This are some of the mountain goats we saw right by Mt. Rushmore, they must have been rutting becuase these two males were roughing each other up and hair was flying everywhere.

One of the places we visited on our Journey through the black hills with Jeff was Jewel Cave. This is a cool underground cavern that you can go down into and see. Spelunkers have exlpored miles and miles of this cavern system. In order to be an explorer in the cave you have to be able to fit throug an 8 inch high tube that runs for about 6 ft ( not for those claustrophobic folks). You have to fit through this at a certain spot in the caverns in order to get into the bigger parts of the cave farther on. So to trial that in front of Jewel cave they have this cemet block set up to mimick the exact depth you have to fit through. As you can see above I didn't fit, it just so happens that my gut got in the way. Guess its time to take that new years resolutin serious.

Of course, Abigail crawled through, she thought this was great fun to be able to fit somewhere Dad coudln't.

But hey, at least I got in farther than Jeff did, he couldn't even get past his chest. So lets just say Jeff and I won't be exploring Jewel cave anytime soon.

Trip with Jeff and the family through the Black Hills.

This is the big ram we saw when we were driving through the black hills on our way to see Mt Rushmore. He was the boss man.

We also saw quite a few buffalo during the same day, this a free range herd of buffalo found in the black hill. Man they are big.

After visiting Mt Rushmore we stopped in for filet mignon her at the Alpine in. There menu is awesome. You choose between a 7 oz or 9 oz bacon wrapped fillet mignon, then comes with a wedge of lettuce, texas toast, and a baked potato. The best part, it costs 10 bucks. Awesome fun place. If you ever find yourself in Hill City, SD past 5 oclock at night, you need to stop at the Alpine in for some fine european dining.

We made it to Mt. Rushmore. Can you name the faces on the mountain?

This is in a fun little town right next to Mt. Rushmore called Keystone. Awesome little tourist town, they make some pretty tasty salt water taffy here too. Here is Abby riding old Hop Along.

Ten minutes later and they haven't made much headway.

giddy up horse.

What a fun day we spent with Grandma and Grandpa.
The sphagetti and bottomless hot chocolate at Rushmore was pretty awesome too.

Grandpa and Gramdma McFadden in Newcastle for Christmas

Our adventure over Christmas on the Pigtails "name of road that winds through black hills and displays Mt. Rushmore.

Awe, look. There is Mt. Rushmore in the background behind Kathy. Brrrrrrr, cold.

Amazing sillouheute of a stunning man. This is actually standing at the exit of tunnel created right in the mountainside. When the engineer created the pigtails road he wanted to do something special so 2 of the 3 tunnels point to Mt. Rushmore and as you drive through you see the faces on Rushmore framed in the end of the tunnel. Cool.

Abby's Tiger Kitty - good luck to have an orange tomcat around.

New Tiger Kitty

This is Abigail's new Tiger Kitty. She kept asking Santa for a baby kitty for Christmas, and wouldn't you know it, under the Christmas Tree was a little box with a red bow. It was cute, Abby opened her some other presents and then she heard the box meowing and couldn't decide what to do about it so we told her to open it and the look on her face when her baby kitty climbed out was priceless. Since then she hasn't hardly put the cat down once, but they are pretty good buds and he's a good kitty too. Very friendly and playful.

Hi

Hi everyone, sampa site is shutting down there blog pages so we are going to use are old blog to up date people about Emma.