South Dakota, 2017 - Part II

My apologies on being the slowest blogger to post. It shouldn't be this hard!!! And yet it really is. :/ Glad those of you who enjoy reading help me keep this going. I'm realizing that I'd never remember all this stuff, so it's good to have it written down here. Anyhow, thanks for encouraging me and continuing to follow. 

We've been home for over 3 weeks and the culture shock has worn off but we are still very much missing our family and friends and are so grateful for the experiences we shared. It was the break we so desperately needed from this house! :) We're back in the swing of things and find ourselves in full-blown house work mode (again) and our break and change of pace/scenery is just a memory... ahh! As soon as I finish up our vacation posts, I'll share what's gone on at the house. For now, back to the Black Hills. This was our first view of Mt. Rushmore. While Ru and I could have passed on some of the touristy places, it was a great experience for our boys to see this national monument. Kyle really enjoyed it, anyway, because he loves thinking about how things are made. 

Rudy, Grandpa, Dad and Brother

Along the road, we stopped at this beautiful little fishing stream.

Then, back to Murdo! As far as Rudy is concerned (and I pretty much agree), this is the only place we need to go to spend our time. Murdo's got it all! :) 

We stayed at my friends' ranch for the next 3 days. This was such a great place for all of us for a many reasons. Right away, the boys got to watch the evening chores being done. We bottle fed some calves, brought the chickens and ducks back into their house, fed some horses, checked in on some more chickens (below) and met their dogs and cats. 

The next day was the Murdo Ranch Rodeo! We planned our trip around this rodeo since the boys enjoyed it so much last time we were here. Our rancher friend, Chauncey, was competing in the rodeo just as before, so it was fun to cheer him on again.

Larry, the rancher and the father of one of my closest Murdo friends. He is the real deal in every sense of the word and it is a gift to know him and his family. 

Chauncey (Larry's son) on the bucking Bronco.

The boys declared they'd want to be cowboys when they grow up and began asking for boots, hats, and rope. We loved exposing them to such a different world and culture.

And speaking of different, Rudy loved fishing and hunting prairie dogs right in the "backyard." He got to shoot many different guns and loved every minute of it.

Then, he got to teach his son. :) Here's a look also at the beautiful South Dakota skies. They take for granted those puffy, white clouds out there. Every time we come, we marvel at them and they look at us like we're crazy and we have to explain about our smog. :| The only time we see skies as blue or clouds as white, is the day after a rain. This always takes our breath away.

We all fished and caught 'em left and right. No waiting around. It was a lot of fun.

Lavonne caught the biggest fish on her first try. :)

These two! :) Really enjoyed staying with them and their 3 kids, soon to be 4. 

Other than the heat, the boys loved it all! 

Sunday church :) Great people and loved meeting their new pastor!

The 4 generations picture :) We've got the 90's, 60's, 30's and 0-10's represented here. Give it a few more years and we'll have the 100's, 70's, 40's and 10's! We've taken this since Kyle was a wee little thing. Grandma was there then, and we miss her so much. Glad we got this one snapped before my parents left to go back to Chicago. So glad the boys are just old enough to hold on to some real memories.

Our last morning on the ranch, we thought we'd show them what we learned and tried to handle all the chores ourselves. This was easier said than done! I thought, "How could we possibly mess this up?" and learned that animals do what they want and can smell an inexperienced human quite easily! :) Those baby calves are strong, for example, and the boys were using all their muscles to keep the milk where they had it. In fact, we put the calves in a pen just so they wouldn't push the boys around while trying to feed them. ;)

Then, we brought the horses in, watched Lavonne saddle them up and went for a little ride. The boys rode Smokey.

The White River runs out back and though there had been very little rain this year, it was still impressive to us.

Gavin was timid but Kyle loved every bit of it and wanted to ride all day. It was pushing 100 degrees by this point so we had to be kind to the horses and ourselves and call it.

Thanks to Lavonne for all the work it took to give the boys this experience. :)

Next up, our last moments in Murdo, saying good bye to Gramps, buying cowboy gear for the kids and our cousin time down in Nebraska before flying back home.