Black Hills Family Vacation

Hopefully my readers will forgive my absence over the past few weeks when I explain that our family went on an 8 day vacation to the Black Hills of South Dakota. A vacation to the the Black Hills is something we had wanted to do for several years now but with our missions trips to Tanzania, the finances just weren't available. This year, as the team leaves for Tanzania tomorrow, we are both very sad that neither of us is going but we were both unable to leave our jobs for three weeks straight this year. Shannon will travel with Rev. Debra and Wayne next year when the engineering team is there.

Anyway, this summer our trip happened. We spent the entire summer planning and anticipating. We gathered info from the state dept of tourism and I spent hours online researching hotels, cabins, and activities to keep us busy. We found there was no lack of family activities in the area and scheduled one extra day in...just in case. We were so glad we had the extra day, otherwise our previously planned activities wouldn't have all gotten done. I had planned out each day perfectly, or so we thought. I think it was on day three that the schedule was thrown aside as a reference only to remind us of all we wanted to get done.

First stop, DeSmet, to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead. We spent several hours exploring the dug out home and shanty, animals in a barn, and riding in a covered wagon to an old schoolhouse. The children each made a rope the old fashioned way, saw how soap was made, wheat was ground in a coffee grinder during the "Long Winter" and laundry was done on a washboard. The girls each made their very own corncob doll like Laura had.


Wall Drug...where there are plenty of photo ops and more junky treasures than one can imagine seeing in one place. And yes, we each had a free glass of water or two.





Feeding the prairie dogs at a small gift shop near the entrance to the Badlands.



A drive through Badlands National Park. What a wondrous area. We were all awestruck.



The South Dakota Air and Space Museum located at the Air Force Base. Shannon and Collin enjoyed this more than the rest of us and but was fun to see airplanes similar to those we guarded while in the Marine Corps.


Reptile Gardens. The tortoises were a favorite. This one seemed to love when Evan rubbed its neck.


Dinosaur Park in Rapid City is just a bunch of concrete dinosaurs high up on a hill. I visited it as a child but the dinosaurs have shrunk since then.


The Cosmos, an area where people stand sideways and gravity doesn't seem quite right. We laughed hysterically as our minds and bodies were thrown for a loop. The one picture is not crooked, it just looks like it because the people are. The other picture shows Evan standing on the wall.


Bear Country USA where we drove through to see bears and much more.


The 1880 Train that runs between Hill City and Keystone. The three guys rode the train while us gals drove to Keystone to pick them up. Our van goes faster so we had a few minutes to shop before they arrived.


Big Thunder Gold Mine. Two men dug the mine using hand tools and dynamite. At the end of their 32 years they had each earned a grand total of $50 in gold. The mine turned out to be unprofitable for mining but Shannon and I joked of how profitable it has been since then. At $8 per person for tours as well as charging visitors to pan for gold it seems to be a true gold mine now. We didn't pan but did see people finding tiny specks in thier pans that they were allowed to put in a tiny bottle to keep.

Feeding the burros in Custer State Park was a riot. We knew we would be doing this and planning ahead, had bought several bags of over date donuts at our local bakery. The car in front of us was feeding them carrots and another was feeding them wheat thins. I bet you can guess which car they followed most closely.

Wind Cave, a 1 1/2 tour of a cave formed mainly by wind. It had a lot of what is called boxwork inside.

The Mammoth Dig Site is an old sinkhole where animals, including mammoths used to go to drink. The theory is that they would fall in the sinkhole which had very steep sides and end up drowning when they were unable to get out. So far they have found the fossilized remains of over 55 mammoths, as well as a short-faced bear, mountain lion and multiple smaller mammals. We were amazed at the tremendous size of these creatures as you can see by the picture of Shannon and the kids next to a cut out model of one.


A quick stop at a park in Rapid City where a couple of pieces of the former Berlin Wall are was an interesting spot.



Rushmore Cave, a 45 minute tour of a water formed cave that still has many stalagmites and stalactites. Unfortunately this one was broken off by visitors many years ago.

Mt Rushmore, a must see, of course. Our children were finally able to put to rest the joke we have had going with them that there are backsides carved into the back of the mountain. We learned more about those 4 particular presidents and why they were chosen for the monument.

Crazy Horse Monument, a truly amazing work in progress. This thing is huge! Shannon and I doubt it will ever be finished, it has already taken them 60 years and they are really not very far when you think about the big picture.


The infamous Needles Highway with it's rock tunnels and the needle formation at the top.


And Sylvan Lake. This is a beautiful, relaxing location in the midst of the craziness. It was a nice place to sit for a few minutes after our hike while Star and Evan took a dip.


Another fun location, a can't miss in our opinion, was Evan's Plunge in Hot Springs. This is a naturally, hot spring fed swimming pool with waterslides and hanging rings. It was originally used by the Native Americans then the wagon train participants. It was commercialized in 1890 and has been in operation now for over 100 years. I don't have any pics as we were all having to much fun to bring the camera in and risk it getting wet.

We also visited the city of Keystone and their famous taffy shop where you can watch the taffy being made. We spent quite a bit of money buying taffy for family, friends and ourselves.

Here is a photo of a sign that I found incredibly humorous. We saw it in several places out there during the week. Uh, no kidding? If they weren't "at large" they wouldn't be "wildlife" would they?

On the way home we stopped in Mitchell South Dakota to visit the corn palace. In a day reminiscent of National Lampoon's Vacation where the family arrives at their destination to find the theme park closed, we arrived at the Corn Palace to find it closed for the afternoon. It was corn capital days and there were many activities going on, one of which required a sound check it seems. Hey had locked the doors of it for a couple of hours, of course, just a couple of minutes before we arrived.

In our efforts to save the stop by visiting the local Bonanza restaurant for lunch, we arrived at the restaurant to find a sign hanging on the door stating that they had closed for the day as well.

We finally arrived home, after 8 extremely filled days of fun and learning to our own beds and two dogs, a cat and a parrot missing their owners very much. We are already hoping for another trip next summer. Next time we want to go further west to see Yellowstone National Park, Custer's battlefield, Devil's Tower and more.

The Grass Isn't Always Greener

A couple of months ago, after we first allowed our young chickens outside, we discovered that one was missing. We searched our 6 acres and the fields around the property but could find no signs of it. We did discover a small hole at the corner of the fence that it may have gotten out through but we never did find the chicken. We fixed the hole and also added on an n larger 100x100 foot fenced in area for the birds.

About two weeks ago we discovered our black lab in the back yard eating a freshly killed(by her)chicken that must have flown over the 4 foot high fence. We bought a bunch of chicken wire and proceeded to make the fence about three foot higher in an effort to keep them in.

Last Sunday evening I heard a squawking coming from the back yard and saw our black lab near the gate of the fence. I took off running and yelling at the dog. When I arrived at the scene I again found a dead chicken, this one our favorite, her name was Lucy. When we had added to the fence we had forgotten the gate and she must have gone over that to get to the "greener grass." The kids and I were horrified, especially after the most recent killing of our favorite chicken. We have since heightened the fencing over the gate and hope we have the problem solved.

I've been thinking a lot about how so many unsaved people are afraid to come to Christ because they aren't willing to give up the things that they think are against the rules and they think make life fun. Even we Christians often wonder if we are missing something by following God's commandments. God has put His commands into place not because He is trying to limit us but because He is trying to protect us. I hope that my family and I will be unlike our chickens and always remember that the fence is there for our protection.

"God still has big plans for you, Mom!"

Sometimes children say the silliest things and at other times they spout great wisdom. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, Collin and I were in a pretty serious car accident a couple of weeks ago. It was after church. Our family had driven two cars to church that day due to ministry commitments we had a different services. Some of us needed to be there for both services but others didn't. After church was over, Collin and I took the van to the local feed store to get some chicken wire while Shannon took his car with the other children to go pick up Brandon from his group home. When Collin and I were finished at the feed store we were going to go directly across the four lane highway to the local Menards.

As I sat at the stop sign waiting to cross there was quite a bit of traffic on the highway. There were also three, I think, cars across the highway in the Menards driveway waiting to turn left onto the highway in front of me. I felt a bit of pressure to go as soon as possible, knowing that if they were following traffic laws, they were waiting for me to cross before they could go. I waited for a couple of cars going one direction, then a couple going the other. The road looked clear as I looked both ways and I kept my eyes on the car in front of me to be sure they wouldn't try to turn out in front of me. All of a sudden, seemingly from out of nowhere, I saw the front of a car hitting my front wheel and engine compartment from the left.

Although the picture of the van may not show it, the impact was incredible. The car that hit us was just coming into town on a main highway and was probably going between 50 and 60MPH when she hit. Fortunately she had an airbag and she was cushioned by that as her car hit us then flew across the highway and into the Menards driveway facing the opposite direction she had been going. Our van spun to the right and ended up against the curb facing nearly the opposite direction as well. I hit my head and eye on the left side of the van and Collin and I think I may have been knocked out for a few seconds based on my slow response to him telling me to turn off the van.

It ended up that both our van and her car were totaled out. We had just put $2800 in the van in the previous two weeks fixing the transmission and putting on new tires in preparation for our vacation. The other driver had a small cut on her hand, probably from when the airbags deployed from out of the steering wheel, but was otherwise fine. Collin had a sore lower back for a couple of days and I have been fighting a sore back, neck and shoulder. My entire left side was bruised and I had a black left eye. We discovered a surprising thing after the accident. We knew the van had both front and side impact airbags and were baffled as to why the side airbags didn't deploy. I sure would be feeling a lot better physically if they had. Anyway, after we found out that the van was totaled out, Shannon took the panel of the side of the seat where the airbags belong. Lo and behold, there wasn't one! We believe at some point in the vans journey to reach us via used car markets and auctions, someone removed them to sell them. Nightline has done stories on this and it looks like we experienced it personally.

We spent the next 5 days car shopping, not fun when on a deadline. First we were looking for the same style of van(it was a Pontiac Montana), then we switched to looking at Toyota Siennas. After a couple of days of looking at them we quickly realized they just weren't big enough for our family. Although Toyota's have great safety ratings and reliability, they are the smallest of all minivans and we were concerned about the lack of cargo space. WE ended up getting a Chrysler Town and Country. The children are ecstatic with the fact that the new van has a DVD player, it wasn't however, a huge selling point for me. We will maybe let them watch a video on the way out to the Black Hills on our vacation but it is one feature we are very unlikely to wear out.

As I've thought about how this all played out and how I honestly don't know how I couldn't have seen the other car it has frustrated me to no end. Just this morning I read an article about a driver's ed instructor who was killed when someone ran a red light and hit his side of the car at a similar speed as my accident. As I talked with the children about that this morning and how, if it had happened a split second later, it would have been my door rather than the front wheel area being hit I realize how very fortunate the three of us involved in the accident are to walk away in as good of condition as we did. During this conversation it was Molly who said, "Mom, God still has big plans for your life!" What could I say to that other than what I did, "I know God still has big plans for my life!"

"For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

By Whose Authority?

A couple of weeks ago at church, Pastor Keith announced that he would be fasting and praying in the sanctuary every lunch hour for the next 10 days. He invited anyone in the congregation who wished to join him to do so. I wasn't able to be there all 10 days but I made an appearance for quite a few of the days. Each day we prayed as a group for different needs within the church. One day we were praying about evangelism. We prayed that we, as a church, would be more bold about speaking to others about our faith-whether it be as we are shopping, out for a walk, or visiting over the fence with neighbors.

Isn't is sad how intimidated and fearful we get about speaking about our faith? We have something to share with people that can literally change their lives but we often want to use "lifestyle evangelism" to reach others with it. I am so glad that the people who shared Christ with me weren't just using lifestyle evangelism or I'd still be doomed to an eternity in hell. I'm not saying that how we live our lives isn't tremendously important in reaching others, but it's a rare person who finds Christ simply from watching. They still need to hear.

One of my part-time jobs involves knocking on doors and asking strangers personal questions about themselves for the Census Bureau. Yes, we do work all of the time, not just during the 10 year population count. Anyway, I drive into people's farms or driveways, knock on their doors, explain what I am doing, and then do it with minimal fear. A lot of the reason is because I am there under government authority. I wear a badge that basically identifies me as someone who can be at your door, as long as your address is on my computer screen. I have authority to be there doing what I am doing.

I need to remind myself that when I am out telling others about Jesus Christ and what He has done for me and what He can do for them, I also have authority. I have a God-given authority to be doing it. That authority, dear reader, is the best kind of authority I can get!

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31b

Life's been busy

Sorry I haven't been around for a bit. Life's been busy. Right after my last blog post we went into a 3 day glory conference with End Time Glory Ministries. It was a great weekend with a lot of praise and worship and teaching. We were able to see many friends from the ministry including Pastor Pierre from Haiti and Pastor James from Uganda, both of whom Shannon knew from former missions trips.

Then last Sunday I had a pretty bad car accident. Collin and I were in the van and a young girl was in the car we had the collision with. We won't talk about whose fault it was(mine) but let's just say I am driving more carefully now. Our van ended up being T-boned by her car which was moving around 55MPH at the time. Fortunately her car hit our front driver's side wheel and engine compartment rather than my door. I came out with a swollen black eye and some left side bruising, shoulder, back and neck pain. Collin seems to be ok after a couple of sore days and the girl went face first into her air bag...a very good thing. Both her car and our van were totaled out by insurance so Shannon and I have spent the last week car shopping. We have spent several days and many miles traveling from here to St. Cloud, Princeton(sorry we didn't stop by Lisa, we were in a huge hurry), the Twin Cities and the suburbs plus more. In the end, we bought a car locally. I'll share more on that story maybe later.

Then we can add in Molly's 12th birthday, Happy Birthday Molly!, and party and work, well, it's been crazy.

I've had a couple of blog posts swimming through my head for awhile now and hope to get them written soon. Bear with me, this is my busy week for one of my jobs and next week is crazy with both jobs but I'll try to get them done soon.