The Badlands

Okay, after taking over 500 pictures on our vacation, I thought I wouldn't bore you with all of them. I mean, seriously, do you really want to look at that many pictures of our family having fun? Probably not. So, I'll just share a few of the highlights (my highlights ... everyone else in my family probably has some different times in mind). I'll start with our drive through the Badlands in South Dakota. (BTW, we did go see Mt. Rushmore, but I enjoyed the Badlands more.)

We decided to get out of the car and take a little walk on a trail. It wasn't so much a trail as it was just a wooden-planked walkway, but we got to see several wild rabbits (each one the boys saw was almost immediately scared away because they started jumping with excitement), and even a deer, up close. This deer we saw was just grazing. Really cared less that we were walking so closely. At first we were shushing the children, making sure they walked quietly, tried not to get too close. Then, I decided that the zoom on my camera just wasn't getting me close enough for a good picture (which I still didn't get). So, I started walking closer and closer, and the deer just kept on grazing -- very focused that one. We decided that since the deer wasn't going to run away or anything, basically not do anything too exciting, that we would continue on the path.

Here's a picture of the sunrise. Yes, it was that early when we stopped. (Actually, we didn't stop in a hotel on the way out like we had planned; we just drove straight through. Although, we still got to my brother's house -- where we were staying -- at the same time we planned showing up if we had stayed the night somewhere.)

It's not a very good picture, but if you look in the center of the picture, there are some straight lines that kind of look like a fist or something. Dos saw them and said that it was an "I Love You" hand sign.

I had to take a picture of everyone while we were there. In fact, we have a picture of our entire family. But, I'd set the camera on a bench and it looks really funny. (Seriously, no one else was around; what else was I supposed to do? Ask the deer to snap a photo for us?)

So, I liked this picture the best. I love Dos's face in this picture ... she just looks adorable. And, neither of our boys are looking at the camera; but in all, this picture looks so much better than the one with me in it.

What fascinated me the most about the Badlands was that these formations just appear out of nowhere. Seriously. As we were driving along, there was prairie-land everywhere, and then BAM!-there's this rock formation that looks more like the bottom half of a sand timer. As we went on our little trails, I was thinking that it wouldn't surprise me at all if the formation completely fell to the ground if I reached out and touched one.I also loved the lines in the formations. It was amazing to see the horizontal lines running through the different shapes at the same height and place as each other.

This is my favorite picture that I took while we were there. I loved the rays of the sun coming down between the two formations. It was a gorgeous morning, and I'm so glad we took the time to truly appreciate these beautiful creations.