South Dakota Trip

We decided to go on one more family trip before school started. We drove up to South Dakota for the ever cliched visit to Mount Rushmore. I decided that I could take in the beautiful landscape of South Dakota but in the end I love being suburbanized! Below are some pictures of our adventure to cow country.

The first night we went to this fun little restaurant called the Branding Iron. The food was mediocre but as the trip went on, the Branding Iron became a 5 star restaurant.

The Mammoth site was quite impressive! Katie and Greta helped with one of the demonstrations by holding the bones for all to view.

Custer State Park:

The wild donkeys were very friendly. One even decided to scratch it's head on my side window.
Mt. Rushmore! What a site and so much better to see in person! It makes you really appreciate where this country started and the freedoms we enjoy. When we arrived at Mt. Rushmore, the weather was overcast. When we left, Mt. Rushmore looked much different.
At Thunderhead Falls, you climb through a cave to an underground waterfall. It was cool to see but a total waste of money.

Rushmore Cave was a totally different experience. It was pretty awesome and we endured the 400 stairs we had to climb.

Storybook Island was a ton of fun. I thought the park was a very clever idea and kids love it!


August 17th - Greta's Birthday! She finally go to open her presents in our hotel room.

We saw a sign by our hotel pointing the way to Cascade Falls. We decided to check it out. When we arrived, it was at a rest stop. We just laughed because we couldn't believe that we drove to a rest stop. Once we got out though, we realized there were some paths that let down to the falls.....very small falls. As we got down there, we ran into some Europeans who were taking a little swim. They started to leave just after the kids went in the water. In all my mom glory, I told the kids they could get their feet wet but to keep their clothes dry. HA, HA, HA!

I turned to take a few pictures and low and behold, I saw one of the European men in true European form (naked and changing). Whoa, didn't think I would get that in cow country.
That evening, we went to a Chuck-Wagon Dinner. It ended up being a great experience for the whole family. The girls got to shoot guns, drink birch beer, ride ponies, pet animals, watch a fun shoot-out and eat a fabulous meal with entertainment.

Trip to Utah

I decided kind of last minute to go to Utah with the girls. Our summer has been a long, difficult one and I got over my hate for driving Wyoming and left. The girls were very excited since we don't get to spend much time with my family. The drive over couldn't have been more perfect. The girls were awesome and I didn't get sleepy once. Occasionally I would get tired of a movie blasting behind my ear and no one to talk to but other than that it was great!

The first 3 days we spent with my mom, sister, and my two brothers families. Friday we all went up to Bear Lake and spent the day up there. It's nice to just be lazy and sit around and not worry about the millions of things that need to be done in a day. After Bear Lake, we did our ever famous tradition of going to La Beaus for dinner and shakes.



Mom, my girls and McKayde (sorry Shauna, I know it's spelled wrong)

Day 2 we went up to Tony Grove and walked around the Lake. Later that day Natalie and I attempted a "hang out" moment. It ended up with me trying not to vomit due to the migraine that was building and her texting all her friends. We gave up and I went to moms and drugged up and she took off to play with her friends. It made me feel old and so very uncool as a sister.

Mom, Natalie, Girls
Monday, I headed down to Kaysville and spent the day with our good friends the Hyde's. Love them!! We have high hopes of their oldest (Kade) and Mikayla getting married one day. We have devised many plans and maybe one of them will work. Of course, Mikayla is not pleased with us but she sure had to look right before seeing Kade.


Mikayla and Kade

Hyde kids and girls.

That evening, I went down to my Aunt Linda's house in South Jordan who I haven't seen in years and spent a few days playing with them. My girls loved Jessica who was 14 and way more exciting then my Aunt Linda or I. It was so wonderful to see them again and maybe next time I will get to visit with my Uncle who was gone with the Scouts. I also got to visit with my Aunt Annette who flew in to Utah from visiting her son in North Carolina. That was fun to see her too.

Jessica, Aunt Linda, and girls

Living Planetarium
Greta and Katie being fish

Girls touching the sting rays.

Again, uncles are always suckers!

The last day was spent with my Brother John and his wife Heidi. We went to two IMAX shows and later that night we went to a Laser show. The laser show was so disappointing because it was not really a laser show. It was so different from the ones I use to go to when I lived in Utah.

Our fabulous moon picture!

All in all though, our trip was so much fun and it was good to spend some time with my family. My girls miss them a lot and as always it was hard for them to come back. But, they desperately missed their daddy and wanted to see him again. I was so proud of myself for taking the step to leave Spencer and go. He did an amazing job of everything while we were gone and Matt was such a good friend to check up on him every day. They also did some things together and Spencer enjoyed that a lot! It was really good for me to be away from him because living with him I don't see the changes that are occurring. When I came home, I was so amazed at how much had actually been changing. It was also very good for him because it gave him confidence to know that he could do everything on his own.

Visit from the Cooks

The Sunday we got back from the family reunion, my Aunt JoAnne and her family came in for a visit. They were on their way to Utah and stopped in to see our family and the Nelson's. It was a wonderful visit and I was glad to see them again. I think it has been at least 11 years since I saw JoAnne last.
Thank you JoAnne for sharing with me some of your Journey with Katherine. She is a beautiful girl with a killer personality!
I really appreciated the things JoAnne shared with me and the hope she gave me in the emotional recovery. For those of you following my blog, Katherine is her 6 year old daughter who was shot in the head while playing in her front yard a year ago. It was really nice talking with someone who truly understands what I am going through.
Hopefully it won't be 11 more years before we see them again.

Carter Family Reunion

I am so glad this reunion is over! Our family was in charge of it this year and I chose to still do it so that I could get it over with. I love the reunions that I'm not in charge of because I can enjoy them and someone else is in charge of running the whole thing. Aside from being in charge, it was a ton of fun.

Day 1 - We had the ever dreaded family pictures first thing in the morning. It was hot and miserable. But, we got some adorable pictures and I must say that the Carter clan is a good looking bunch! I will be adding some of those pictures once I get them. After lunch, we drove up to Estes Park and set up camp.

Day 2 - I think I exhausted all of us with hiking. We started at Sprauge Lake then headed to Bear Lake, and ended with Alberta Falls. Rocky Mountain National Park is so natural and beautiful and I really appreciated the beauty that could only be found there. That night, we went to a ranger presentation on Chipmunks, Squirrels, and Marmots. At first I thought I was going to have to leave. I was not sure I would make it through a presentation on rodents. Surprisingly, once we figured out if the Ranger was a man or a woman, we enjoyed the very humorous presentation.

Mikayla, Greta, and Katie at Sprauge Lake

Uncles are always suckers!

Spence and I by some falls at Sprague Lake
Bear Lake
Alberta Falls

This day was hard on Spence but he endured it well.

Day 3 - We went to Estes Lake for some water fun. Once we got lunch out and set up, the clouds rolled in and brought a lot of cold rain. We packed up and went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. After we enjoyed our treats, the rain cleared up and we drove back to the lake. We were able to get a few hours of fun in before it started raining again. The best part was watching a wedding party sitting in the pouring rain waiting for the wedding to begin. Back at camp, we got poured on again during dinner. It stopped long enough for us to celebrate the 3 birthdays coming up. Once the rain started again, we all went under a canopy and hung out until it started flooding at our feet. We took off for our tents and prayed they would hold up against the rain.

Kids at the museum

Paul the ranger.

Spence and Adam

John and Paul. Sorry guys for throwing you under the bus but I couldn't resist. Question, how did Zane get out of all of this fun?
Boating at Lake EstesBirthdays for John, Teresa, and Mom.