Reptile Gardens was Justice, Kabree and us adults pick. Reptile Gardens holds the Guinness Book of World Records of being the World's largest reptile zoo! It definitely did not disappoint! We made it in time to watch both the Snake show and Alligator/Crocodile Show! The snake show was good but the Alligator and Crock show was amazing! All I can say is WOW that guy is brave to carry a bucket full of chicken legs into a alligator/crocodile pin!
This is Kevin and to Shay and Libby's delight he did both the Snake and Alligator/Crocodile Show
Shay was pretty much obsessed with getting a picture of her picking the presidents noses at Mount Rushmore! It was a little easier to do at this version of it ; )
I loved the little one on the rights shell, I have never seen one have a shell like that!
Ms. Kipling
Next up on our day of fun was the Dinosaur Museum. Justice really wanted to see this place, he is really in to dinosaurs right now.
Ok I won't lie this Dinosaur Museum was not exactly what I expected but Justice and Kabree really wanted to see it and the Mirror maze and the dig for fossil area made the kids day, so it was worth the stop.
I never even asked for Shay to help with Keagan and I swear every time I turned around Shay was holding her or holding her hand. Shay was such a great help with the girls.
This Mirror Maze is what Kabree lists as her top 3 things we did o our trip! It was not very big but Kabree thought it was great! I was a little crazy and easy to get confused! Lucky for me I made Shay go ahead of me so I could just follow her ; ). Libby and Chase had fun in this area! Chase got a little further ahead of Libby then she thought and followed his reflection instead of him and landed her into a mirror!
The kids thought digging for fossils was pretty great
Justice made sure he uncovered every fossil and then would hurry
and cover it back up and move on to the next one.
Hanna
Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns
Next up was Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns, this was the teenagers request. Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns has most extensive display and the largest dog-tooth spar crystals some measuring 16". They weren't lying when they said it would feel like you are walking through a giant geode. A few things about the cave was that it was pretty cold, they said it would be about 42 degrees plus it is very wet! The ceilings are constantly dripping moisture. Also it is VERY steep, kind of dark and in some places pretty narrow and you have to duck!!!!!!
Everyone was pretty excited going in!
Everyone getting instructions before we enter the cave
Everyone is still smiles and excited
This would be when a few people started getting nervous!
Before we started our guide told us we might want to walk backwards and hold the rails in some parts of the cave, all of us were like no way we want to see where we are going, rolling our eyes thinking he was stupid. After this stair way, half of us turned around and started walking down backwards.
Shay and Libby were true adventurers the whole time!
The steps got very narrow after this set, they were half the size and VERY steep!
...and this would be where some of our group had to turn back.
Let me mention that most of my family is all slightly scared of heights and are extremely claustrophobic. Let me also mention that we had a 3 year old, a 5 year old, a 6 year old and a 9 year old! Oh ya and the adults that are scared of heights and extremely claustrophobic! Poor Justice tried so hard but he just couldn't take it anymore and panicked. He was getting the heck out of dodge and started trying to run out of there. Don't forget we are on steep, narrow stairs and he was in the middle of our group. This made Heather nervous and she was trying to help him and pick him up but he was so panicked at this point he was grabbing her and crying. I won't lie at this point I too was feeling very stressed over the heights and feeling claustrophobic so I offered to take him, Heather said she was done herself and would take him! About 5 minutes later Mom said she couldn't do the heights anymore and she too was done!!! At this point Hanna and Kabree both have tears running down their faces, saying they are scared but when I asked if they wanted to go back they both firmly said "No! I want to keep going". I was so proud of those little toughies! I won't like I had tears running down my face too and had to keep taking deep breathes and telling myself I had to stay with my girls ; )!
This was the end of our tour, see those small openings that a medium-small build person could belly crawl through, yea we did not do that!!! A few years ago after the huge flood had came filled the caves and then drained out after only 2 weeks they let some people crawl through to try to find the under lake. They made it 1/2-1 mile before the openings were to small for them to crawl any further and so they never found it.
We survived!
I wish I wouldn't have been so scared myself and taken pictures during the steep parts and how narrow the stairs got! But I have to say I'm really shocked I did it and I guess it just goes to show you that Motherly instincts are stronger than ones self preservation lol! I kept telling myself I had to stay until the girls got scared and wanted to turn back.
To keep Justice entertained Heather got some bags of dirt for us to mine! Justice was so excited to show us all how to do it!!! The kids thought this part was so fun!!! They could have stayed and done it for hours!
Storybook Island
After Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns we headed back to Rapid City to Storybook Island. Storybook Island was awesome! It was one of the things that I requested we do while in Rapid City. It is a park that is completely free
Heather, Justice, Hanna and Kabree
Beware of the Billy Goat Gruff when crossing the bridge
The kids thought it looked like the Prince was rude and making
Rapunzel pull him up instead of him climbing her hair!
Humpty Dumpty
Even the big kids got in on the fun at Storybook Island
Chase the evil master mind tied Libby up and left her on the tracks!
Shay realized she was in the Little Pigs house made of sticks
Noahs Ark
Libby, Chase and Shay
Kabree, Zach and Keagan,
the ironically picked the princesses with the opposite hair color as themselves
Hanna, Heather and Grandma JoAnn
Keagan tried as hard as she could to take Cinderellas shoe
Shay singing from the tower
"We're off to see the wizard. The wonderful wizard of OZ"
Keagan thought Aladdins magic carpet was pretty great
Chase and Keagan checking out Jack and his giant bean stock
Checking out Jack and Jill's
Zach on coin duty
Justice, Shay, Kabree and Keagan
Hanna and Libby
Thumper and Flower
Grandma JoAnn and the kids checking out the whale from Pinocchio
Seriously this park was amazing!!!! It was so much fun and we could have stayed there for hours! There was concessions, train rides, carousel rides, plus all of the fun toys! I'm so glad we made this stop!
After Storybook Island we stopped in at Wal-Mart to buy some dinner from the deli and hoagies for the next days lunch. Then we headed to our Hotel to swim. Seriously that's all Keagan would ask about all day "When we swimming?" "I want hotel, hotel swimmin".
Day 3 was filled with tons of activities but it was actually the most laid back day and we got back to the hotel ate, swam and in bed by 10:00 p.m.!
