A Perfect Day

Last Sunday was one of those days that struck me as being about as beautiful as life gets here on earth.  I kept telling the kids that we were truly privileged to be in a position to where we could be on a trip like we have been on.  (I am writing this on Wednesday evening - June 13 - and we don't expect to be home yet until late Sunday night. We left home two weeks ago today!)


I have to record the highlights of the day in an effort to capture a bit of that perfection and preserve it here in a way that I am sure will escape my unaided memory:


We arrived in Custer, South Dakota Saturday evening after a beautiful drive across Wyoming.  We had rented a cabin for two nights in Custer sight unseen.  Well, there were pictures online, but you always know that the pictures are capturing only the best angles. 



So a picture from this angle might appear on the website...



But not from this one!

And you might expect a cabin to have a kitchen, but it turns out the "kitchen" fits in the corner of one of the bedrooms!

But the kids loved the place because they could run around outside and there was a pond to poke around in and a few rocks to climb on.  So we were happy enough.  And I actually liked the challenge of cooking breakfast - because you've got to have a hot breakfast when you are "camping" - so I used the charcoal grill out back to do some bacon and eggs in a frying pan I bought at the Dollar General.


The Princess looked so sweet early in the morning with her kitten from Gig Harbor, Washington.

After breakfast, we headed into Custer State Park and took the Wildlife Loop road.  The donkeys are always waiting for a handout.  They surround a vehicle and beg for food.  Here Dats (age 11) feeds one a bit of bread, apparently a bit disgusted by the experience.  We had donkey slobber all over the van's windows by the time we moved on.

We had been a bit disappointed in not seeing as many animals in Yellowstone as we had hoped to (no moose and no bear!) so it was good to see actual wildlife along the Wildlife Loop.

We saw tons of buffalo (literally!).  And the kids thought the calves were cute.  At one point, a herd surrounded our vehicle.  At another, a herd bolted into a stampede across a road where we had just passed.

As soon as we got a little further into the park and started to see the large rock outcroppings, our little monkey boy, Ida (age 8), was almost visibly vibrating with anticipation of all the climbing to be done.  I was almost afraid to let him out of the van for fear he would disappear.  The kids all loved the climbing - including The Princess, who proved she could keep up with the best.  It gave Mom and Dad the nerves, but on our perfect day there wasn't so much as a skinned knee or a turned ankle.

On to Mount Rushmore around noon.  The kids were duly impressed.

For me, part of the joy and "perfection" of this day was sharing with my kids a part of my past that I love. My dad grew up in South Dakota so we traveled there often when I was a kid and every few years we'd get out to the Black Hills.  So on this trip, it warmed my heart to hear my kids say they liked the Hills better than Yellowstone.  The other joy for me was exploring some aspects of the Hills I had never seen before - including a trail at Mt. Rushmore that carries you a bit closer to the carving.  The kids and I hiked this little trail while Mommy enjoyed some alone time ... apparently with a bowl of ice cream back at the gift shop!

Speaking of gift shops, each of the kids has put a lot of thought into what souvenirs they might want.  They each had $10 from Uncle Ryan and Aunt Suzan, $12.50 from Grandma Gross and $10 from Mommy and Daddy - which we promised before we knew they'd be getting money from other sources!  Among other items, Ida got himself an eagle because we saw eagles in Washington...

The Princess got herself a "fairy dog", as she called it.  (She was unfamiliar with the word "prairie" apparently.  Later, we all laughed when she was looking for "Big Orange Sheep" when her siblings were looking for Big HORN Sheep.)

After a picnic lunch, we climbed a bit of rock and spent some time reading from Scripture together and admiring God's creation.  Psalm 19: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."

Next we went to my favorite spot in all the Hills - Sylvan Lake.  It's a small lake with a trail that loops around the water.

The Drama Queen (age 10) poses for a picture on top of some rocks at the far end of the lake.  This was the site of the only injury of the day ... some chunky kid whipped a stone toward the water and managed to hit me in the arm instead, mainly because I was standing between him and the water.  I survived.

The kids were excited later as we drove through a tunnel on the Needles Highway to see a mountain goat up close.

As we were driving back to Custer for dinner, Dats screamed, "Turn around, turn around!" "What?  Why?"  "I just saw a mountain lion!"  We whipped around and parked and Mommy took this picture.  We watched in awe from a distance while the thing scratched around in the pine needles.  Then the creature lifted its head ... and it was a dog.

We grabbed some hotdogs and bratwurst (and supplies for smores) from a grocery in Custer and headed back to the cabin to build a fire.

A strong wind whipped the fire up so hot that Dats had to hide behind a rock to roast his dog.

After we tucked the kids in, Melissa and I had a few quiet moments to enjoy the campfire by ourselves before turning in for the night and ending our perfect day.