Yesterday

Yesterday was a fun day. We took our time getting ready at the hotel, then moved to "Mystery Mountain" campground just south of Rapid City. It's a nearly perfect campground. Lots of trees, quiet, hiking trails, no bugs!, fire pit, pool, free pancakes in the mornings, mini-golf, playground, and more.

Last night we made smores for the first time this trip. Kiley's sister's family (with the three cousins) are staying at a cabin on the campground as well, so they're running everywhere having a great time.

Anyway, back to yesterday...on the way to the campground we stopped by Cedar Canyon Camp, which is the Dakota District camp. We discovered, through a friend, that this district was having their conference there yesterday. This district is my home district, and Kiley grew up travelling form church to church here so we knew we'd run into friends.

We spent a few hours hanging out at the camp and visited with several friends. Doug Goodelle, the current pastor for my home church and a good friend to my folks was there. The delegate from my home church was Bruce King. Who was my CYC (the Wesleyan version of AWANA that dissappeared YEARS ago) leader for years. I give him credit with setting an environment for some great decisions for Christ in my life. We had a great visit. We also visited with many others: Bob Totino, Keith Loy, Dennis & Joanne Selfridge, Chuck & Judy Lucas, Merl & Ruth Baty, Brian Anderberg, Isaac Smith, Joanne Lyons, Bob & Amy Theis (that was interesting as she was a former girlfriend), plus some new recent friends, and so many more.

After lunch at the camp we left the trailer at our new campground and headed to meet the Andersons at Mt. Rushmore. The boys were more excited about seeing Blake & Gillian than they were the faces. :-) We took the walk around the base of the mountain then sat and ate ice cream on the patio overlooking the faces.

Kiley's sister's family joined us there, so we had a big group for a while.

After Rushmore, we went back to the campground, lit a fire, and at Brauts, hot dogs, chips and more. Then it was S'more time!

We finally collapsed into bed about 11:00 after some reading by camplight.

Today, we're off to see Wall-e, then we're planning on seeing the Mt. Rushmore lighting ceremony tonight. Other than that, it's a lazy day!