Events of Sunday, July 25, 2010 

                I personally do not know what is up with my parents- a few weeks ago, we spent Sunday in Hells Canyon, and this Sunday we visited Devil’s Tower! Really now!

Daddy, our forever early- bird, began driving us towards Devil’s Tower at 5:30 in the morning. When we finally woke up, we discovered that we had boondocked the night before in a Sam’s Club parking lot in Rapid City, SD. After our late night at Mt. Rushmore, all us kids were asleep when we reached Sam’s Club, so we sort of missed out on the entire boondocking experience.

 When we awoke around 8am, we found we were in Devil’s Tower National Monument. We made up the beds, got dressed and had breakfast with the prairie dogs. Daddy surprised us with fresh strawberries- YUM!  Then we picked up our Junior Ranger stuff at the visitor center and took a ranger- led hike around Devil’s Tower. Our ranger was a Lakota Indian and told us a lot about his culture. He said the true name for Devil’s Tower is Bear Lodge and it is a sacred place for Indians. As we hiked he told us many interesting Indian legends. Following the tour, Ben found out about how you can become a ranger. He is interested in it especially after finding out about the step-ranger program and that you get lodging, clothing and possibly food, not to mention being paid, while having this fun job. What more could you want?

                We left Devil’s Tower and drove towards Cody for dinner and a rodeo. As we were approaching the Big Horn Mountains we remembered that today was the day of our Cousin Claire’s baptism. We decided to try to Skype the after baptism party happening at our Grandpa John and Grandma Joanne’s house. We tried calling but kept losing our cell signal as we climbed through the mountains. Finally we got through and with Dad’s help and a little rearranging managed to Skype the party. It was fun to see everyone, especially our cousins Timothy and Claire. Timothy looked a little bit confused by the whole process and we all laughed when Claire spit up on her pretty new dress. It was good to see our family again.

In Cody, Wyoming, we treated ourselves to dinner at Wyoming’s Rib and Chop House. Daddy and Mommy split a buffalo filet served with sizzling butter and a super Caesar salad with blackened salmon. Caitlin tried chicken fried steak for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. Ben loved his half-pound buffalo burger and baked beans with sausages mixed in. Lindsey and I split a super Caesar salad with BBQ shrimp and a buffalo burger with salt and pepper fries. For dessert we shared a cookie ice cream sandwich with brownies where the cookies should be, drizzled with chocolate (mom’s favorite) and a pie that was billed as a pecan pie but started with a chocolate crust, followed by a layer of caramel, then vanilla ice cream and topped with whipped cream and pecans (dad’s favorite). Then it was off to the rodeo.

At the rodeo we sat in Buzzard’s Roost, which was very close to the action. After the national anthem, we were asked to bow our heads to pray. The prayer was very heartfelt and focused on Jesus as Lord and it felt good to end our Sunday in this form of worship. Initially I enjoyed the rodeo. I liked the rodeo clowns and the bucking broncos and the women barrel riding.  I didn’t get most of the rodeo clown’s jokes but Ben and Daddy were laughing so hard I thought they would split their sides. I didn’t like the part of the rodeo when they tied up the calf and then things got worse! Next two cowboys rode out and one lassoed the head and the other the feet and then they tried to pull that poor little calf in two‼ I thought it was horrible that they were hurting the cows, since I have loved cows since I met a cow face to face. I hid my eyes for that part or watched the cattle in the enclosure below me. The funniest part of the rodeo was when the rodeo clowns picked people from the audience for a dance off, then blind-folded them and left one poor guy out there all alone, dancing away. It was late when we finally got home to bed, but it was a fun and full day.