Wow... what a day.

I think we did every activity in Mt. Rushmore area today.  I woke up around 5:55 am, and as I walked into the front of the RV Arden peaked her head out of her bunk and asked if she could watch her Ipad in bed with her headphones.  Her early wake up would come back to haunt her later in the day.    While she sat in her bunk and watched her Ipad, I sat at the kitchen table and wrote our blog post from yesterday.  With no internet access I wouldn't be able to post it until later in the day.  Sunday night I made a bunch of notes in anticipation of waking up early to write our blog post for the day.  It was a pain to have to do the next morning so I'm sitting here Monday night writing today's post.  I'm going to list the activites from today as if I had to write a sentence for each activity this would be too much writing.

So...what did we do today?

-coffee at the KOA coffee shop
-breakfast at Ponderosa Grill (KOA's version of a diner)
-rented 12 year old Chrysler Sebring convertible (ironically enjoyed it)
-drove to Mt. Rushmore and did the Rushmore tour
-met the only living man who worked on Rushmore - 93 years young very cool
-drove from Mt. Rushmore memorial to Keystone, SD touristy metropolis and did impromptu helicopter for for 10 minutes
-hopped in our souped up Sebring convertible and drove to chair lift/alpine slide
-chair lift up to viewing point of Mt. Rushmore, lunch at the top which was one of the grosser meals for me so far, took alpine slide down
-filled out release forms and got in line for zip line/obstacle course - realized later kids aren't over 50 lbs so we were out
-drove 15 minutes to Bear Country USA - I wish the wifi worked around here so I could post pics and vids it was amazing - bears 3 feet from the car.

This is when the meltdowns started - kids were DEAD tired and needed a break.  In between spurts of screaming at each other and fighting we drove home to rest.  By the way it was only 2:30 at this point.  After a much needed rest in the bunks watching shows for about 45 minutes while Mommy went to town to get groceries, it was on again...

-walked to pool to swim
-got Arden an ear of roasted corn and fresh squeezed lemonade which she devoured
-went into freezing cold pool.  got out immediately and went into luke warm hot tub
-got Arden ear of corn #2
-played mini golf with kids
-Mommy came to meet us at the mini golf/activity shack
-got Arden ear of corn #3 and Mommy tried ear of corn #1 for her
-Davis, Arden and I ditched Mommy and rented this huge 4 seater bike that had a place for two people to peddle.  See comment above about ditching Mommy - I had to pedal myself and it was super hard.  For some reason those lame 4 wheel bikes like that are horrible to pedal.  You think someone would put some skinny pumped up tires on them so it wasn't so difficult
-Hopped on KOA 1940's era fire truck and toured around the campground until I hopped off when we got by our RV (I wanted the kids to have to ride to the other end of campground and then have to be responsible enough to walk themselves back - they made it alive believe it or not Moms!)

It was 5:20 now.

-went to store to get wood, etc.  (will post another time about how I suck at campfires and how to do a good one as I'm determined to find out how on YouTube)
-started a crappy camp fire that only made it because I doused it with lighter fluid 4 times.  Same with the crappy little charcoal grill I bought except 5 dousings of lighter fluid
-cooked and ate an awesome meal of steak, corn on cob (#4 for Arden today), potatoes, mushrooms and bread - all baked or grilled on my lighter fluid fires
-took showers because we reeked like a campfire not without first informing kids EVERY time you have a campfire you have to put it out before you leave to satisfy smokey the bear
-Tracy then freaked about the level of dirt in the RV. She has a weird thing about dirty feet, so she used half the tub of clorox wipes, "ice skating" around the floor with her tennis shoes to make it spick and span.
8:20 now I'm beat going to watch We're the Millers (I am downloading every RV movie known to man) on the Ipad and hit the sack.  

Kid's haven't said a peep since they laid down 15 minutes ago.

Fave parts of day:
Dad - walking to bathroom in am and guy is in his shorts and his wife is shaving his neck/back and driving to Rushmore kids we're on their walky talkies talking to each other in the back seat
Mom - the baby animals at Bear Country USA
Arden - Mt. Rushmore and Bear Country USA
Davis - sitting in front on the helicopter ride with the pilot and the alpine slide

Additional favorite part of the day:  Arden was sitting on my lap at the campfire and I asked her if she knew that there would be a time when she didn't want to hang out with Daddy on vacation and she responded that she will always want to hang out with Daddy on vacation.