Sunny with a chance of Isolated Thunderstorms

I mentioned these storms a few posts ago but now I have some pictures!

I love rain/thunder storms! I love to see the clouds roll in and the wind pick up and then BANG! the thunder and lightning. Mark and I love to sit on the balcony and feel the temperature drop and watch the storm. For the first few weeks of June we had some amazing storms. Never mind that there was tornado watch every day for like a week. Things seemed to have calmed down a bit and the days are getting in the upper 80's or low 90's. I feel so bad for my poor family out in California where it has been over 105 the last few days. Gross! People have said that July is the hottest month in Colorado and I am hoping that the storms continue instead. It has made walking around the park a lot easier in the morning and the storms are so fun to see since we really never had weather like that at home. Even when we lived in Utah we never got storms like the ones we have seen out here. Its funny though because when there is a tornado watch there is just something about the weather being so unstable that you have this pull to stand on the balcony or look out the window. I always thought that the one Natural Disaster I really didn't want to deal with was tornadoes. They are just so fast and unpredictable, they could carry your whole house away! Last May a town right next to Greeley called Windsor was hit by a tornado. We had already decided to move here and my Dad kindly informed me that Weld County (which is the county Greeley is in) gets the most tornadoes in all of Colorado. In its defense it is also like the biggest county in Colorado. So far so good though, just three more weeks!

On the drive back from Colorado Springs, it was nice and sunny and then it got super dark.



Some hail on the balcony, not huge but good sized.

I have always been into checking the weather before I get ready for the day. Every day here it says mostly sunny with a chance of isolated thunderstorms. Here on the radio whenever the announce the weather they always say: "Today will be sunny with a chance of Isolated thunderstorms, like every other day." In a way it sort of makes a good life motto. Things are nice but watch out something could sneak up on you. I have often found myself thinking "Oh, things have been going really well lately, I wonder what trial is going to come up." But then I try to remind myself that I really should just be enjoying the blessings that I do have not worrying about what could happen. I am grateful that life is "mostly sunny with a chance of isolated thunderstorms." It's so great to know that I am a daughter of God and am always watched over.

Wind Cave National Park

At the "Natural Entrance" to the Wind Cave

After our excursion to Mount Rushmore we drove a few miles down the road to Wind Cave National Park. It is about an hour South of Mount Rushmore and so cool. It is the 4th largest cave in the world (according to the Rangers and I have no reason to doubt them) and the most complex known cave in the world. Who knew there was such fun stuff in South Dakota? After consulting with Rangers we decided to take an hour and a half tour of the Wind Cave. I wasn't sure if this was an okay thing to do being 23 weeks pregnant but again why doubt the Rangers? So off we went to explore!

This cave was first explored by a 16 year old boy named Alvin and this hole is the natural entrance into the cave its really quite small. His Dad was in charge of a mining company in the area and near by the cave they hadn't found any minerals to mine so it was pretty much left alone. The Native Americans of course knew where it was but they didn't feel the need to explore it so that left Alvin. He was the first real explorer of the cave and left extensive journals from 1891-1893 detailing the cave. I can't imagine being 16 and feeling confident enough to crawl through a hole into a very dark unknown but they might have been lacking for entertainment back then in South Dakota.

Mark sticking his head through the cave entrance. He might have fit with his shoulders turned sideways, its debatable and I am not sure what would have happened to him had he really tried and fallen in. It was kind of fun though because the cave "breathes" on certain days when the pressure is different from outside so all the cool cave air comes out, like an air conditioner. The cave itself is 53 degrees every day, all year.

Walking down into the cave (through a different entrance).

About 123 miles of the cave has been explored. That is only 5% of the cave's size so pretty much anywhere you walk in this area you are walking on top of the cave. Its like Egypt when you are out in the desert who knows what you are walking above.

What makes this cave so different from other caves in the world is this fancy stuff here. It is called Box Work and the Wind Cave has the best example of Box Work in the world. (We sure know how to pick the best caves don't we?) It looks like spiderwebs. I have not been in a ton of caves myself just a couple up in Rexburg (which were way scarier than this probably because we didn't have a guide and it wasn't a National Park.) but I am used to seeing the stalagmites that look like icicles. This stuff could be seen throughout the cave and it was fun to look up and then see these really cool formations. Our Ranger was very nice and our tour was great. I am glad we were able to go.

Should you ever be in South Dakota we totally recommend taking a tour of the caves. There are quite a few in the area and the tours vary in length.

Mount Rushmore is Marvelous!

Mount Rushmore!

"It is believed that Borglum created the monument not just as a tribute to the four men depicted on it, but also to the high ideals they each brought to America and represented within themselves. They were chosen because they "commemorate the founding, growth, preservation, and development to the United States."

(Mount Rushmore facts)

At the Grand Terrace

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to visit Mt. Rushmore. In 2003 I was able to go on a Mormon-American History tour through BYU Idaho where we toured tons of American and Church History sites. It was such a great trip but Mt. Rushmore was like the one spot that didn't make it onto the itinerary. So as Mark and I were trying to figure out any trips we could make this summer that were less then an easy days drive; low and behold Mt Rushmore was only 5 1/2 hours away! We figure that we will never live this close to Mt. Rushmore again so it was definitely the place to go.
The drive through South Dakota was way prettier than I thought it would be so that was a plus too. Once we got there we went on a ski lift ride to get a far away view of Mt Rushmore. I had never actually ridden a ski lift and did well until it was time to get off, they aren't kidding when they say move quickly to the right! So after our view we went over to Mount Rushmore and took a walk through history. We went ahead and got an audio tour which was nice because we got to learn a lot of the side stories. Its hard to describe what we felt when we first saw Mt Rushmore: inspired, fascinated, amazed? Its just so interesting that they decided to carve these presidents faces on a mountain. The location itself was quite a big deal since it is in the Black Hills and they are quite scared to Native Americans. (Just another example of how they got ripped off but we won't go into that.)
We were both really impressed with the layout of the memorial. You walk through a really nice entrance way to the Hall of Flags, (pictured later) and after enjoying the view you can go on a walk called the Presidential Trail which takes you right near the base of the memorial. It was fun to listen to the stories about the Presidents, Teddy Roosevelt just barely made it on there. He was the most controversial one but the designer was good friends with him so why not? The other three were pretty much a given. In fact the sculptor/designer admired Lincoln so much that he named his son Lincoln.
* For Lydia, the trail is all wood planked but it has quite a few steps so it would be hard to take with a stroller. (I am not sure if you would even need one for Jackie anyway but just thought I would give you a heads up.) It is not too long or too hard a walk and its really pretty because it was designed to let people appreciate the natural setting.

Here are some quick facts about Mt Rushmore:
1. Carving began in 1927 and was finished in 1941
2. Gutzon Borglum was the sculptor and he was 60 years old when work began
3. The president's noses are 20 feet long, their mouths 18 feet wide, and their eyes are 11 feet across.
4. Each President's head is as tall as a six-story building
5. The carvings are scaled to men who would stand 465 feet tall.
6. There were no deaths during the construction just minor injuries

Hall of Flags
Each state flag is represented to show the unity of the United States.

Mark's profile and George Washington's Profile

As we were driving up I told Mark there had to be one of these things, we found it!

*For Lydia, this was at the top of the tramway/ski lift (which is down the road from the main parking lot off a street called Cemetery) is 8 dollars for adults and 4.50 (we think) for kids and they also have an alpine slide that you can ride down. It looked fun but being pregnant I didn't think I should try it. You can look it up online if you type in Mt Rushmore tram way.

Some friends told us about these three tunnels that you can drive through and when you look back they are framing Mt. Rushmore. It was fun and really scenic.
*For Lydia they are just down the road from the main parking area, you turn onto Highway 16A toward Custer State Park, the road is called Iron Mountain Road.

That gray/white looking shape is Mt. Rushmore it looks cooler if you click on it to enlarge it.

We really enjoyed our trip out there and totally recommend it. We love history! We camped one night and the next day explored some caves at Wind Cave National Park which will be my next post.

*Lydia, to get into the memorial you pay 10 dollars for parking. There are no other entrance fees and the audio tour was 5 dollars. The parking pass is good for the whole year so if you should feel like making a long drive again hold onto the pass! (We thought that was a little bit silly but I guess they need to get some money somehow and its great for South Dakota natives.)

Wide Open Spaces...

I am pretty sure that the Dixie Chicks are from Texas but I couldn't help thinking of that song as we drove through South Dakota on our way to Mount Rushmore. Mark and I were trying to think of where we had been that looked the same as South Dakota and couldn't quite place it. Maybe because we haven't ever driven through Texas. Its not quite the same as Wyoming but close, prettier. In fact I was really surprised at how pretty it is. I think we went at the perfect time of year. It was fun to see the clouds take shape and see all the flowers.

As we drove down the road we came across a couple of buffalo herds or if you prefer Bison herds. We couldn't figure out why they were called Buffalo during the days of the Old West and why they are Bison now? As they would say in Egypt "Same Same?"

We also came across some donkeys. Please note two things about this picture.

1. How the car is parked, yes parked in the middle of the road
2. The license plate on this car and the type of car.

It's a Mercedes from New York. Can we say City folk? We certainly don't mind people stopping to look at the animals, we do it ourselves but maybe they could pull over to the side of the road not park in the middle so other people could get by and not cause accidents. We were right behind the car and after a few minutes there were like 3 cars behind us. They stopped right at a turn too so it was a little nerve wracking to drive around them on the left into the other lane and onto the gravel shoulder that sloped down to get around them. It wasn't a huge deal just silly. We couldn't quite figure out what they were feeding the donkeys either it seriously looked like dried seaweed! Like the sheets you can buy at the store. Anywho, we enjoyed our drive through South Dakota and really enjoyed the rest of our trip which I will write about soon.

They were quite friendly apparently they are fed by drivers often.

I love what you do for me...

TOYOTA!

Anyone else remember that commercial?

July 2008

Last July when we got back from Egypt we needed to buy a car. We had done lots of looking online while in Egypt and were pretty set on some sort of Toyota sedan. We got home to California and that weekend we started looking. We ended up going car shopping on the grossest day of the summer. There had been all kinds of out of control wild fires that week and it was super hot so we were pretty much the only people out car shopping so we got a pretty decent deal and our lungs were already used to breathing in disgusting air from Cairo so no big deal... We ended up buying a 2007 Toyota Corolla which has worked out perfectly for us.
When we bought the car we had to register it in California before we could drive it out to Colorado so since we had just paid a large amount of money for California plates we decided to hold off registering the car here. Yes, slightly against the law but I find it very annoying that once you move somewhere you are expected to register your car to that state when your current registration is still perfectly valid. We also didn't want to rush to register the car here in case we did not get a job here because we would just register it to whatever state we ended up in. Well, yesterday we did it, we turned in our California plates (paid another large amount of money) and are that much closer to becoming Coloradan's!

What is sort of funny is that a guy who lives on the floor above us has the exact same car as us color and style, only like a year or two older. (If I just turned around and took a picture you would see a duplicate of our car.) We used to feel so cool with our California pates and now we are just another one of the masses. The lady who registered our car was really nice though and let me pick out the plates we got and therefore we got 116 since 16 is my favorite number. For the first time in my life I have my license plate number memorized. (I always worry about being the person who left their lights on and was paged over the intercom but I wouldn't know it was mine since I didn't know the number.) While Mark and I were dating he had to register his car in Idaho (such a deal it was only like 60 dollars!) so I got him a license plate cover that said "Idaho plates, California driver". But since we are planning on staying here a good while we will just have to let go of that little California part of us although it is still such a great place.