Bear Country

After our bike ride on the George S. Mickelson Trail and Amaya's nap, our next stop was Bear Country. Since Amaya still wasn't quite feeling herself, we decided this might be the easiest thing to do. She could relax in her carseat and check out all the wildlife. We were instructed NOT to open our windows or get out of the car because the animals literally come right up to your car. Both the wolves and bears were right near our car on the road. The pictures are a little fuzzy because I took them through the window. This first picture is of the reindeer. We saw about 3-4 of them and Amaya learned how to say deer. (Throughout the remainder of our stay in South Dakota we told her to look for deer out her window - and she did see several!)

This is a picture of the wolves - there was a den very close to the road, so we caught a lot of action! This little guy walked right behind our car onto the road.

BEARS! Boy, there must have been 15-20 bears around! We were hoping just to be able to see ONE! Amaya was really excited about the bears.

At the end of the scenic drive through Bear Country, there is a small area to walk through to see other animals behind cages. We liked this "pile of bears" sleeping.

A great picture of Steve and Amaya right in front of the Bear Country Sign. They had a nice gift shop where I bought a wind-chime with bears on it and Amaya got a couple of the postcards. Amaya didn't want to take home any of the stuffed animals which surprised me. She would give them a kiss and then say, "no" and hand them back to Steve or me to put back. Guess I don't have to worry about her blowing our budget on stuffed animals.

Later that evening, we went back to our cabin and had an awesome fire. We roasted hot dogs for supper and smores for dessert. Relaxing by the campfire was probably Steve and my favorite thing to do and Amaya enjoyed it too. If you ask Amaya to say "fire", she says, "HOT!" She did very well around the fire and wasn't too curious about it. Soon enough, she'll be wanting her own fire stick to poke around in the fire like Steve does. :-)

Rafter J. Bar Ranch & George S. Mickelson Trail

As I mentioned earlier, Rafter J Bar Ranch has been one of my most fond memories of the Black Hills. It's where I learned how to ride a horse - Dakota. When we arrived on Saturday night, I literally held my breath as we drove up hoping that Steve would like the place and hoping that it was still as wonderful as I remembered it.


Initially, I wanted to tent camp, but it didn't take long for Steve to convince me that we would probably be better off in a cabin. (I'm really glad we did because we had a spectacular lightning and thunder show the next night.) I was a little nervous at first, expecting the cabin to be very rustic, filthy, and inhabited by spiders and bugs. Much to my relief, we walked in and it was as spotless as a cabin could be and not a spider in sight! This is a picture of the outside of the cabin.

This is our view from the patio.

The cabin can sleep six - the table folds down to sleep two, two in the full bed, and two in the bunk beds.

Amaya enjoyed getting up on the bunk bed, but slept in her pack-n-play.

There are so many changes that have been made since I was last at the ranch - some good and some bad. They no longer offer horsebacking riding, but they do offer a Chuckwagon Supper and Wagon Ride (unfortunately, there weren't enough people interested in doing this, so we weren't able to go). They also serve an All-You-Can-Eat Pancake breakfast every morning. We took advantage of this quite a bit. I think all of the cabins are new (but I'm not quite sure). And they've added this HUGE playground! Overall, we were massively impressed and very excited to spend our week here.


Right off the entrance to Rafter J Bar Ranch is one of the many trailheads to the George S. Mickelson bike trail. The trail is right in the heart of the Black Hills and is approximately 109 miles long. The trail is relatively flat with no noticeable hills, however, the way back to the Ranch was for the most part a steady incline. Isn't it always harder on the way back? We left right away in the morning, and already the temperature was nearing 90 degrees. Amaya was running a little bit of a fever which made us nervous, so our bike ride wasn't as long as we would have liked. Here's a picture of Steve and Amaya at the beginning of our ride.

We were very excited to see lots of horses, cows, and were even fortunate enough to see a baby deer on our bike ride.

Biking in the middle of the Black Hills was quite an experience for us. Don't get us wrong, Minnesota is a beautiful place and there's no place else we'd rather live, but there's something about the hills that was absolutely breathtaking.

Black Hills Vacation

Our family vacation this year was to the Black Hills in South Dakota. Steve hasn't been there since he was a kid, and the last time I was there was in 2002 with my parents, brother, sister, and their families. One of my favorite places that we've stayed at is called Rafter J Bar Ranch. It's located just outside of Hill City and is right in a valley surrounded by the Black Hills. We rented a minivan again because we had so much stuff. I'm not sure how Steve managed to get everything in the van, but he did - even our bikes and bike trailer!
Here's a picture of Amaya (and Elmo) before heading out:


Amaya travelled exceptionally well, even though it still took us longer to get out there than we expected. We were still able to make a quick stop at Wall Drug before heading to our cabin at Rafter J Bar. Steve and I tried counting all the Wall Drug signs and the first one we noticed was just outside of Worthington, MN and we got to a total 0f 70 (give or take a couple). We did a little bit of shopping and ate supper there, but in order to make it to our cabin before it got too dark, we cut our stay a little short.


Every time my family visited Wall Drug, my dad would take a picture of us kids in the covered wagon. It took us a little while to find it, when we did, I was glad it was still there. Here is a picture of Amaya and one of me.



There was a small carousel that Amaya enjoyed riding. She wasn't too excited about riding this covered wagon with the horses because it jostled her quite a bit. This picture was taken right before a minor meltdown.


This covered wagon was more her speed.

There's a picture of my dad kissing this woman... so I couldn't resist getting a picture of Steve and Amaya with her.

I'll post more pictures over the next few days of our experiences. We had a wonderful time, but it's good to be back in our own beds.

Update on Potty Training

All systems go! This morning, we were eating breakfast when Amaya said, "pee-pee." Once again, we rushed to the bathroom and surprisingly SHE WENT! Steve and I were both pretty shocked while Amaya took it all in stride. Thirty minutes later, she was grunting and Steve got her to the potty again and AGAIN she was able to go! We went to Wal-Mart to restock our bare fridge and cupboards and picked up some pull-ups (which to my dismay are more expensive than diapers), a timer (so Amaya knows how long she has to sit on the potty), a stool (to reach the sink to wash her hands), a basket (to put the wipes, pullups, books, stickers, and timer in)and a bunch of stickers to award her for her accomplishments. Stay tuned...

Ready or Not... Potty Training Here We Come!

One of my projects for August was to check out some books about potty training and start working with Amaya when we got back from the Black Hills. (We just got back last night - still working on the MASSIVE amount of laundry - and catching up on e-mails, etc). Anyway, I was playing with Amaya this afternoon and she said, "Poopy!" I rushed her into the bathroom and she was able to finish in her little potty! I guess we're going to have to be ready whether we want to or not. I'm not looking forward to trotting her to the bathroom frequently or the accidents, but I'm definitely ready for her to get out of diapers! Let the adventure begin!

Sesame Street Live: 1-2-3 Imagine!

My daddy is the best daddy in the whole wide world! Yesterday, he surprised Mommy and me with tickets to Sesame Street Live in Lacrosse, Wisconsin! That's a long way away, but because I was going to see Elmo in person, I traveled like a champ! There were so many kids - even some littler than me! Some of the kids were even wearing clothes with Elmo on them! It was so exciting with all the different lights and then Big Bird came out and soon all the Sesame Street characters came out! We used our imagination to go to a jungle, the woods, sailing on the sea, and then back to Sesame Street. I loved the music and the dancing! Elmo is a great dancer! I'm so glad that Daddy took Mommy and me to see him. Thank you Daddy for the great surprise! Love you - Amaya

GRANDMA!

For the past several months, Amaya has been calling her grandpas "Poppa" and her grandmas haven't really had a name. We haven't cared for the typical Grandma names like "Nana", etc. But on Friday, she FINALLY called my mom "Grandma" when she was putting Amaya down for a nap. And on Saturday, she called Steve's mom "Grandma" too! And since it's such a new word, she's been saying "Grandma" a lot more than "Poppa." She has such a sweet voice and it's very exciting to hear her try new words. Some other new words this week are: "e-mail," "Connie," (one of my co-workers), "oh, man" and "come on." It's amazing how quickly she's been picking up words! Before we know it, she's going to be chattering nonstop!

Gustafson Garage Sale

One of the last things we did with my sister was have a garage sale. The kids were really excited to have a garage sale since they had gone through their rooms and weeded out some of their toys to sell. Steve and I cleaned out pretty well in the spring, but we still managed to gather up some more stuff plus all our leftover rummage from the last sale. Last Friday was relatively cool and it poured rain for a couple of hours, but people still came and bought! I wasn't able to help on Saturday, but it was hot and humid and people kept buying and buying - and it was really weird, junky stuff that sold. Oh, well... it's gone! And we're 75 dollars richer (after taking money out for the ad and to pay for what I had already bought!)

Update on Baby Eden

Eden Olivia has arrived. She is 1 lb 14 oz. Eden is about 9 oz bigger than they had anticipated which is great news. The doctors seem to be pleased with her development for a baby her age. Please continue to pray for their family as they have a long road ahead of them.

Mall of America Trip

While the Springers were here, all 17 of us, ventured to Mall of America to go on the rides, visit Lego Land, and shop at the American Girl store. Surprisingly, no one got lost and we all had a great time.

One of the very first things the kids wanted to do was go on the rides. I thought maybe we'd ease into the rides by going on the swings or one of the tame roller coasters, but Ben wanted us to go on the Sponge Bob ride RIGHT AWAY!

Are you kidding me?

The brave souls before we go on the ride. Ben, Joshua, Jordan, Me, and Mike.

Yup, that's Joshua and me in the front row screaming our heads off!

We're still going strong, upside down, rightside up, every which way! (By the way, it was an AWESOME 15 second ride!)

The next ride we went on was the Splat-O-Sphere (or something like that).


Everyone really liked this ride - especially the girls. Mike, Annika, Lydia, and Hannah.

Me and my sister, Carol.

And who could resist a Carousel ride?

Miles really liked riding the horses too!

Laughing at Grandpa and Daddy!


With 9 kids between the ages of 4 months and 11 years old, we took turns watching the kids. Here are Dan, Hope, Amaya and Steve waiting for us to get off one of the rides.


Arwen took Miles and Amaya over to see some of the Nickelodeon characters. As you can see, they both have the death grip on Arwen.


And of course, you can't go to Mall of America without having a snack. I think Miles was introducing Amaya to Reese's Puffs.


Hope, finding her thumb wishing that Miles would share with her.

Bumper Cars! Need I say more?

The Log Ride. One of Steve and my favorite rides. Even Grandma loves this ride! Annika, Mike, Hannah, and Carol. Mike and I were the only ones that got really wet.

Late afternoon, Amaya finally conked out.

As did Miles.


We were able to do a little shopping and got Amaya some new clothes for the fall and also a new ball.

When can we come back?