Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Happy Birthday to Alex!  He turns 12 today.  We gave him a birthday card and will try to find cupcakes to help him celebrate at dinnertime.  As hot as it was yesterday, it did cool down quite a bit last night.  I started out on top of the sleeping bag, but sometime in the night, I burrowed in.  It was 62 by morning.  I got up early and went to take a shower.  Unfortunately, the top of my shampoo opened in my ditty bag and I had to take everything out and rinse it off.  I put on a sweatshirt and sat outside to read until the others woke up.  I happened to spot a red squirrel that jumped onto the picnic table to explore (we had put all of our food away so he didn’t find much).  He then jumped down and ran around the camp.  I was sitting with my legs crossed and at one point, he jumped onto my shoe!  I swung my foot up and he got an extra lift to his next destination.  After a banana bread and hot chocolate breakfast, we cleaned up – Alex washing and Theo drying and then hopped into the truck to drive to Mt. Rushmore.  We spent some time viewing the amazing sculpture in the rock face and then took a trail which lead to the sculptor’s studio.  I bought each of the boys a National Parks passport book and they put the stamp for Mt. Rushmore on the appropriate page.  We came back through Custer State Park and stopped at the Game Lodge, which is a hotel and restaurant, to have a picnic lunch.  I also thought I might pick up a wifi signal there, but I didn’t have any luck.  We added a deer and a turkey vulture to our list of wildlife today.   The vulture was on the road in front of us snacking on a small bit of road kill.  We then drove up the Needles Highway (Hey, kids – remember when we locked our keys in the car by accident and Doug had to climb down a steep slope to get a length of wire so we could jimmy the door open?).  We drove up to the Eye of the Needle and the boys had fun climbing up on some of the closest “needles”.  I dropped the boys and Dave off at camp and I went into Custer (we discovered that it is a fairly good sized town just 3 miles from where we are camped) to grocery shop, get gas, and drop off some cards to be mailed.  On the way, I stopped at a church, which was selling wood as a youth fundraiser.  The boys wanted to have a campfire last night, but it was way to hot for one.  I think we will enjoy one this evening.  I bought everything we need for s’mores and the boys are very excited, as the only marshmallows I could find were the giant ones!  We will go to the ranger talk tonight – it is on outdoor cooking.  I couldn’t find cupcakes at the store, but I did find mini-brownies with red, white, and blue frosting.  We sang Happy Birthday to Alex and then enjoyed the brownies after a dinner of hamburgers.  Dan made the salads, Alex cooked the burgers, and Theo washed the dishes.  Laura and Nick called and talked with Dan for a while and then Amy and Dean called to wish Alex a happy birthday.  After we had cleaned up from dinner, we cooked s’mores.  We asked the neighbors to join us as they also have three children with them.  They are from Binghamton, New York.  We sat around chatting for a while and missed the ranger talk – oh well, maybe tonight.  It is cooler tonight so will definitely sleep inside the bag.