My Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa David drove from Sun City, Arizona and brought my Great-Grandma Boyce from Pueblo, Colorado. They arrived to Gillette on Wednesday evening. We were able to celebrate my sister's 24th birthday with them that evening.
My mom was able to convince one of my sister's friends to play her "Happy Birthday" on his bagpipes. It was a great surprise and everyone enjoyed the performance.
The rest of our crew arrived Thursday evening late, after a trip full of car trouble and turn-arounds. My Great-Aunt Janet brought two of her grandchildren, Jared and Kelly, with her to the family reunion, and to get to see the Black Hills and Yellowstone. It was sure great to get to spend time with everyone.
We left for the Black Hills on Friday afternoon. By the time we arrived to the lodge and checked in, a heavy fog moved in to the mountains. It was really weird to look out the window and only see white.
The fog sure made it hard for the rest of the family to find the lodge along the winding mountain roads, however, it sure made for some beautiful pictures.
On Saturday, we all went our separate ways to explore all of the tourist attractions in the area. Some people went golfing, some went to view Mount Rushmore, and some went to visit Deadwood. Several of us went together to the Roo Ranch. Aunt Janet, Grandma Boyce, Grandma Bonnie, Jenni, Kelly, Madison and I had a lot of fun learning about the Australian wildlife.
Madison did quite well. She liked her stroller, but didn't like the wind. It was quite windy that day.
There were lemurs. The lemurs were very curious about Madison and made their way to the glass to get a better look at her.
Madison was also quite interested in the lemurs.
There were lots of Kangaroos, even a few that you could pet.
I expected their coat to be coarse, like a horse or cow, but it was really soft. These kangaroos were born at the ranch and were bottle fed, so they were super friendly.
Kelly got to pet all three Kangaroos that were in the petting area. She had a blast at the ranch.
They had all kinds of animals at the ranch: wallabys, kanagroos, lemurs, singing dogs, sloths, emus, zebu(humped cattle), and z-donks(a mix between a zebra and a donkey). It was pretty cool to see all of the different species.
Here is Kelly posing as a Kangaroo.
Madison had to be a kangaroo too.
They kept the baby kangaroos in the nursery. They made pouches out of fabric for the joeys to sleep in.
The baby albino kangaroo came out of the pouch and we were able to get a picture. I see a lot of similarity between kangaroo faces and those of rabbits.
They also had Kookabura birds.
My mom used to sing to us a song about Kookabura's:
Kookabura sits in the old gum tree
Eating all the gum drops that he can see
Stop kookabura, stop kookabura
Save some gum for me.
On Sunday we each made our way back to Gillette. It is time for making hay at our house, and my dad was busy bailing hay by the time we made it back. He took a break for dinner and we put Madison up on the tractor to get some pictures with her Grampa.
Maybe one day, Madison will be the one who is bailing hay.
She was sure checking out the steering wheel, trying to get it figured out.
Sunday night, we took the kids and bought some fireworks. We had a lot of fun lighting them off. Kelly was fasinated with the sparklers. She would dance around and around watching the trail of lights.
Jenni with her sparkler.
Grandma Bonnie with her sparkler.
Jenni and Brandon are no longer allowed to go to the fireworks stand together. They sort of went crazy with the fireworks. We did have a great time, and the kids really enjoyed getting to experience pyrotechnics. The adults enjoyed it a lot too.
Everyone left this morning. Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa David took the kids to Yellowstone, and Grandma Boyce and Aunt Janet headed back to Pueblo. We sure enjoyed getting to visit with everyone at the reunion. I was glad that so many people were able to come.
After we arrived home Sunday afternoon, I laid Madi down on her floor gym with her head under the flower in the middle of the mat. When I came back into the room, she had scooted herself quite a ways, she was nearly off the mat.
I guess that she will only be getting more mobile. We should probably work towards baby proofing the house. :)
