Mt. Rushmore in Pictures - Part 1

First up upon arrival (after the rain stopped):  hang up the wet swimsuits and unload the wood.

 Jacob started the fire for us so that we could begin cooking our foil dinners.

 Both of these boys were A-1 helpers in getting the tent set up.  When Angie arrived, she found her campsite across the road from us to be rather small so she pitched her tent behind ours and we put the small one up over on her site for the 13 year olds.  It was a great set-up!

Campsite Fun

 

Ellie is SUCH a good sport to spend a lot of time with my boys.

Actually, all four of my nieces were life-savers.  They trailed my two littlest kids all over the campground chasing rabbits, following them to the playground, and helping out in countless ways.  We think Emmie looks a lot like Aimie...

...and Ellie.  If she continues that trend she will be a knock-out for sure, just like her gorgeous cousins!

Just arrived at Mt. Rushmore!  Hannah is such a ham in these photos.

It rained while we were there and with the first drops it looked like George Washington was crying.  The symbolism was not lost on us.

The boys are standing in front of the flag used to cover each President's face for their unveiling.  The star helps show the scale we are looking at.

This was a cool exhibit - Emmie is about to detonate one of the explosives used to carve the mountain.  It showed up on a TV screen.

In the location of Gutzon Borglum's studio.  This was the original concept, but it had to change as the mountain had a personality of its own.  Of course as it is, the sculpture was never fully finished but it was fun to see this and realize that part of Lincoln's collar is on the mountain - hadn't picked that out before.

These kids are the greatest!  Hannah learned that it pays to wear your BYU clothing on vacation because a cute boy saw Katie and said "Go Cougars".

Go DuPont!  This tugged at my heartstrings a bit.

The proud Junior Rangers

The evening show was very patriotic and inspiring.  The ranger presenting was a fantastic speaker - this is the ranger that helped Drew when he was lost.

All lit up at night.