The Pischkes

Friday, June 23, 2017

The Tetons from Isaac's Phone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3ncKTcbGi4

More water park: We got some more water park action in for Lucy in the morning. Ironically this time Lucy didn't like the lazy river (the jets in the walls scared her) but she did enjoy watching the giant monkey bucket dump water on people (and she still talks about it every day).
We didn't leave for the park until 11:30 am though. Luckily the truck has a gas alert or we would have been pushing the truck!

Badlands National Park: The park pleasantly surprised us. Initially it just looked like grassland, but then opened up into the canyons. We did a couple outlooks and saw a big horned sheep (Lucy is still talking about that one). We had a picnic lunch at the visitor center and then hit the road as Lucy was asking for a nap. We will save the actual visitor center and hikes for a future visit. There is even a fossil lab that I think Lucy will like someday.

Kerry and Maddie quick jumped out of the car to check out the Window trail. You can see a huge part of the canyon that is otherwise obscured from view.

The Lucy quote of the day was when Lucy got very upset that we set Charlie's car seat down. "You have to carry him, Charlie is going to blow away!" Aww she must like him after all!

Corn Palace: The rest of the day entailed 552 miles home with a stop in Mitchell, SD for dinner and the Corn Palace. We were pleasantly surprised by the Corn Palace as we figured it would be a Wall Drug type of stop. There was actually a lot of history/education within the building and the community takes a lot of pride in the venue. We enjoyed our visit and had a difficult time tearing Lucy away from her red tractor where she became her alter ego; "Farmer Lucy". Lucy also napped in the car for only the 2nd time ever on this trip! Score.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Water Park Day

Today consisted primarily of travel (7 hours) to Rapid City, SD. We had to stop several times in the first hour due to an mad Charlie. That's not to bad, considering it was his first real fit of the trip! He was having a very hungry 24 hours. Thank goodness that was the worst of it. Lucy was kept at bay with the DVD player. She wasn't sold on Little House yet though. We had to be re-routed early on as well due to flooding, and that added 45 more minutes to our day.

We pulled into Rapid City around 6pm to our hotel at the watiki water park. Lucy was so excited she could hardly eat dinner.

Lucy could be heard across the water park due to her shrieks of joy. She liked turning a wheel that splashed her and the lazy lake (river). She was terrified of the monkey bucket that dumped a huge monsoon of water though.

If you look closely, Maddie is getting splashed while Isaac and Lucy watch.

Tetons Day 4

The day started energetically for Maddie and Lucy. Looking out the cabin window, Isaac saw a black bear across the street. He rushed into Maddie and Lucy's room and got them up to look at the bear. Unfortunately, neither of the gals saw it. Maddie had to stumble around to find her glasses and didn't make it to the window in time. Isaac had a hard time picking up the wet noodle Lucy out of her pack and play. However, if you ask Lucy, she will tell you she saw the bear across the street. Which is fine with me, believing is seeing.

We then drove to Teton Village for Maddie to find a t-shirts and go on the bungee trampoline. She decided against jumping to so we kept shopping for shirts in Jackson Hole. Of note; it does not seem that Patagonia makes a buffalo shirt that says Jackson Hole on it.

During Lucy's nap, Maddie and Isaac went to take pictures out of the mountains at Jackson Lake. Isaac challenged Maddie to climb up a very steep hill which on the second try she did.

After Lucy's nap we went to Jenny Lake and took a big shuttle boat across the lake. We then hiked up to Inspiration Point. We forgot how hard hiking can be in the mountains (while wearing kids). The trail is quite steep without many flat parts. After 10 minutes everyone's legs were burning. Highlights of the hike included:

-walking out onto a large snow field

-Lucy holding a snowball and throwing it at Maddie

-Reaching Inspiration Point

- Lucy wanting to walk around Inspiration Point and then sending Dad into a panic as she refused to stop at the boundary line dad set up. Dad was right there to pick Lucy up and carry the screaming toddler back. Later after Dad cooled down he called over to Kerry and said "she really freaked me out". Lucy then called over to Mom "I really freaked Dad out".

- Inspiration point tends to attract 100s of people per day, and we can say we had it to ourselves for a few minutes! The regular trail is under construction, so fewer made the trip and we were there late in the hiking day.

- Lucy saw a marmot and heard it squeak. This excited at her so much she talked about seeing the Marmot at least 40 times down the mountain.

Several other points of interest include the shuttle boat back nearly not taking us. Isaac pleaded with them to take us but he was turned away as we were a party of four and there was only one spot. Once Kerry arrived with Charlie, they managed to find room.

During the tough hike Maddie decided she wanted some cheese curds so we ordered some at Trappers Grill. Disappointingly, we had to send them back as they were overcooked and hard. Cheese curds truly are best in Wi.

We were not disapppointed by a huge brownie sundae!

The night got late on us and Lucy had some tantrums getting ready for bed. She redeemed herself by reading to Maddie and Isaac. Her interpretations of the Berenstain Bears books were quite humorous.