Tuesday, June 17 was a day for the kids. We went to the places they had been looking forward to since we started planning our trip: Storybook Island and Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, SD. Rather than back tracking back to Hill City, we decided to check out of our campsite a day early and haul the trailers to Rapid City and then onto Deadwood, SD. So we left bright and early Tuesday morning and headed to Rapid City:
Out first stop was Storybook Island, Emily's choice while planning the trip.
This little theme park was so cute and so much fun. It was like Disneyland combine with the Children's Museum and the best part was that it was free! Each section and play place was decorated like different storybook and nursery rhyme characters. Here is Emily trying to catch Humpty Dumpty before he falls off the wall. He was probably my favorite.
The kids loved playing in Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater's pumpkin, climbing Jack's beanstalk, and sliding down the hill next to Jack and Jill's well. They also liked the Three Little Pigs, and Logan liked riding Toto from the Wizard of Oz. There were so many characters and places to see. It was hard to keep track of the kids because they kept running to each thing and most of the time different things at the same time.
There were also Disney character themes like Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, Pinocchio, 101 Dalmatians, Bambi, and of course Emily's favorite, Ariel.
Here are a few more fun characters: Raggedy Ann, Jonah's whale (Colby's favorite), Cinderella's carriage, Santa Claus, and once again Logan loved riding the animals at Old MacDonald's Farm. They especially liked the "Yeehaws" (aka horses).
Another cool thing was a real pirate ship. Colby and Logan liked driving the ship and pretending they were Captain Hook trying to catch Peter Pan.
There were also park areas with slides and swings for the kids to play on:
They loved going down the slides and playing in the tree house of the Lost Boys. Colby even climbed to the top of the tree house's rope ladder without help! He was so proud of himself. Logan did not want to leave the slides but Emily wanted to see more things. I thought this ice cream cone slide was really cute too.
Needless to say these kids had a blast.
There were a lot of photo props for us to take pictures in. Emily wanted to be Cinderella so we had Logan and Colby be the prince. Then we got Becca, Justin, and Jacee to be in the picture too. It took a little coaxing but Justin finally got in the picture. He made us promise not to post the picture to Facebook if he did it. What a funny kid. (And yes I didn't post it to Facebook.) Here Russell and I are posing as Raggedy Ann and Andy. Aren't we cute?
We also got to meet Yogi and Boo Boo. And look at the yummy treats in our picnic basket! Emily was so funny while we were packing our clothes for the trip. She said, "I want to wear cute clothes when we go to Storybook Island so I can be cute." So she picked out her dress to wear. She also picked out my outfit too so that I could be cute too.
We had so much fun at Storybook Island. I am so glad we came and I would go back again if we ever get the chance. I wish St. George had something like this. The kids would love it.
After eating lunch, everyone else wanted to drive on to Deadwood but we still had one more stop to see in Rapid City so we stayed. We wanted to see this:
On the top of the hill in the middle of Rapid City was a giant dinosaur that you could see from everywhere in the city. How could we leave without getting a closer look? This was the Dinosaur Park that Colby had picked out while planning the trip. This was his stop.
The Dinosaur Park had several life-size dinosaur statues that we were able to look at. I could not believe how big these dinosaurs were. The kids had fun running to each dinosaur. Colby said his favorite dinosaur was the T-Rex. Emily said her favorite was the Triceratops.
The Dinosaur park was a little smaller than I imagined it to be but it was fun anyway. Since the park was up on a hill, we had a great view of the entire city of Rapid City which is about the size of St. George. We couldn't stay long because we had to park the truck and trailer in a handicapped spot.
Next we started our drive to Deadwood. SD. Since our phones did not work, we had to find our way the old fashioned way by using a map! It was actually kind of fun to look for different signs and roads and figure out north, south, east and west in order to navigate to where we wanted to go. I actually liked it better than just letting the phone tell us where to go.
Just outside of Rapid City we stopped at the Thunderhead Underground Falls.
The Underground Falls area was so beautiful. We just looked at the Falls from the outside of the cave. Inside the cave, though you see the waterfall fall inside the mountain and then flow out. My parents and the Hughes said it was pretty cool when they went in.
Soon we were back on the road to Deadwood. Along the way, it started looking really ugly in the sky and started raining. Then the warning sounds came over the radio and a tornado warning was in affect until later that night. The storm was supposed to bring a ton of rain and huge hail stones and to top it off a tornado. I was a little nervous because we were headed right for that area but Russell assured me that we wouldn't see a tornado because we were still in the mountains but we might see the rain and hail. That made me feel better. We met up with the rest of the group when we got to Deadwood and my mom and Becca and some of the others were really worried about the warning too. We decided to park our trailers in between some big utility/construction trucks and park our truck in a parking garage just in case. As it turned out though, all we got was a little bit of rain, nothing big. We were all grateful for that.
Deadwood was an interesting and fun town. I would consider it a saloon town because that is the area we went to. Deadwood was the home to Wild Bill Hickok. He lived and died there and was buried here too. We had fun going back in time to the Old West while we were there.
Here the kids are hanging out with Calamity Jane. She was so funny to talk to and watch as she acted the part. She seemed to remember us each time we saw her too. She gave them Deputy badges to wear.
We were sad because there was supposed to be a shoot out in the streets of Deadwood that we wanted to watch. Right when the show started, however, it started pouring rain. Now the rain only lasted about 5 minutes but they cancelled the show anyway. We were bummed but we decided to go see the re-enactment of the death of Wild Bill and the trial of Jack McCall which was very fun too.
The show took place in the Saloon #10, which was the actual place that Wild Bill's murder took place. The Saloon #10 was decorated in all of the memorabilia and history from that time period and is considered "The Only Museum with a Bar in It!" because, yes it is an actual saloon too. Anyway, during the show, Wild Bill told us about his life. He told us how he was a famous lawman, spy for the army, and an amazing gunman and marksman too. He was friends with Buffalo Bill Cody and starred in some of his shows, and had a love interest in Calamity Jane. As it got time to re-enact his death, he needed some volunteers. Mom, Lacie, and Chrislyn immediately raised their hands and were selected. Lacie was the bartender and Mom, Chrislyn, and another boy were the guys playing Poker with Wild Bill. Now typically Wild Bill always sat with his back to the wall because he did not like having his back to anyone. This day, however, someone was in his seat and would not move. During the game of poker, Jack McCall came in and started making a ruckus and then upon seeing Wild Bill, came up behind him and shot him in the back. As the dirty-rotten Jack McCall ran out the back door of the saloon, someone yelled "Someone shot Wild Bill!" The saloon went crazy and everyone chased Jack McCall into the streets. Lacie was so funny as the bartender and when Wild Bill got shot and everyone ran out of the saloon, she went to check on Wild Bill but then seeing he was dead took all of the porker chips and money off the table before running out. I don't know if this really happened but it was funny for the show. The hand Wild Bill held at the time he died was two black Aces and two black eights and that hand is now called the Deadman's Hand in poker. No one knows for sure what the fifth card was but the majority think it was a 5 of diamonds.
To follow the show, we also ran out into the streets to see the arrest of Jack McCall. After the local law cuffed him, they dragged him up to the court house for the trial of Jack McCall. We all followed them up to the courthouse to see the trial.
Before the Trial, we were entertained my the "Sheriff", "Judge", and "Bailiff." They were so good and so funny. They have an actual band name but I cannot remember what it is. They were also selling their CD's. Any way they were really great singers. They performed about 4-5 songs for us before the trial. One song that was really funny was one they did a spoof on "Ghost Riders in the Sky." They sang "Ghost Chickens in the Sky." The funny thing about it was that they had the audience clucking like chickens during the song. Before they sang, they had the audience "practice" their clucking and all of a sudden Mom lets out this big "Cock-a-Doodle Do!" Without missing a beat, the singers say "Wow we have a rooster in the hen house!" We all just start laughing and Mom continues to crow. Jacee and Justin were so embarrassed that they were trying so hard to hide. I was glad we were sitting away! hee hee.
During the trial, they also used volunteers from the audience. The kids in the audience got to be the jury in the trial. So pretty much the jury consisted of all the grand kids. Emily loved being part of the show. They even got to wear funny hats.
Then, the witnesses in the trial were also audience members picked at random by the bailiff. They would call the witnesses and then the bailiff would say "Hold on let me go find them." and then got pick some one out of the audience. Chad and Justin were two of the lucky people!
Chad was picked first to play a guy named Harry. Now they had a great laugh at this because Chad is completely bald so they gave him a hat. Chad was so funny. First, he raised his left hand instead of right to swear on the Bible. The actors were like "Um other right hand!" Then they gave Chad the cue cards to read the answers to the questions and he had to call Jack McCall some names something like something Rooster something. So then the attorney/sheriff actor was like "Where is that rooster?" So Mom lets out another big "Cock-a-Doodle-Do!" and everyone laughs so hard. Jacee and Justin were wanting to hide under the chairs.
The next person they pick for a witness is Justin. Now he was not sitting by Chad so they didn't know they were related. You could tell Justin was so embarrassed and nervous. He kept saying "They better not pick me!" and tried to hide every time they came looking. So when they did pick him, he was so surprised and embarrassed. When he got up on stage, he also raised his left hand to swear on the Bible. The actors had a great time with that. They laughed and said "They must be related. Is that your dad?" (meaning Chad.) Justin just shyly said "Yes." They were speechless! They were like "Well...um...okay!" It was so funny. Then when they handed Justin the card he told them he didn't know how to read thinking it would get him out of it but they just said "Well you'll just have to make it up then." and took the card back. You should have seen Justin's face. It was priceless! So he tried to make up some stuff but he was so nervous and the actors kept joking with him so finally they handed him the cue card back and told him to read it. The whole show was so funny.
After the trial, it was time for the jury to pick a verdict. So they took all the kids aside and gave them a souvenir $2 bill that said "They bought my vote." When the verdict came back, Jack McCall was found innocent. (which is really what happened.) The sheriff, judge, and pretty much everyone was so mad at the verdict but had to let McCall go. The story goes on that McCall was later captured, found guilty, and hanged for the murder of Wild Bill Hickok.
The trial was so funny and it was even better for us because our family was part of it. This was probably one of the funnest nights. We all left the show happy and headed back to our trailers. Luckily we were not in a tornado and there was not any golf ball sized hail and our trucks, trailers, and we were safe. It was close to 10 o'clock by know so we decided to spend the night at a parking lot in Deadwood and then get up early to drive to Cody, WY. This was our last night in South Dakota and it was so exciting.
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