This is Saxon, our energetic little man who was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis when he was a week old. We gathered together many friends and family members and created Strides for Sax. Our mission is to raise money and create awareness for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to find a cure for cf. This is all about Sax and our team's efforts for the cause. As of the creation of this blog, Saxon is 21 months old, has been hospitalized several times for pneumonia, and had undergone 3 surgeries since his first birthday.



Sunday, May 22, 2011

Vacation 2011!! - Days 3 & 4

I thought there was just too much to share in one post, so here is the rest of our trip :)  Saturday (May 14) started out as any of our other days, with breakfast in our cabin.  Then we headed to Hill City to do a little window shopping.  We had been planning on finding some Black Hills Gold jewelry, but it was way too expensive in town, and my fingers are too swollen to buy what I really wanted - a gold ring. 

We spent about an hour or so wandering around from store to store, then we headed to Prairie Berry Winery.  Unfortunately there was no wine tasting for me :(  But Daddy was a champ and sampled a couple for me :)  I brought two bottles home for after baby comes - a pear wine called Gold Digger, and a dessert wine called Strawberry Fusion.  Can't wait!!  We had planned on having lunch at the winery bistro, but even their kids' menu didn't seem very kid friendly. 

After Daddy patiently waited for Mommy to look around the winery and he kept the kids content, we decided to head into town to the 50's Diner for lunch - major score!!  The kids loved the lighted signs and the 50's decor.  The waitresses were dressed in poodle skirts.  The food was great - we all got shakes or malts.  Sax went for spaghetti, Raine had Mac & Cheese with fries (of course!), Daddy got a chili-cheese burger with rings, and Mama got a BLT with chili-cheese fries.



The only bad part about the diner was the table behind us.  I have a ton of respect for those in the military.  However, the type of crude and vulgar language coming from the Army National Guards sitting behind us - in uniform, mind you! - was completely inappropriate for a family restaurant, especially when there are small children in earshot.  I am VERY disappointed in these men!!

Anyway.  After lunch we headed to the depot to get our tickets for the 1880 train ride.  Sax was really excited that he was getting to go on a real choo-choo train!  On the way from Hill City to Keystone, he sat with Mommy and Raine sat with Daddy.  On the way back, Sax slept on Daddy and Raine sat by Mommy.  The scenery was interesting and again we saw a lot of deer.






We kept things pretty simple on Saturday.  After going on the train, we headed to the grocery store and got a few things we needed to go with supper since we were cooking over the fire at the campground.  We ATTEMPTED to roast marshmallows for s'mores too, but that didn't work too well.  I had a nice fire going for the steaks and hot dogs, but put the fire out to go in and eat since it was cold and VERY windy out (Did I mention that it was snowing??  It snowed most of the day Saturday - not enough for there to still be snow on the ground, but enough to make it cold!!)  When I went out to start the second bundle of wood, I couldn't keep a good fire going because the wind had picked up more.  Some of the wood was moldy too, which really wasn't helping the situation.  We ended up making the s'mores in the microwave :/

Sunday was time to head home.  Our first stop after checking out of the cabin was to go to Old McDonald's Farm.  Even though our tickets were for Thursday, they still honored them for Sunday because of the bad weather.  The kids had a lot of fun.  Saxon tried going on the pony ride, but got scared, so Raine got to go twice and used Saxon's ticket.  They got to hold and pet baby chicks and turkeys, fed some goats, sheep, pot-bellied pig, fish, piglets, ducks, geese and calves.  They got to pet most of those, along with longhorns, ponies, and donkeys.  They particularly enjoyed bottle-feeding the calves.  It was super cute!!




Our last "attraction" to see before home was the Ellsworth Air Force Base - South Dakota Air and Space Museum.  About the only thing there that the kids were interested in was the airplanes.  They really didn't want to see much else.  Saxon's obsession was with the helicopter and how big all the wheels were.



The rest of the way was pretty uneventful.  The car acted up a few times, but we took care of that.  We stopped at a truck stop in Mitchell called Marlin's for supper which was really good.  We made it home about 11pm.  Saxon was so happy to be home and sleeping in his own bed :)  He wasn't the only one though!  A few times on the trip he told us he wanted to sleep in his bed, but in spite of that, he seemed to have quite a bit of fun!!


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