Vacation Recap (Part 2) Pic Heavy!

Last week I shared the first part of my trip, the train ride and our time in ND.  You can check out that post HERE.  This is a continuation of that post

After a few days in ND we rode with my mom down to Spearfish, SD where she lives.  I grew up in Sturgis (and a short time in Rapid City) but my mom now lives in Spearfish.  I also have a sister and brother in law who just moved back there from Alaska.  They have baby twins and a 4 year old and 2 year old.  I was just SO excited to see them because it had been nearly 4 years.  I needed some sister time with her!  I also have two brothers and their wives and children but most time spent with them was at my one brothers house because they have 4 very busy children (all under 4!).  But my other sister and I went to the fish hatchery our first day together.  Going to the fish hatchery was something we did often when I was kid, so it was nice to bring back those memories.  Most of my good pictures are with kids in them and to protect their privacy I'm not posting them.  This is hard to do cause they are so freaking adorable!  I want to show them off, but I'm not sure my brother-in-law would be okay with that.

 The next day we all went to the lake (which is more like a pond, it's so small). It was really hot and the kids had fun in the water but the sun gives me a headache so we didn't stay real long.

Iron Creek Lake

 One day we went to Reptile Gardens.  Anyone whose gone to Mt. Rushmore has driven right by it.  As a kid we went every year.  I even celebrated my 12 birthday here.  This was my daughters favorite place we went.

Giant Tortoises

Baby Alligator

Python

Prairie Dog Town

Turtle Pond

In the dome with birds, lizards, snakes and more

Some of the lizards in the dome

This picture is taken at a creek near my moms house.  I thought it was really interesting that this old car or truck is actually in-bedded in the bank.

 One day we went to Storybook Island.  This is another place we went often as kids.  It's free to get in and is basically a big ol' play ground with story themed play areas.  Here's a few of the pictures.  I have WAY too many to share and most have my nieces and nephews in them so I left those out, but this gives you an idea of how awesome that place is.

 And then, that was it!  Time to travel home.  So we all packed up in my moms van and took off down the road.  We took a brief stop in Sheridan WY to say hi to grandma and loads of aunts and uncles then we drove on to Butte where we stayed for the night and the next day made the rest of the trek home.  

These pictures all take place between Sheridan WY and Portland OR, they are in the order they were taken, but I'm not for sure I know where they all were taken, except the last one, which was just a couple hours out from home.  When we start seeing those windmills we know we're almost there!