Fadders Day!!!

 I love this guy so much!

Because we have church at 1pm we saved our special daddy breakfast for the evening.

All he wanted to do this weekend was wash the windows of the house. So that is what we did. Haha.

He is the best father my kids could ask for, he tries hard to let them know that they are pretty great individually. We still swap monthly for dates with the kids, and they enjoy it more when it is Daddy's month.

Probably because they see me so much more.

Now that school is over (for Nathan) I can only imagine how much more we will be doing together.

If that is even possible. LOL

Cub Camp!

Lucas was lucky enough to go to Cub Camp (a little earlier than he turned 8) 

He was SO EXCITED!!!!

Because he wasn't 8, Nathan and I were required to go everyday.*yea*

 Robert was already 8 and was really glad to have Lucas there.

 Lucas's arm was still tender from our trip, and it has been getting better due to PT.

 Some kid slammed him into a metal fence and it was bulging so bad the medic's wrapped it up in this ridiculous get up. Lucas HATED it. 

The days were fun. He shot a BBgun every day, and archery every day, and he had a great time.

So much to fun to be had when you are in scouts!

Nebraska's Drive Home

Every time we enter a new state by car, we take a silly picture like this.

This is state #11 for us!

The first stop was Carhenge.

It is funny because this is not a place you would normally stop, but because we were driving through the Nebraska panhandle, it was kind of a "sure, why not?"

 The kids had fun and it was a 15 minute stretch your legs kind of stop.

 I asked the girls to stop so I could get a picture of just the three of them and out of nowhere we heard a weird sound. The girls look over and start screaming at the top of their lungs. The other tourists run over to see if we are okay and this is why they screamed...

 After this 4 foot snake slithered away the girls ran to the car and sat there until the boys were done checking things out. 

We drove a little further, grabbed lunch, and headed to our next destination.

Chimney Rock, NE

We thought this might be a neat stop, and we were right!

 This was so cool for me and the kids. We had lots to talk about, and this year is our ward's trek year!

There was a museum and fun Mormon factoids there.

 The yellow is the Mormon Pioneer Trail.

Lucas loves reading all about the Oregon Trail, and they had a few books on the Mormon Trek that we picked up for him to read about this summer.

 They had a lot of cool Mormon facts and pioneer memorabilia for the kids to play with and we might have picked up some things to do this summer.

There was one more stop before we actually got to Colorado.

This place was cool because you can drive to the top and look for all of the formations.

There was a hike at the top after you park the car.

 So many cool things to see. That wooden thing is an odometer that they used on handcarts.

The museum that was attatched to this was almost as cool as Chimney Rock's.

Nathan was tired of driving, so we let Mason have a turn driving...

Just kidding.

The kids had a blast, and enjoyed getting stamps in their passports everywhere we went.

They are great travelers, and it was fun to drive a short distance, for once. :)

THE DAY WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR

Nathan graduated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think I have expressed HOW excited I am!

Wait - What? He is DONE?

No more late nights?

No more papers?

Nope!!!!!

The kids were THRILLED!

Nathan's parents watched the kids so I could enjoy the graduation.

It would have been tough sitting there with 5 kids for over 4 hours.

Here is my handsome hubs.

 I can't even express how proud I am of this guy. It all stemmed from his unemployment January of 2010. Six months of no job really puts you in a different mind set. Nathan vowed that he would never let that happen to us again, and decided he needed to be in control of his life. So, the day he enrolled in school, and the day we left for Stephanie's wedding, he got the job and things haven't been the same since.

He was on the accelerated track, so instead of going typical semesters, he busted his butt and he KILLED it! He graduated 6th in his department, and only got 1 B. 2 degrees, 17 certificates, and he worked full time, had a wife on bedrest, added 2 kids to the family, and he did it all in 3.5 years. 

It was hard to not be emotional during the ceremony.

I just love him so much, and he never thought he could go to college. Let alone be so successful at it!

I explained this all to the children and they were all crying before bed.

The best part of the day is going out to lunch on a date without kids, and enjoying our time together.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted and it is time to move on!

Next Chapter Wittes!

South Dakota, day5

We said our goodbyes with RV and the kids and headed out of South Dakota.

Someone mentioned that there was one more place for us to stop (if it was open) so I called, and it was! 

This place was called Open Campus, and when I originally called, I called the Sioux Falls one and it opened on the 6th. So it was totally my fault that we didn't go earlier. *doh*

Anyway, we went and it was totally free and totally awesome!

It was like an outdoor lab kind of museum.

 

We were there waaaaay longer than planned, but our only requirement to get home was that we make it by 9pm because Lucas and I had cub camp on Tuesday.  We cut our vacation short because of this camp, so we had to make it back in time!

After we left this museum, we asked the kids if they wanted to drive home via Nebraska or Wyoming.

They all shouted NEBRASKA, and when would we have the opportunity to drive through Nebraska again?

So, we took the road less traveled and hit up Nebraska!

I am so glad we did! More on that tomorrow.

South Dakota - day4

We talked about 9am church or 11am church and each of us wanted to do different times.

We left at 8am and got to the building just in time to see Smokey the Bear!

Just Kidding!

But he was in front of the building next to the church. :)

 My girls thought they were SO lucky to wear flipflops to church because I do not allow that at home. I didn't want to pack more shoes, so this time I allowed it.

 On the way home we passed the fish hatchery, so Nathan took the older 3 in while the babies slept.

Lucas got hurt at church and someone suggested a sling, so we grabbed one.

It was dumping rain, so we went back to the cabin for lunch.

Then the sun came out for half a second.

 So we scurried over to the Train Museum. It was the South Dakota's official Train Museum!

I thought this museum was cooler than Colorado's Museum, the one we went to in February.

Look at those gorgeous clouds!

This was while RV were still at church.

Then we walked into town for some fudge.

and got these turtles too!

I could have eaten 11 of these myself.

 and truffles...

After we ran to the grocer for a quick last minute item, it was time to go to Storybook Island!

  It is an entire park that is themed, and FREE!

 As you can see, the clouds came in and it started to rain, so we hurried up and went back home.

Then we had dinner and waited for the storm to pass so we could go to Mount Rushmore's night show. 

The kids liked it, but loved the glow sticks I brought so much more.

It was a fun way to end our trip!