined by Mrs. Maertz, Ethan, Ryan, Mrs. Preston, Madison, Caleb, Mrs. Smith, and Wyatt for a Burger King lunch and playtime.

What Hans was most excited about was his cake. Since Evan's birthday Hans has been debating what kind of cake he would like. Most of the deliberation was between a shark and Lightning McQueen. Then Sunday night he decided upon a Mater cake. Our boys love the movie Cars (we even have a Cars themed bathroom) and Mater would be Hans' favorite character so I shouldn't have been surprised. With the help of some pictures, mini-donuts, a few pretzels, and frosting I think we came up with a pretty fair rendition.

After lunch we headed over to the Elks theatre in downtown Rapid City for the afternoon movie, Arthur and the Invisibles.

The day wrapped up with presents. Several had arrived in the mail or been sent with us when we were home in June so along with ours he had quite the impressive pile to open. The last picture shows him sporting a gift.

Picture #1: Hans, Mom, and Mater the Cake.

Picture #2: Singing Happy Birthday to Hans. Hans is happily on the lap of Mrs. Smith. The two of them seem to have a soft spot for each other. :)

Picture #3: The last picture is part of his gift from Aunt Andrea. He likes to wear his new "hat" but we'll have to see if he'll actually swim with it.

It was a fun little day for our fun-loving little boy. Hans is sweetheart and bring us so much joy. We love you, Hans. Happy 3rd Birthday!

Fireworks

This is the finale of the fireworks. It looks cool on video but it's amazing in person. We're taking reservations for any visitor for July 3rd, 2008. Enjoy.

Boom

On July 3rd Mt. Rushmore celebrates America's independence by putting on the #4 firework display in the country. Here are a few of the favorite pictures we took that night. In the first two pictures you can see a small fire on top of Jefferson's head. The fire danger had been "very high" for most of the week before the 3rd but some rain fell that morning so it was lowered to "high" and the fireworks could go on. The fire lasted a short time and didn't interrupt the display. We were not actually at the memorial but on a hill above the memorial. I'll try later to post a video clip Nathan took of the finale. Boom, boom!!

Lydia was there too

In case you thought we had forgotten Lydia, nope, she was just in the pack on Nathan who had the camera most of the time. If Nathan could photoshop me in this would be a cool family picture. :)

Asain Beetles

They have been like a plague back in WI and MN so I shouldn't be surprised they are moving west. On top of LDT we came across them by the millions. Attack of the Asian Beetles!!!

#1: What looks to be a dark rock vein is actually 1,000s upon 1,000s of beetles.

#2: Evan showing off the beetles he caught. They were literally swarming in clouds around us.

#3: If you look closely there are at least 6 beetles on the boys in this picture.

#4: A close-up. The boys though we should have brought some baggies to put them all in to take home. I'm glad we didn't.

Hans Spies.....

......Harney Peak! Harney is the highest point between the Rockies and the Pyrenees at 7,242 feet. It is located just north of Little Devil's Tower and is actually an easier hike so I'm not sure why we did LDT first. In the center of the second picture you can see a fire tower. It is no longer in use but in it's heyday was a cool place to look for hot-spots (places fires appear to be starting). We hope to hike this one before the end of summer. Care to join us? :)

LIttle Devil's Tower without the snow

If you look back into the March archives you'll see pictures from trip up Little Devil's Tower with Joanna and knee deep snow. Today was trip number two for the year. This time it was the five of us on our own. We had things to do early in the afternoon so we didn't start hiking until about 3:30pm. It took about 3 hours to climb to the top, explore, find a geocache (yeah!), and then hike back down. About a half mile from the trailhead there is a beach on Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park. On the shore we had a picnic supper and a dip in the lake. Summertime bliss at its best.

picture 1-Looking up at Little Devil's Tower from along the trail. It's a long way up there.

picture 2-Hans checking the view through a dried piece of birch bark. Peek-a-boo.

picture 3-The trail is well marked with blue diamond trail markers and blue paint on the rocks. The happy hikers press on.

picture 4-Evan on the top. We made it!