Check!

You too just might be taking a "selfie" if you drove forever and a day to get here, 

and you've always heard about it, and you were finally there...

We had to stop first in front of the "official sign"...

I think Daniel looks good :)

So exciting!

My Dylan boy sure is handsome!

We went to the studio of the sculptor, Lincoln Borglum.  This was the original sculpture, and the one the workers had to use to do the one on the mountain, the kids were disappointed that the one on the mountain isn't completely finished...war happened, life happened, and more important things happened, and George Washington didn't get his buttons and coat tails,

Pretty amazing someone had such a vision...people's determination and dreams astound me!

                    We hiked up the"trail" to see it closer, but it didn't actually let you get that close.
                            (And one side of the trail was closed, "due to construction.)"

                                                           New members of the squad!

Thanks for being such good men, Mr. Presidents.

And the Avenue of Flags

Check that off the bucket list!

The Third Longest Cave in the World...Who Knew?

Saturday night we stayed in Lander, Wyoming...famous for their bars...actually I don't know what they are famous for but they sure had a lot of those.  We then got up early and started on our way to see Mount Rushmore...we were nearly there, and  on an extremely wind-y road, Afton was driving, when we kept seeing signs for "Jewel Cave", well we had no data on our phones to look it up, so I made us stop.  No one was to happy about it...until we asked about it, and they told us it was the third longest cave in the world and the "Scenic Route" tour started in 20 minutes!  Perfect!   We paid for our tickets (it was kind of pricey) and we weren't sure of what to expect.  The last real cave we went to was Lehman's Cave in Nevada, about 7 years ago.

So we  grabbed our jackets (they said it would be cold down there) and waited for the tour to start.

When the tour finally started, we went down the elevator...down, down, down

It felt like an episode of "Warehouse 13"  

I found it totally fascinating! There were all kinds of stairs, we went up and down and around.  The geology was wonderful.It's amazing to think about how the cave was formed and  wonder if there is a big hole under us right now!  They've only explored 3% of the cave so far, and the have volunteers who come on cave exploring weekends, to explore more..Wish I lived closer to help explore it! 

Not sure how I'd really like it, without all the lights, and paved flooring...

Glad we stopped, and got to see another of our Heavenly Father's creations...you never know what lies beneath you!

South Dakota had some pretty sites!

But this was our view for a looong time!

So happy everyone got a long!I'm telling you these kids were fantastic in the car! 

Best tip I have for surviving a 48 hour road trip...air freshener!! (For many reasons we won't get to right now! :)) 

The first of our stops...Sixth Crossing!

Our first stop on our journey was to visit Sixth Crossing...

main reason...to see Nana and Fred of course!  They started a six month mission in April!

It was so nice to see them, and they were so good to show us around.  This is the old school house.

We walked around with the hand carts (glad I didn't have to walk back to Salt Lake using them!)

They took us on a tour, and shared many pioneer stories...stories of such great faith!

Our hearts were touched.

And to the thicket, where we were protected from the wind.

We look good in cowboy hats!

They fed us lunch and dinner and brownies and icecream!  They were all delicious!

We had a chance to meet some of their friends (other  missionaries), they were all so kind!

Their friends gave us a rock to remember the Pioneers and all of their faith, and a neat picture of the temple.

And Nana and Fred gave us some "brain rocks" that were the coolest rocks I had ever seen.

We are blessed by your faith and service!  We love and appreciate you both.

So fun to see them, and be inspired by the faith of the Mormon Pioneers:  People who were willing to give their lives for their Savior.  They are awe inspiring.

Thanks Nana and Fred for making our first stop so great!!

Memorial Day Visitors!

We had some visitors this Memorial Day, and we were very happy to see them!

They came up to go through the Payson Temple Open House, where they had more of an adventure than they had bargained for!  ( You might want to ask them about it!  But don'task Drew, because he wasn't lost!)

Silly girls!

We had some flippers!

And had a fun time playing the light hit game

Some selfies of two silly cousins!

        Playing some frisbee! 

And we also visited the Tooele Cemetery, which most of us had never been to before.

I need to find my pictures of our Monday adventures, but until then...maybe I have more pics of the boys that were with us!