Denver for the 4th

Matt had a 3 day weekend for the fourth, so we were going to take advantage and get out of town. My initial thought was Yellowstone, but we waited too long to book, and we unable to find a pet friendly hotel. We decided Denver it was. I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Denver. So I was pretty excited. Denver is just about 3 1/2 hours away, so not too bad.

Matt and I really wanted to go to a Rockies game, but the boys wanted the zoo....so the zoo it was. I was hesitant to go to the zoo, since we have the Jax zoo near home, and we have been to it a million times. So glad we went anyway. It was a beautiful zoo and very different from the one in Jax.

(mellow mushroom for lunch...yummmm)

We watched fireworks from outside of the Denver Soccer Complex. We probably saw 10 different fireworks shows from all over the city, followed by the soccer complex's show, which started at 10. (we were all falling asleep by the end)

We also drove by the Mile High Staduim while there. Def planning on going to a game if we are still here this fall.

Played at a park, while getting lost looking for 4th festivities. We found them, right as it started to rain, and everything got shut down :(

I also made a pit stop by a friends hospital, and got the grand tour of her L&D unit. So nice to see it and her!

Our First week.....

So I've spent this first week trying to stay busy, finding things to do.

Swimming lessons were a big hit at the indoor swimming pool. The boys loved it, and I loved not having to lather sunscreen on them every 2 seconds. (I have extreme whiteys).

We also went and toured the old state penitentiary.  Honestly that was pretty creepy.

The Wyoming Frontier Prison (pic from their website) http://wyomingfrontierprison.org

Ok and this is crazy, but there are deer EVERYWHERE. Like, walking through town, and in yards, all day long. Me and the boys stopped when we saw this mama deer nursing two babies, in someones driveway. 

I may have blurted out, "wow look at those babies breastfeeding" when I saw them.( Labor and Delivery nurse in me)  And then heard the boys repeat to Matt later. Not sure if deer call it "breastfeeding." Whoopsie, that just sounds weird. 

These people around here don't bat and eye at these deer, and the deer don't mind the people either. We saw a man hand feeding one in a park. But us South Georgia people keep stopping dead in our tracks and taking pics and watching them. Def showing everyone we are out-of-towners. 

Not exactly what I thought I was getting.....

As we continued the drive from Mount Rushmore to "Small town", WY the roads started getting less green, with less trees.... I became more and more nervous.

Before leaving I of course researched where we were going. I knew that the closest WalMart was 2 hours away, but was reassured EVERYTHING I needed would be available.

Leaving Mount Rushmore this is what we saw...

Soon that turned into this....

So as you can imagine, when we pulled into this tiny town, with no Walmart, grass, or trees, I was less than thrilled.  I may have or have not cried countless times the first day. With some encouragement from friends I really searched to find the good in this area.

Matt didn't have to start work for a couple days, so we went to find some spots people told us about. And found this.....

About 45 mins from town is Seminoe State Park. It is BEAUTIFUL! 

The next day we joined the gym, library, and signed the boys up for swimming lessons. I'm happy to say this place is starting to grow on me. Although its not this beautiful picture I thought it would be, we will be going to see it in the near future. At the end of the day, we are all here together. And that was the goal and that is what is important. 

(Grand Teton National Park)

Mount Rushmore

When I looked over the map and saw that Mount Rushmore was only "slightly" out of the way, I told Matt we just had to go. So we drove another long day leaving Iowa until we reached Mount Rushmore.

This was probably the longest day of driving to me, because, well there isn't much between Iowa and South Dakota. For hours we pretty much looked at corn, corn and corn. Its interesting to see how this drive is affecting the kids. Brayden has now proclaimed he wants to be a crop duster when he grows up. My first thought was the movie Planes, but no! Matt and Brayden saw several crop dusters in the many corn fields we passed, and that is where he got it.

 Then we reached South Dakota and looked at cows. It was the craziest sight. There would be hundreds of cows and no building, house, barn in sight.

We ended up here for the night. 

The town next to Mount Rushmore was adorable. Would love to go back for a full weekend. We stayed at this campground Rafter J Bar Ranch, and again I was blown away with how nice and beautiful it was. I wanted to just park and stay, it was such a cute town, and beautiful scenery.

The next morning we got up and headed on the final 5 hours.