July 3 – Horse encounter

Last night Kurt was talking to the old camp host guy & we walked up to let him know I was taking the kiddos to the park. Somehow the conversation of horses came up & Annika said how much she loved horses & that she wanted one. That old guy got on the phone & called his friend to arrange a quick meet up with his horses the next morning (today). Annika was so excited she was jumping up & down. Usually we are up early thanks to you know who, but today he managed to sleep in & when we got up it was 8:47am. Yikes! We were supposed to meet the old man at 9am. Hubby got dressed & went out the door to meet the old guy then came back & he said between 9-9:30ish so we had time to get everyone dressed & fed before we left. We drove out to this guy’s ranch & he had 4 horses. Apparently the night before the gate wasn’t closed & they all got out & were walking down the road. Woops. The kids were ecstatic & they couldn’t decide which one to see first & kept going back & forth between the 2 fenced areas. They got to pet them & Annika fed them treats from her hand. I was surprised she didn’t freak out & tug her hand back the way Dalton did. She thought she was going to be able to brush their hair & ride them, but the rancher told her he was getting them ready to go to horse school. Not sure what that was about, but some kind of training. Guess they were newbies. As we were getting ready to leave he had 2 horses  ready to put in the trailer & a grey spotted horse was in the next fence over & got all freaky & was jumping around. He got out & ran into the other fenced area. Guess he wanted to be over there. I was glad he didn’t jump too far our way since we weren’t too far from him. Other than that it was a nice visit & of course the tears started when we had to leave. She wanted to be there all day & blah blah I want a horse too…broken record. She has no idea how much work it is to care for a horse let alone the cost. It is really sweet to see her around horses though. I’m sure we’ll put her in some riding lessons once we get to CO. If she stays in this horse fever mode then I know what her summer jobs will be.

After our visit we finished closing up the trailer & headed to Sturgis. I was ready for the hot tub. We drove thru Deadwood & it was a very historical looking town. Turns out the whole town is considered a historical landmark & has been restored & people walk around in the old western wear & they have gun fights in the street & so forth. Pretty neat. We planned on returning the next day to see it all & be touristy.

We made it to our camp ground & it looked nice & had the pool & 2 hot tubs (one inside one outside), 2 laundry rooms (expensive) & lots of showers & bathrooms, but guess they gotta have that when they thousands of people come for the Sturgis rally every year. My one negative remark is that it’s very close to the highway so you get that traffic noise. Luckily we can’t hear it at night because we sleep with the radio on (static) for background noise. Other than that it’s pretty nice. We will plop down here for 4 nights. Oh another thing about being here is it is HOT HOT HOT compared to our time in Custer. It was between 88-92 when we arrived & stayed hot until the sun went down. Another HUGE downer is the swarms of flies. It reminded me of the camping Kurt & I took long ago at Joshua Tree before we were even married. It was fly central & we spent a good couple of hours swatting flies & killing them. There were hundreds of them lying around & we either killed them all or the rest of them finally got the hint & took off. From there on out we had a pleasant camping experience. Unfortunately here at our camp in Sturgis these darn flies cannot catch a hint. They have been pissing us off for the last 3 days. We aren’t even near a farm that I know of. I don’t smell any crap so not sure what the deal is.

Anyway we set up camp & relaxed for a bit then headed to good ‘ol Wal-Mart for food supplies. I tell ya this frequent grocery shopping makes me feel like being in Europe….too bad I’m not actually in Europe. Oh well some day. I promised the kiddos some swimming time so we headed out. Dalton calls it “swimmin wa’er”. It was a little colder than I thought it would be (they advertised heated pool), but I managed to get in up to my waist then caught the kids as they jumped off the sides of the pool. Dalton’s favorite is “3-2-1 Blast off” or “to infinity & beyond” but if you heard him say it you would have no idea what he’s saying. I will have to record him for future reference. I know I’ve said it before, but he is so sweet & just tugs at my heart. Those dreamy eyes of his will sucker me in every time. Annika has gotten more comfortable in the water & will float on her back, but still with her floatie & she jumps in better. I’m so anxious to get them in their swim lessons. It’ll be so much more fun & I won’t constantly be on edge worrying & trying to watch them all at the same time.

Well my hopes of wearing them out before bed doesn’t always work, but at least they had fun. We spent a lot of time in the hot tub as well & boy it felt good. I know this may sound silly, but hopefully this hot tub exposure for Dalton doesn’t kill off his little swimmers for future baby making…..when he’s 35. NO wait that’ll make me about 70. Ugh why did I wait so long to have kids??