I'm going back here a bit to share from our trip to the Badlands at the end of August.  It really was a great trip - lots of fun and family bonding and no rain. 

The first day we drove.  A lot.  We drove all the way from St. Paul to Bismarck, ND.  If you want to know how far that is, look it up on your atlas; I can't bear to look.  Sometimes it's best when our memories gloss over the worst trauma of an exerience.  In fact, the entire human race depends on women's memories glossing over the staggering pain and agony of childbirth and convincing us it's a good idea to do it again.  But that's not the point here.  What was my point?  Oh, yes, driving.  Not just driving, of course, but driving with four young children one of which is three years old.  Here's what Sam was driven to doing for entertainment:

Sucking on empty water bottles.  What else is there to do?  Look out the window?  Once you've seen one upper midwest prairie you've pretty much seen them all.

That night, we stayed in a motel in Bismarck.  We went swimming and relaxed.

Next morning, we decided to stop and see the ugliest capital building in the entire United States, maybe the world.  The guidebook claimed that it is "Art Deco" but we found it "Plain Ugly."  It does have a lovely statue of Sacagawea, though.

This was our first bison of the trip and was surprisingly docile and friendly. 

From there we drove on west to Teddy Roosevelt National Park.  As many of you know, John is a big fan of TR and William's middle name is Roosevelt (for Teddy, not Franklin, you may be sure), so this was an exciting pilgrimage for all of us. 

This was what we could see from our campground and is pretty representative of the landscape there in the southern half of TRNP. 

That evening, we took the scenic loop around the park and, as we had hoped, encountered wildlife along the way.  The first real, live bison we saw had its south ended pointed toward us and was...uh...making a buffalo chip (how's that for euphemism?) so we decided not to take a picture of our first real, live bison.  

Moving on.

We eventually came across some more real, live bison, much better behaved than the first.  Bison are awesome and intimidating, especially up close.  These were on the road ahead of us and beside us.  They walked right past us. 

This fella was farther away and slightly less scary, but quite photogenic. 

At one point, we got out and hiked to the top of Buck Hill.  Sam found a cool hole in one of the rocks and thought he should stick his hand in there.  Thankfully, I reached him before some angry rattler could! 

There are several prairie dog towns in the park and we had fun watching the dogs pop in and out of their holes.  Some of them were a little to comfortable with modern living - several holes were right at the edge of the road!

Wild horses caused quite a traffic jam at one particular turn off in the road.  They were beautiful.

Once the scenic tour was done, we headed back to the campground where a park ranger was giving a talk about Teddy Roosevelt and his time on the ranch there.  Sam wasn't particularly interested, but the rest of us enjoyed it. 

That night, we fell asleep under a huge sky-full of stars.  We don't get that in the city so it was an extra special treat to look up and enjoy the beauty of God's creation.