Day 5 – Views of the cabin, packing up & heading home :)

Here’s a few pictures to show the accomodations we stayed in:

Here’s a view of everyone packing up & the whole group ready to head home:

Here’s a few shots of Alexa discovering Sean’s Nintendo DS :) & our stop at Wall Drug:

Day 4 – Schouten Family vacation

We spent Thursday relaxing during the morning (well I did – while others went hiking) and then the boys went to Sturgis to pick up a motorcycle. Later in the afternoon, after a few games & such, most of the family met up with them in Deadwood to walk to town & see the street show that happens daily.  Overall it was nice to have a relaxing day!

Day 3 of the Schouten Family vacation

Day 3 involved a little bit of relaxing & sticking around the cabin in the morning & then going to a waterfall & the fish hatchery before spending time playing games in the afternoon. Here’s a few photos from our day:

Once we got to the top of the waterfall there was a couple of nice spots to take in the view. Here’s a pic of Dad at the lower lookout point videotaping those of us on the upper lookout point:

  Then it was on to the fish hatchery, Alexa LOVED watching the fish eat the dog food but I’m not sure if perhaps Daddy liked it a bit more than her…

Day 2 of the Schouten Family Vacation

Here’s the typical shot of Alexa from vacation – hovering over Sophia trying to be a “Big” helper… yes I’m so scared of what life will be like when we bring her sibling home!

Tuesday’s activities involved visiting Mount Rushmore & then we went to Storybook Island for Alexa’s sake (although as you can see it seemed to be a crowd pleaser for a few of the others as well) ;)

Mount Rushmore:

 

Storybook Island:

 

Schouten Family Vacation – continued

Each morning of vacation was sort of the same, everyone woke up & ate their breakfast. Then those who were interested took hikes & walks throughout the trails surrounding our cabin. Despite that I didn’t join them, I happened to get a few pictures on my camera from their trips…

Vacation with the Schouten family

So its been quite a while since we came back from vacation & we have finally got back into the swing of things. It was a great week away (well, 5 days or so) and we really enjoyed our time with the family.

Micah’s sister Kiley, her boyfriend Sean, and his sister Coby & her husband Kris all flew into our area on Saturday the 17th of July. By Monday, July 19th we were all packed up & ready to head out. We took 3 vehicles – ours, Bobbie & Eric’s pickup and Mom & Dad’s van. We planned to depart from Sioux Center around 9 on Monday morning & we were pretty close to right on time, despite the rain that was pouring down while we loaded the vehicles. Coby & Kris were our first passengers.

After a whole 2 hours or so later we made our first stop. Mitchell, SD and the famous Corn Palace.

 

After loading back up we drove the next stretch, a whole 1/2 hr or so until we stopped at a rest stop for our first picnic lunch of the trip. After lunch we drove about an hour or so before stopping again for some gas & much needed potty breaks. Then it was back on the road again as we headed for our next stop – Sturgis, where we picked up a few last minute groceries that we hadn’t previous purchased.

After that it was only about a 40 minute drive or so to the cabin which was located just outside of Lead, SD on Terry Peak. Despite rain when we left Sioux Center & when we arrived in Sturgis the rest of the trip was a beautiful sunny day and we had a great time traveling across South Dakota but it was great to finally be at our destination!

We spent the evening unpacking, exploring our new “home” for the week, and relaxing in the hot tub. We were all pretty tired so we turned in pretty early that first night. Alexa, much to her delight, was able to sleep in an adorable “car” bed in Grandpa & Grandma’s room (it was Grandpa’s idea!)

More to come later…