The Miracle of a Gift

I saw their little faces on a table for an organization that encourages people to do monthly child sponsorships. So many of them! So young and innocent and beautiful - all without enough food to sustain them. A lot of them from countries where starvation is a very real threat.

And my heart was overwhelmed.

I began researching the subject of orphans and found that there are roughly 153,000,000 orphans in the world. That's more than the population of a lot of countries. In the USA alone there are over 400,000 children in foster care, with over 100,000 of those waiting to be adopted.

And my heart was overwhelmed.

I read about the refugees in Africa and the Middle East and their terrible living conditions. They have seen unspeakable evils and suffered incredible losses. These people often have no home to return to and no country that wants them. They don't have a lot of hope. And there are not just a few of them - over 65,000,000 across the globe!

And my heart is overwhelmed.

I know there are millions of people dying every day without hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many people groups don't even have a Bible in their own language. People who have never heard that there is hope and there is a Savior.

And I am overwhelmed.

The task seems so overwhelming that I began to think there is no hope. I look at the picture of the child that we sponsor through Compassion International, and know that there are millions more needing sponsors. I wonder how sponsoring one child is even a drop in the bucket of need! Is it really doing any good?

Then one night, I read a story. An old story. It was the story of a large hungry crowd that needed supper after a long day. Apparently, no one intended to be out that long because only one person in the group had any food. It was a boy. A boy with ONE lunch. Not thousands of lunches to feed thousands of people, but one lunch. The boy took his one lunch and gave it to Jesus. I'm sure he was hungry too, and maybe thought he would go home hungry, but he gave it anyway. Jesus took the gift, blessed the food, and fed over five thousand people with it!

I felt like I was reading this story for the first time, as I realized this boy gave what he had.....to Jesus. He didn't worry about the fact that he didn't have enough food for everyone, he gave the food he did have. Jesus did the rest. And, boy did he! One meal became thousands because of One. Small. Gift.

The next thought I had was, "Is this Jesus here in the book of John - this miracle working Jesus - the same Jesus that I claim to serve today? Is He really the same? And if so, can He work the same kind of miracles with the gifts that I give Him that He did with a little boy's lunch?"

Friends, my Jesus - this God I serve - claims to be the same yesterday, today and forever. If He is what He claims to be, then He will most assuredly take the gifts we give Him, and multiply them into something phenomenal! Just like He did over two thousand years ago.

We're coming into the Christmas season, which is the season for giving. In fact, sometimes the needs and opportunities that arise can be overwhelming to us at this time of year because there are so many! To name a few -  Operation Christmas Child, The Salvation Army, local food pantries that are feeding hungry families for the holidays, Angel Trees that provide Christmas gifts for needy children, and oh, so many more! All providing us the opportunity to be Jesus on earth and share what God has blessed us with. So many needs!

So, what if you can only afford to make one shoebox for Operation Christmas Child this year? Is it worth it? Can one box really make a difference? If it's a gift given to Jesus, I believe it not only can, but will.

Maybe times are tough and you can only buy food for one meal for a family this year. Will it just be a drop in the ocean?  Is it worth the effort? I don't know, but I remember a true story about one meal becoming over five thousand...

Maybe this is a great year for you and you can fill ten shoeboxes, or twenty, or one hundred. Maybe you can make a large donation to a great need in Jesus' name.

But, maybe you can't. Does the size of our gift matter? Or is what matters the fact that we are so grateful for what Christ has done for us that we can't help but give of what we can to Him?

This is the miracle of a gift - We give to Jesus because He has given so much to us, and Jesus takes our gifts, no matter how big or small, and makes them into something GREATER than we could ever imagine!

Don't believe me?

Just ask a little boy who gave his lunch to Jesus.

This year, give generously to Christ, and together we truly can make a difference in our world.

The Six Travelers Go West - Day 9

We're getting tired. We didn't wake up until after 7:30 this morning, and really had no plans. After fixing a nice breakfast and relaxing, we decided that we would go to Teton Village and ride the tram to the top of Rendevous Mountain. Teton Village is right at the base fo the Tetons and it is beautiful! It is a skiing community where you can ski right into the town. During the summer they have activities such as hiking, mtn. biking, horseback riding, etc.

The tram to the top of the mountain is a two and a half mile, twelve minute ride. The views as you go up are breathtaking! You are hanging so high above the Ponderosa pine trees that it's almost scary. The base of the tram is about 6,000 feet above sea level, and the peak of the mountain is at 10,500 feet. As you ride the operator also serves as a tour guide pointing out the various points of interest and encouraging everyone to look for moose and black bears.

The ride up is so smooth and fun. Elijah was scared every time we went by a tower because the whole tram would swing. It did feel a little weird and unsafe, but apparrantly that's how the tram works. He was so scared by the time we got to the top that he begged us to let him hike back down. Even as much as we like hiking, that was a little much for us.

The terrain changes as you ride up until you are looking at the face of a cliff thinking that you are going to smack right into it! But, no, the tram goes up and over the top of that cliff to almost summit the mountain. To actually get to the real summit, you have to walk up about 200 yards, which we did. The weather up there was, of course, much cooler than 4,000 feet lower! We all had brought jackets and were glad that we did. It actually wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. There are quite a few trails at the top of this mountain. We took the one that was about a half a mile, not wanting to push our luck with the high altitude. It was a great little hike with some of the most amazing views I have ever seen. We could see snow on several of the mountains and the kids wanted to hike to it. We told them it looked a lot closer than it actually was!

There is also a snack shop at the top, and we sat there for awhile with the grandparents just enjoying the views. By the time we went down we could all feel the effects of the altitude. Elijah decided that he actually enjoyed the ride on the way down and would like to go again. Your tram ticket is good for all day, so we told him we would walk around a bit and take another ride.

Teton Village is a great place to walk around, see the sights, and do a little shopping. After we were finished I took Kade and Elijah for another tram ride while Dan stayed with Zack and Rylie as they still weren't feeling too great from the altitude. The boys enjoyed their second ride so much. We didn't even get out at the top this time, but just came straight back down. The boys giggled and had fun the whole way. We didn't spot any wildlife, but we did see the most extreme ski run in the U. S. At first I didn't believe it was actually a ski run because of how high up it starts and how steep it is. Turns out it is a double black diamond and only for very advanced skiiers. I guess I won't be skiing there any time soon.

We headed back to the cabin for a relaxing evening. There is a creek behind the house, and we took a little walk down there and did some exploring. When it was almost dark we lit a fire in the fire pit and roasted marshmallows. After that, we sat in the hot tub and looked at the stars. The milky way is so visible out here and the night sky is so bright.

The Six Travelers Go West - Day 8

Today was the day I had planned to stay at the cabin for the morning. I was hoping everyone would sleep in, but we are sleeping in the loft and the kids were awakened early by the activity downstairs. Since we were up so early, we had time for a good breakfast and a walk to the creek in the backyard. Pacific Creek is beautiful! You have an amazing view of the Tetons in the distance as you walk up the creek. It twists and turns and has the most amazing mountain rocks! The rock are all different colors and are smooth and round. They look like the rocks you buy in Arkansas! We know there are a lot of wildlife in the area because there are animal prints everywhere! We saw moose, elk, and various other prints today. We have yet to see animals down there though. Kade wanted to build a dam, and Dan helped him build one with driftwood, rocks, bark and dirt. They made quite a little pool! Dan, Kate, and I decided that we would kayak down the creek while the kids stayed iwth the grandparents.

We made our way back to the house and got everything ready for kayaking. We told dad we would call him to come pick us up when we were finished, or just to come in about an hour if we didn't have service. We hauled the boats down to the creek and launched them. These aren't the type of kayaks that we are used to, and they were a bit tippy! It took a little while to get used to them. I fell out once, and Dan tipped in the rapids. I didn't laugh when he flipped in the rapids, but when he flipped trying to get back in the water, I couldn't help it.  The float was beautiful! There were so many twists and turns and changes in the water levels. Sometimes we were floating fine and sometimes we were walking our kayaks, then the next minute we were shooting the rapids. I was hoping we would see some wildlife, since we were floating a couple miles of river, but we only saw ducks. Katie was sure we were going to come around a bend and have a grizzly bear in the river, but that didn't happen either. Dad ended up beating us to the take out point which was good becuase we were a little nervous about missing it because we had never floated the creek before. We learned later from a neighbor that we were floating in the Grand Teton National Park and it is actually illegal. Good to know.

We had a nice lunch at the cabin we are staying at, and then headed down to Jenny Lake for a boat ride and a hike. The road down to Teton National Park was so pretty. The mountains just got bigger and bigger the closer you got. When you finally get there, you are right at the base of the mountains. There is a shuttle boat that you can take across Jenny Lake to save four miles off of a beautiful hike. We decided after our hike yesterday, to go that route. The boat ride was really nice with the mountains in view the whole time, and the weather was perfect. My one regret was that we weren't there earlier in the day. The last shuttle is at 4:00 and if you don't want to hike two miles around the lake, you have to be back in time for that. I had wanted to hike up to Inspiration Point, but we opted for the shorter hike to Hidden Falls because of time. It really worked out great because it was a fantastic hike up into the Tetons. The Pine forests are beautiful and the mountain creek we followed was breathtaking. Not only that, but the snowy, rugged mountains are in sight the whole time. The kids wanted to hike up to the snow, but we told them that they really had no idea how high up that was! The snow was above treeline in the rocky part of the mountains. The hike is only about a half mile, and totally worth every uphill step! Hidden Falls are AMAZING! They're over 100 feet tall and just cascade down the side of the mountain. The kids had fun jumping from boulder to boulder while we hiked. Dan says he thinks Kade and Elijah are part mountain goat! So many people were sitting up there just watching the falls, and I can see why. It was hard to pull yourself away, but the idea of missing the last boat across the lake made us hike down back down quicker than we would have liked. The trip back across the lake was pleasant.

We spent the evening down in Jackson going to the visitor's center, having dinner at a nice little place called, "Bubba's" and then picked up groceries for the rest of the week.

The Six Travelers Go West - Day 7

Today we got up early and headed up the east side of Yellowstone for another great day! Our goal was to reach Grand Canyon Village. We were passing through Hayden Valley on the way, so I had wanted to leave early to better our chances of seeing wildlife. Right after we turned out of the road where we are staying there were a bunch of cars parked alongside the highway. A black bear walking up on the mountain was the cause for the commotion. It was pretty high up, so we didn't get any pictures. Our first stop after getting into Yellowstone was at Lewis Falls. They are a very wide falls by Lewis Lake. The kids had fun climbing on the fallen trees in the water at the bottom of the falls. By that time they were glad for a break from sitting in the car.

Our next stop was one of my favorites - it was a piece of land by a river that had a geyser area with steam just coming out of the ground. The ground where the geyser is is a stark white against the lush green grass by the river. The part that made it over the top was the buffalo that were just hanging around down there by the geyser. They were snorting and growling at each other and a couple of the males were fighting. It was such an amazing sight! The sounds the buffalo were making was so neat to hear that I videoed it.

We went to the boiling mud pots after the buffalo. This was just such a strange sight! It is literally huge mud puddles ground boiling becuase they are so hot! It's not odd to see hot springs with water boiling in Yellowstone, but to see the mud bubble like that making all kinds of gurgling noises is really something! My favorite part at this stop was the dragon cave. There is steam blowing out of a cave like a dragon is breathing fire back in there. Then there is hot boiling water shooting out of the cave towards you. Whne you add in the noises the cave is making, it is quite an experience!
We passed through another field of buffalo on our way to our next stop. There were hundreds of them hanging around down in that lush green field!

We stopped at Artists Point and did the short hike out to the point. Yellowstone has been far less busy than I anticipated it would be, but this place was crowded! The parking lot is not very large and there were cars and people everywhere. When we hiked out ot the point I knew why. Here is where you get a phenomenal view of the Lower Falls. This is the waterfall that is on all the pictures of Yellowstone. It is so much better than the pictures! The canyon in which this waterfall runs into is a true wonder! If I hadn't already seen the Grand Canyon, this definitely would have been the largest canyon I have ever seen. The waterfall itself is over 300 feet tall! We wanted to walk the steps down to the base of the falls, but that trail was closed for repairs. I might have regretted that hike halfway back up anyway! We spent a bit of time at Artist's Point admiring the canyon and the falls before we headed on up to Grand Canyon Village.

We ate a nice picnic lunch at Grand Canyon Village (There are picnic tables everywhere in Yellowstone!) and then did some souvenir shopping. I expected the prices of souvenirs to be really high in the park, but they are not. The kids had saved their own souvenir money, and they have had a blast shopping. I think it's almost their favorite time of every day.

Our last acitvity of the day was to hike part of the Wapiti Trail. The part I had wanted to hike was about five miles long. I wasn't sure how the kids would hold up, but it was supposed to be a fairly moderate trail and Dan thought they would be fine. The hike goes right through Hayden Valley which is bear country, so we had to take bear spray with us. The valley was beautiful to hike in and nothing like I have ever hiked in before. We went up and down rolling hills with beautiful views of Yellowstone. The hike also went through sections of pine forests with mountain streams running through them. We were very cautious every time we went into a section of forests because we didn't want to be surprised by any animals. We always sent the men with the bear spray first in those sections. We had to do two creek crossings during the hike. The water was cold, but refreshing. Dan and Rylie discovered a little waterfall along one of the creeks when they backtracked to pick up a pair of binoculars that Rylie had left. After we had been hiking about three miles the air began to smell like sulphur and we realized we must be close to a geyser basin. The only one we ever saw wasn't active, just white ground with old geysers, so I'm not sure where the smell was coming from. It was pretty neat to see the old one though. After we had hiked about four and a half miles the kids started to get really tired. We weren't exactly sure how much longer we had to go or where the car was and I was hoping we didn't have melt downs before we made it back. Thankfully, it wasn't much farther and we hiked the rest of the way down to the parking lot. Everyone was happy to take their hiking boots off and sit for awhile. My walking app on my phone chimed in about that time to let me know that we had walked over 19,000 steps.

Everyone was ready to make the two hour drive back to the house by that time. We stopped and got the kids some ice cream as a reward for hiking so far. We had a buffalo come down the road towards us as we drove home. It was so close I could have touched it out my window, but I was a bit frightened so I just took blurry pictures. Dan laughed at me, but he wasn't the one on the side of the buffalo!

We passed Yellowstone Lake on our way out. I had no idea there was a natural lake that large in the Park. In some places along the shore there are steam pots coming up out of the ground right by the water. It's a pretty amazing view along that drive!

We were all pretty worn out when we got home. We relaxed in the hot tub and looked at the stars before bed. The milky way is truly an amazing sight out here in the wilderness.

The Six Travelers Go West - Day 6

If a picture is worth a thousand words, than seeing something with your own eyes is worth a million. That is how I felt today. I have heard about the sights at Yellowstone, I have read books about Yellowstone, I have seen Yellowstone shows on tv, yet nothing can quite prepare you for seeing the things at Yellowstone with your own eyes. It is almost like stepping onto a different planet, a planet which looks like earth, yet it is so different you think that maybe it is not earth.

We were all tired from our long day yesterday, and for that reason we didn't leave the house overly early this morning. We got up and checked out the house because it had been dark when we arrived. It's a very nice house on a beautiful five acres. From the yard you have a nice view of the Tetons in the distance. There is a creek in the backyard that you can take a short hike to also. There is a hot tub and a fire pit, making the outdoor space extremely nice. After everyone had explored and eaten breakfast we packed up and headed for Yellowstone.

The house we are staying in is about thirty miles outside of Yellowstone. The drive up is through Teton National Park and is very beautiful. A few minutes from the house is an overlook called Oxbow Bend. The views from this spot are indescribable! Every time we drove by I wanted to take more pictures.

We arrived in Yellowstone mid-morning. Our first stop was at Old Faithful which I thought was fitting as it is an icon for Yellowstone. We were a little early for the eruption, so we had a picnic in the park. There are so many classic buildings here at the Old Faithful site. The Old Faithful Inn is a must see! I'm not even sure how the architecture works in this place, but it is absolutely beautiful! The big fireplace in the lobby just finishes off this classic scene. You can go out on the deck on the second floor and have a great view of Old Faithful erupting. We opted to go down to the geyser and watch it up close. Some people say watching Old Faithful is nothing special, but everything about it was special to me. Where else can you go and see water spouting so many feet up in the air, and being blown there by volcanic activity deep in the ground! It steams and bubbles and gurgles all before it finally spews gallons of water high into the air! I always thought Old Faithful was out there by itself - a lone geyser doing it's thing. But, I was wrong. There is a whole field of geysers in the same area. They have a great boardwalk trail for you to walk all around the geysers. They all blow at different times. We were lucky enough to catch Castle Geyser go off. It spews water for about twenty minutes and was quite a sight to behold. I never knew they could last so long. 

After we had spent ample time seeing all there was to see in the Old Faithful area, (Kade especially enjoyed the very educational visitor's center, and all the kids bought lots of souvenirs) we set out for the Grand Prismatic Spring. Again I had no idea what Yellowstone was like before I came. The Grand Prismatic Spring is also in a field of a bunch of hot springs. They are beautiful in color and shape. This area made me nervous as there are not railings on most of the boardwalk and if you fall in the springs, you don't survive to tell about it. We held tightly to the boys' hands as we walked this area. I will say the one thing that wasn't my favorite was the smells at these areas. The smell of Sulphur is very strong, and you realize how many different things are going on in the ground below you.

One of my favorite parts of the day was taking the Fire Hole Lake Drive. It's a little road off the main road after the Grand Prismatic Spring. It doesn't look like much, but it has some amazing thermal features. We stopped at an overlook where we saw the steam just rising out of the ground. It was a perfect hot spring pool with beautiful colors. It was much easier to see the colors than the big pools because it was all contained in a small area. In the background there was a perfect geyser going off. It lasted so long and gave us time to get great pictures. I learned later that this particular geyser goes off twice a day and blows for about an hour each time. It's unpredictable though, so we just happened to be there at the right time. There is a river that runs through this area that is a hot river. It's made from the boiling springs and the steam just rises from it as it runs its course. The whole area here is a fragile thermal area, so you have to be careful to stay on the roads and walkway. You can see places where new geysers or hot springs have just come up. It was an incredible scene which I will never forget.

We ended the day with the Fire Hole Canyon Drive. This is a drive that follows a canyon up to a waterfall. The water here is warmer than most of the rivers because the hot river I was talking about before runs into it. They have a spot here that you can actually get into the river and swim. I didn't realize they had any spots that you could get in, so that was pretty neat. Our day was getting late and we didn't have time to get in the water, but the kids did hike down and touch it. The falls at the end of the drive are beautiful and well worth taking the extra drive. We stopped at the falls and had a little supper before we headed back to the cabin for the night. 

It was a day that was incredible in so many different ways. We all learned a lot and saw things we had never seen before. We're anxious to see what adventures tomorrow holds.

The Six Travelers Go West - Day 4

We almost had to wake the kids up this morning. It was quite late when we got in last night, and I know they were exhausted. The first thing on our agenda this morning was touring a gold mine. It didn't open until 9:00, so we took a leisure morning at the hotel. The kids walked across the street with their grandma to play at the park, and Dan and I cleaned up the room and the van.

We got to the Big Thunder Gold Mine a little after 9:00. This was a working mine back in the 1800's. Two men from Germany heard that there was gold in the Black Hills, so they headed out here to stake a claim. They got 600 feet of land to mine. It took them 25 years to dig 680 feet! In the end they only found $20 worth of gold. We were able to walk the whole length of the mine and hear all the stories from their progress, or lack thereof. It was a very interesting tour. The most memorable thing for me was when the guide told us that the owners at the mill where the gold was processed used to make the workers poop in a container before they could leave. They did this because the workers would try to steal the gold by swallowing it to "collect" later. If they refused to go poop, they could get shot on the spot for stealing. And, folks, there you have your interesting fact for the day!

After our tour, our guide taught us how to pan for gold. They got us all set up with pans and pre-collected dirt with guaranteed gold flakes in them. That was an experience! We definitely all joined the "starving miner's club!" We all did find some flakes, and I'm pretty sure we all dumped some flakes. We were allowed to collect more dirt and pan as long as we wanted. Dad really got into this, of course, and we finally had to pull him away to go eat lunch.

We ate lunch at the Big Thunder Gold Mine Café, which was very good and very reasonable. I prayed for good weather for this trip, and the Lord has blessed us tremendously. The weather has been absolutely beautiful! We ate our lunch out on the deck of the restaurant and enjoyed the views of the Hills.

It was really important to mom to go to the Historical Museum for Keystone as she (and the rest of us) are HUGE Laura Ingalls fans. Turns out Carrie Ingalls lived in Keystone and her step son helped work on Mount Rushmore. The museum was built in the old school house and was very quaint. They had a lot of neat memorabilia from the city and from Carrie's life. They still had a couple of the rooms set up as they would have been when the school was in service. They had colonial clothes for the kids to try on and they let them all ring the big school bell. It was the kind of school bell that you had to climb up on the chair and literally jump and hold on to the rope to make it ring. The kids thought this was great fun, and I had to stop them from ringing it too often and making the whole town think they needed to come to school....

Dan and I didn't feel like we had had enough time at Mount Rushmore last night, so we headed back over there after the museum. We didn't make it far before Dan started hollering and pointing. In a parking lot by the road we were driving on were  Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Ferraris, and other cars I can't even identify. Turns out the Cannonball Run was in town. Of course we turned around and parked to take some photo opportunities with these rare cars. Zack's long time favorite dream car has been a Lamborghini, so he was especially thrilled to get to take a photo with one. And then.......it got better. We were walking down the sidewalk back towards our car when a man came walking quickly past us. He said, "Hey, does anyone want a ride in a Lamborghini?" Of course all the kids wanted to take him up on it, but we decided that Zack should be the one that get to ride. Turns out the car was a 2016 Huracan 610. (That doesn't mean much to me, but Dan was impressed!) Zack cautiously got in the car and buckled up. The guy pulled out all the stops for Zack's short ride down the parking lot. He didn't have to do any of it. He was just moving his car, he didn't have to give a kid an opportunity he might never have again, but he did. I'm grateful for the kindness of people, and I'm really grateful for a racer in the Cannonball Run that took time to give my 14 year old kid a ride in his really cool car.

We finally arrived at Mount Rushmore. I can't explain the feelings that rise up in me as I walked up the walkway to the monument. The pride in our Country and the gratefulness for our forefathers fills me with emotion. The walkway is lined with flags from each state. The kids had fun locating the Arkansas flag each time we walked through. This time while we were there we took time to visit the visitor's centers and museums. We heard a great ranger program on Gutzon Borglum, the man who designed and headed up the building of Mount Rushmore. He had a "miniature"(It's really large!) sculpture of Mount Rushmore made that was to be the model for the real thing. They still have it in one of the museums and it's quite impressive. We walked the trail to the base of the mountain and enjoyed, not only the different views of Mount Rushmore, but the Ponderosa Pine forests all around as well. We did a little shopping in the gift store before heading back down into Keystone.

We spent the evening walking the cute town of Keystone, shopping, and eating some good ole fashioned ice cream. We came back early to the hotel to get ready for the next leg of our journey tomorrow. The kids are swimming in the pool and I am sitting here trying not forget anything from our journey.

Our time in South Dakota has been fabulous. I hope I've been able to relay the sights and emotions of this place well enough. It is definitely a must stop in the great Midwest!

The Six Travelers Go West - Day 3

Still being on Central Time, we were able to get out of bed and get going earlier than usual today. Our plan was to go early to Custer State Park and view the wildlife there, but sometimes the journey is as good as the destination.

That would be the case today. We ended up on Iron Man Road on our way to the park. It took you right past Mount Rushmore for some great views of that. It twists and turns through the Black Hills as you climb higher and higher. Now, in my mind I've always thought of the Black Hills as rolling hills - Friends, the Black Hills are mountains! Beautiful mountains! The pine trees and the granite rock that cover them are stunning. As we drove this road, we came to a small, one way tunnel. We drove through and Dan pulled off into a little pull out right after it. "What are we doing?" I asked, wondering why we were stopping so soon. "Go look through the tunnel," he said. I don't know how he knew it was going to do this because there were no signs, but when we walked back and looked through the tunnel it perfectly framed Mount Rushmore in the distance. It literally made you squeal with excitement. I know I can't describe it accurately here, and I have no idea how they made it happen, but if you ever go this way, stop and see it! We had fun standing there watching other people walk in and see it for the first time and hear their delight. While the grandparents were taking pictures, we hiked up the rocks to the top of the tunnel and enjoyed another spectacular view of Mount Rushmore. The kids started picking up the crystals, mica, and the other rocks native to the Black Hills. We could hardly get them back down the mountain because of all the interesting rocks they were finding. I'm sure Dan's worry about the weight in the van is going to be heightened by the gathering of rocks!

As we continued the drive to the park, there were several other tunnels, each situated perfectly to frame Mount Rushmore. After much stopping at overlooks and rock climbing, we finally made it to Custer State Park. The park itself, even without the wildlife is beautiful. The terrain changes every few miles from hills to plains, to rocks, We saw a herd of buffalo, antelope, prairie dogs, deer, and wild donkeys in the park. The donkeys were my favorite as they are very used to visitors and would come right into your car window looking for snacks. The buffalo herd was hanging out very close to the road and we were able to get great pictures. My dad and Dan's mom got out for a closer look A little too close as we were hopeful they didn't anger the large buffalo! We ended the drive with a picnic lunch and souvenir shopping. (Shopping is the kids' favorite part of every day, I think.)

The next thing on the agenda was to take Needles Highway out of the park and back towards town. If you are ever in the Black Hills, do NOT miss this!!! I don't think I can even begin to describe how amazing it is. You drive up into the top of the mountains to these crazy, amazing rock formations, and then your drive right through them. The roads are a little scary as they are very narrow and right on the side of the mountains. Then you go through tunnels so small that I thought our mirrors might get knocked off. Of course, there are cars going both ways on these roads. The rock spires at the top of the mountain are something like I've never seen before. After we finished this section of road, I wanted to turn right around and do it again. Not only are the rock formations incredible, you are so high up that the vistas out over the mountain range are incredible!

We finished up Needles Highway at Sylvan Lake, which is a beautiful mountain lake high up in the mountains. We climbed the huge rocks here out over the lake . The boys especially enjoyed the rock climbing. The rocks up here are granite, pegmatite, and metamorphic rocks. Totally different than what we have in Arkansas. They give you a much better grip, so the boys looked like little professional rock climbers as they scaled the rocks and jumped from rock to rock. Dan and I did our best to keep up with them and make sure no one fell in the lake.

We finished the day off with the night show at Mount Rushmore. I know I keep saying, not to miss things, but this is a definite not miss!! You sit in a huge amphitheater below Mount Rushmore. The weather was absolutely perfect tonight, and the sky was clear with so many stars. The show began with a park ranger telling a story about her grandfather who was in World War 2. She then expressed her gratefulness to the Veterans who have made our free country possible. After she walked off the stage, they uncovered a huge screen and showed a video on the history of Mount Rushmore. We all learned some very interesting facts that we didn't know. Not only did the video show how it was built, it also highlighted all four presidents and their accomplishments that helped make our nation great. It ended with lighting up the memorial, "America the Beautiful," and then having everyone sing "The Star Spangled Banner." At least we thought that was the end. After everyone sang, a park ranger came out and called for all the veterans to come down to the stage. It was a long walk down, but dad was able to make it. I couldn't believe how full the stage was! You couldn't help crying as you saw men and women from wars back as far as World War 2 make their way to, and then almost fill the whole stage. They lowered the flag and honored each one with a round of applause, a standing ovation,, and a reminder of how we wouldn't be able live in this great nation without the sacrifice of each one. The whole evening was a great reminder that no matter how unhappy you are with things in our country, we truly do live in the greatest nation on earth and we have so much to be thankful for!

After the show, we drove up the mountain to find a dark spot to view the sky. You were supposed to be able to see the Northern Lights from South Dakota tonight if it was dark enough. We thought that would have been a truly amazing way to end the day, but the beautiful full moon was too bright and we finally had to give up and go home.

The kids pretty much just fell into bed when we got back to the hotel.

Tomorrow will be a whole new adventure!