Ahhh...the Black Hills. We love going back to this place. The first night we stayed in Sylvan Lake Campground (lucky break for us, since we didn't have reservations!) The kids had a great time swimming, Tim did a little bouldering, we hiked around Sylvan Lake and stopped at the General Store to pick up some milk and bison hot dogs to go with our mac n cheese dinner.
It was about this point on the trip that Conrad started getting tired of drawing on his own. So I came up with a new little game. I took his pad and pens, and drew a figure or shape. Then handed it back to him to see how accurately he could copy it. For example, I might draw a square, with an X inside. Or I may draw a rectangle with two lines in it, and one dot above it, two dots below it, and squiggly line going out to the right. Sometimes it's the simplest stuff that entertains....
We also played with some patterns (one of us would start a pattern, and the other would finish). One morning after breakfast, we moved into numbers. He asked me to write numbers one thru ten. Then he took the pad and added a number one behind each of my numbers, coming up with 11, 21, 31, etc. and recited all the numbers to me. He informed me he was a teacher and would teach me math. :)
The second night we stayed at Center Lake campground. Most memorable about that night was the incredible storm that rumbled through. The lightning was close and the thunder was so loud it shook the ground beneath us. It passed quickly though, and the rest of the night was great sleeping.
Look at these two happy little campers!!
Conrad, passing time while we packed up. I wonder why he's wearing a seat belt?
Norrie, helping us pack up.
Conrad, passing more time.
We took our time leaving the Black Hills, so much so that by the time we got to the Badlands, it was well into the evening hours. There was just enough time to set up a tent, make dinner and cleanup before the rain started. We had quite the light show that night... we spent the first part of the night sitting in the truck watching the storms roll through. Then we slept for a bit before getting an early start the next day. Destination: Rochester. It was early evening when we got to Ray and Brenda's, and they had a wonderful dinner cooked up for us. We did some laundry, bathed the kids, and visited for several hours before heading home to the prairie.
