caves and dinosaurs

why, what is that strange silhouette on the horizon?
I hope that ruggedly handsome man will be okay.

I have so much stuff to blog about. After my pictures are ready, and after I have time to write it. But here is one about a trip we made over to Rapid earlier this summer. We visited a dinosaur park that was established in the 1930's...which becomes very obvious when one examines the dinosaur statues closely.

 It was free and the kids loved it, so who am I to complain? Plus, it was on the highest hill in Rapid City, so it had a great view.

 















It consisted of a handful of brightly painted dinos strung out along a path at the top of a hill. I just wished they were bigger so I could feel like I was in that scene in Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

The Brontosaurus was the biggest one, of course.

oh no, watch out! Note to self: Don't wear a ponytail in photographs.

The Black Hills area also offers a wide variety of caves to visit, and I finally convinced Joseph to take us to one with a shorter tour, suitable for our small kids who might have to go potty right in the middle of the journey. It was called the "Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns" and was full of the largest collection of Dogstooth Feldspar Crystals in the world. Or something like that. This was the same day as the dinosaur park.

Before we got to go down to the main cave, there were some small caves for us to walk around it before the tour officially started. The kids got to hold flashlights and thought that was pretty neat.



I loved how the guide (she looked like a college student) told us how the caves formed from magma and heat millions of years ago. Then when we came to a section that had fallen down because of flooding a few years ago, some big guy in his forties asked, "So the crystals will just grow back there in the spots where they fell down?" I couldn't help but thinking he didn't do well when he was in school.



The tour was only half an hour, but it involved a steep staircase that should be traversed backwards, like a ladder, to ensure less accidents. I was fine with it, but Joseph was a little nervous carrying the baby in his carrier and ensuring that Jonah in front of him didn't fall either!

 



Still, I was glad our kids got to go! I expected more stalactites and stalagmites, but nope, it was just a bunch of big crystals; the guide described it as walking through a giant geode.

 

I hope next year Joseph can be convinced to go through some of the other caves too!

Summer days

Long ago, I used to fancy myself something of a poet.  I still like some of the stuff I wrote in high school and college, though I can see now its a little juvenile. I've even thought about using some of my old verses as a starting point for a children's book, but I'm a little annoyed that I sold the rights to a few of the best of them when they were published in the church magazines.

Lately, when I watch Elora playing outside, riding her bike and exploring around our house, this poem keeps springing to mind, even though I wrote it long before she was born:

To Be Cherished

those were the days 

that seemed to never end

charged with the fire of childhood

tempered with the passing breeze

and held together

by the imagination

of a barefoot young girl.

I was realizing the other day that I haven't really written any poetry since I first got married, and I was thinking, maybe I should get out that rusty old pen (metaphorically) and try again? Or at least add it to my long term list of really important things I should be doing! :)