Nebraska High Point

On the third day of our drive out to Washington we all the way down to Nebraska to get the next high point. This one was Panorama Point, and it was our easiest high point.

 It had an elevation of 5,424 feet, and standing at the top (which we drove all the way to, with no hiking) you couldn't even tell that it was higher than any other point around it. It was all just sooo flat!

See those black dots in the distance on the left? That's a heard of bison! Yup, we think they were about half a mile away from where we were. There was a really big sign on the road that said you had to drive to the high point, and not walk on the road because of bison. So the whole way we joked about seeing them, and then we totally did! It was pretty cool.

High point number six! Woohoo!

South Dakota High Point

On our drive out to Washington for the Swift family reunion, we extended our drive by a couple hours so that we could get another high point to add to our map. On the second day of our drive we stopped at Black Elk Peak, the highest point in South Dakota with an elevation of 7,244. The hike was not too bad, but it took a while for us to do it. Especially once we let the kids walk on the way back down.
This one was really cool because at the top, there was a stone tower that used to be used for a wildfire look out.

Those girls walk out right as I took the picture, but I didn't get any others.

There were also so incredible views all along the hike. They say that on clear days you can see four different states from the top. Colorado, Nebraska, Montana, and of course South Dakota. It was a pretty cloudy when we went, and even rained a little, so I have no idea if we saw any of them other than South Dakota.

We took a little break at the top and let the kids explore the tower a little.

This is all of us together at the top of our 5th high point! Now that we have five, we finally feel like we're real high pointers!

Joslyn's birthday!

Joslyn is just growing up way too fast. I can't believe that it has already been three years! She has grown into such an amazing kid! She is so well mannered, sweet and kind. She is always trying to think of ways to help make others happier, and she loves to make people laugh.
For her birthday, she got to choose her meals. For breakfast she wanted Kix cereal. For lunch she picked Monte Cristos, and quesadillas for dinner.
A few of her friends have had birthdays in the last couple months, and she got to go to their parties, so she really wanted to have a birthday party with friends too. So I took her to the store to get ideas for the party, and she ended up just wanting party hats and a bunch of bubbles, so that was really easy. The kids had a lot of fun!

We recently checked out The Rainbow Fish book from the library, and she loved it. So when we talked about cake for her birthday, it was not a surprise that she wanted a rainbow fish cake. She was also pretty insistent that she needed an ice cream cake. I had some problems with the tail, and ended up having to just leave the fins off, but Joslyn really liked it anyway.

But I think the highlight of her birthday this year was her bike. She's been trying to ride all the other kids' bikes at the playground, so she was so excited to finally have one. And she's gotten good really fast!