Reunion in the Wild, Wild West

We were so excited that the Iverson Family Reunion was in the Midwest this year!  Yes! A location close to us!  South Dakota is close to Chicago, right?

Turns out, it's still 14 hours to get to Mount Rushmore.  But, our disappointment at the driving distance didn't last long, when we remembered how much fun we had on our road trip to Utah last summer.  The boys were maybe more excited to ride in the car than they were to get there!

Given the length of the drive, Jenn and I decided we needed to put together a road trip mixtape.  It's the perfect mix:

1. On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)

2. Life is a Highway (Rascal Flatts)

3. Can't Complain (Relient K)

4. If You're Going to San Francisco (Scott McKenzie)

5. Ticket to Ride (The Beatles)

6. Viva Las Vegas (Elvis Presley)

7. Truckin' Down the Highway (Bread)

8. New York, New York (Frank Sinatra)

9. Route 66 (John Mayer)

10. Why Oh Why Did I Ever Leave Wyoming? (Satisfiers)

11. I Get Around  (The Beach Boys)

12. Carolina on my Mind (James Taylor)

13. Rollin' in my Cadillac (Mest)

14. American Pie (Billy Cassidy)

15. Joyride (Roxette)

16. Chicago (Frank Sinatra)

17. Ridin' in the Car Car (Woody Guthrie)

18. California Dreamin' (The Mamas and the Papas)

19. Tune Out (The Format)

20. Animaniacs States and Capitals 

21. Proud Mary (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

22. Homeward Bound (Simon & Garfunkel)

23. Country Road (John Denver)

Finally, we arrived in the Black Hills above Rapid City, SD.

The side-by-side cabins we rented were the perfect spot for our ever-growing extended family.

Although this reunion was technically in the Midwest, the western side of South Dakota was the epi-center of the Wild, Wild West back in the late 1800s.  Accordingly, this reunion had a decidedly cowboy flavor to it.

Starting with cowboy stories told each night by Grandpa Iverson to all the grandsons.  I still remember my dad's stories from when I was little, and couldn't be more pleased that my boys got a little taste of this experience.

On day 2 of the reunion, we made sure to hit up the main attraction: Mount Rushmore

Here we are posing in front of some of our heroes: Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln

And here's the whole Iverson clan (minus Dave, who took the picture, and Paul's family who couldn't be there)

Really, I wasn't sure that Mount Rushmore was going to be all that great.  I mean, you just go and look at the mountain and that's it, right?  Wrong.  Seeing the sculptures in person is ever so impressive, and the Park Service does a great job of making the experience inspirational.  We all loved it.

On this day, we also toured Bear World, but somehow didn't take any pictures.  But there were bears.  Lots of them.  And lots of lines.  We especially loved watching 6 young cubs wrestling each other.  It inspired a few wrestling matches among cousins as well.  :)

Day 3: The Iverson Family Rodeo!!!  Planned by Andrea and us, so you know it was a good time.  We all divided into 4 groups with color-coded bandannas and participated in lots of events, including the buckin' bronco contest (I was glad to get Cowboy Sam as my rider!).

The watermelon eating contest was a hit!  Look at pregnant Jenn go on the quarter melon.  I think she got second place.

Bottom left: Triumphant Jenn. Top: The Root Beer guzzling contest, in which I placed 2nd, and felt sick for an hour afterwards.

Other events (not pictured) included the rodeo relay, tug-of-war, shooting gallery, and lasso contest.  A smashing success, if I do say so myself.

Later that night, we got to go to a real rodeo with real cowboys (and cowgirls, not that our boys cared) in Deadwood, SD.  Before we left on this trip, Sam said he was most excited about dressing up as a cowboy! He carefully packed all of his cowboy gear and wore it to the Deadwood rodeo. Ellis was a little miffed that Sam got first pick of the cowboy gear.

Day 4: We took a drive through Custer State Park, trying to find some bison.  We never saw any, but had a great demonstration from some park rangers, and then a gorgeous drive along the Needles Highway.  We also hiked around beautiful Sylvan Lake.

Some of the grandkids at Sylvan Lake.

That evening, Jenn decided that it would be a good idea to go to the Presidential Wax Museum. I was skeptical. As with most things, Jenn was spot on. We all loved it!

Day 5: We went to Deadwood for the reenactment of a shootout on Main Street.  We stood right in front of the saloon where Wild Bill Hickok was shot while playing cards.  Doesn't get more wild west than that!

That night, the teenagers and adults had a murder mystery dinner, put on by Dan and Autumn.

Jenn helped out with the decorations, because sometimes she just can't help herself.

The murder mystery couldn't have been more perfect: Murder at the Deadwood Saloon.  Turns out, I was the murder.  

On Day 6, it was time to head home.  We stopped at Badlands National Park on the way, and it just so happened that the Seversons were passing through at exactly the same time!  The boys were thrilled to bump into each other.

Being with the Seversons gave our kids just enough adrenaline to do a quick hike in the 100-degree heat.

The Badlands are so strange; they're just stuck in the middle of rolling plains, like some weird Martian landscape.

But they have their own beauty.

On the drive home, it got to be about 10pm and we started looking for a hotel, like we always do on road trips. In fact, we had just been bragging to my family about how we never make reservations and we always find great/cheap places to stay. Well, on this night, we couldn't find a hotel within 200 miles of where we were. We finally pulled into this gem, the Sterling Motel, at 1:30am, with no choice but to stay there.  Jenn opted out of showering, and instead ushered us all out the door first thing in the morning.  But hey, at least it was cheap!

I don't want to end this post on that nasty motel.  Instead, here's to my wonderful parents who started it all and never stop being the perfect examples for all of us!

A Visit to the Desert

It is really crazy to me that within a 3.5 hour flight, we can be transported to a different world.  We left Chiberia, our wintry home, and a few hours later arrived in the desert.

It's almost impossible for me to believe that this world exists at the same time ours does.

And that things like this actually grow and are not just from movies and pictures.  Okay, so this was my first venture into the real desert.  Tucson, AZ!

Last year in the middle of our Polar Vortex winter, we were posting pictures of our -15 degree temperatures: our car getting stuck in the 5 feet of snow in our alley, water particles from my breath freezing on my scarf, etc. etc.  Meanwhile, Dan and Autumn (in Tucson) were posting pictures of themselves doing really warm things, like swimming in waterfalls.  "Next year," I declared, "We are going THERE in the winter."  It was my first time expressing any desire to visit the desert.  But now I am certainly glad that I did!  We had a lovely time getting warm in AZ, but especially, getting to spend lots of time with the "other Iversons."

Dan and Autumn arranged a babysitter so we could go out to eat with our high school/neighbor friend Kali (Smedley) Hoenes, and her husband Taylor.  They are just delightful people to be around.  We had a grand time.

We went to visit Colossal Cave and had a picnic lunch.  Outside.  In December!

The cave was really a fun tour, and a cool thing for our boys to see, little explorers that they are.

Here you can see that we are the two mirror-image families.  They have the 3 girls, and we have the 3 boys.  Autumn is expecting #4, and it's a . . . girl!  I'm really hoping that is not an omen for my future...  Anyway, the boys were apprehensive about going to an all-girl house, but they turned out to be quite entertained and happy to be there!

Henry thought the phrase "96 years young" was hilarious and worthy of a picture next to his handsome self.

New Year's Eve: Warren Miller ski movie and the first card game of 2015. Henry is totally not tired as he joins in the late-night fun.

I loved all the attention I got from these girls! The first thing Sadie asked me was if she could see all my clothes. Then the girls watched me do my hair and makeup, checked out all my jewelry, and made recommendations. And then...fingernails and toenails!  I have never been such an object of positive attention in my life!  The boys couldn't care less about what I wear...

"The good guy king is shooting the bad guy king!"  The boys managed to find lots of ways to play with girl toys.  

A lovely tram ride and walk down Sabino Canyon.

Two of my favorite boys enjoying the scenery.

The boys taught the girls that you absolutely must throw rocks in the water every time you see water.  Which was a lot.

Fun at the Trail Dust Town. The boys loved the Wild West stunt show...lots of gunshots, fighting, and stale jokes!

Every kid wanted their picture as a cowboy.  Why will they never smile like this for regular pictures?

Oh, wait.  Yeah, that's usually about what I get from Henry.

Magic tricks by Uncle Ben (the Great Bendini) were in high demand. 

Our kids didn't appreciate the wonder of fresh-picked oranges from the backyard.  I did!

Sam had a moment of anger and needed a time-out.  He managed to destroy my scriptures while he was there.  :(

On Friday of our trip, duty called for Ben, and he had to head to Boston for the annual Economics conference.  So we stayed in AZ for a few days without him.

He definitely missed out on the day we went to the ostrich farm!  We got to feed all sorts of animals - deer, goats, ostriches, lorikeets, ducks, donkeys, prairie dogs, etc.

It's kind of scary to feed this hungry, aggressive animals, especially if you're a city boy.

Ellis would run up and dump a handful of feed into these tubes (but only the ones that didn't have ostriches nearby), and then run away really fast.  The ostriches were fiesty (and can reach over the fence a little bit), so it was understandable.  

The other coolest part of the ostrich farm was riding a MONSTER TRUCK!!!  We got a cool desert tour and did some crazy off-roading.  The boys loved it all.

By the end of the trip, the Iverson girls and boys were all best friends.  They had combined girl and boy forces and were playing an imagination game that involved fairy dust, enemies, kingdoms, gems, gold, and mega train tracks.  We miss Audrey, Sadie, and Hailey!

On the last two days of the trip, the boys and I drove up to Gilbert to enjoy a little bit of time with our friends, the Yosts.  We miss being only two hours away from them in Boston/Connecticutt!  But it was lucky that we got to spend time together, and the kids picked right up where they left off with playing.  We had a great time at the Phoenix Zoo enjoying PERFECT 70-75 degree weather - the warmest days of our trip!  The sun felt so heavenly . . . in a weird, twilight zone sort of way (Is it legal to feel like this in January?).

And just like that, we were back at O'Hare, ready to find our luggage and hurry and unzip it to find our coats . . . 

because we needed them!  Chicago welcomed us back with a 3-degree high.  Quite the contrast!  We got back Tuesday night, and then school was cancelled for Wednesday and Thursday due to the extreme temperatures.  Seriously, can that 75-degree zoo day and this really be happening at the same time?  It blows my mind.  But I have to admit, the snow was beautiful, and January Christmas lights look MUCH more appropriate here than they do in Arizona.  Just sayin'.