The state capital, fires, and some rivers

Pierre (pronounced Peer) is not really our favorite place to go. It's the oposite direction from where our dentists, doctors, and other things are, and it's not that pretty of a town, at least not compared to Spearfish. But for various reasons, we had to go there a few times this summer, and it wasn't too bad. Early in the summer we went there for our District Conference. After the meeting, we walked around the state capital building where they had some war memorials and a pretty pond with ducks and fish.

Another time, after our summer vacation, we went there to get our windshield repaired.




you can see most of the crack in this picture.



While the car was being fixed, we took the kids all to a riverside park, along the Missouri River. We hadn't planned on the heat that day though...108F! So after we ate our lunch, we relocated down by the water in hopes of keeping everyone cool. We didn't bring swimming suits, and I told the kids they could wade in up to their knees, but no farther. Yeah, that didn't last long.

we won't get wet, Mom!



Is it okay for me to sit in here? (This is when Eli had a broken collar bone, from Elora and Josh falling on him)




bridge between Fort Pierre and Pierre SD




How do I get out of here?


Everyone had a lot of fun, but Eli was getting tired and definitely ready to leave by the time we could go pick up our car. It was a long day for sure.
On the way home, we saw the smoke from a big crop fire not too far away! So that was exciting.

There were a lot of fires this summer with the heat and dryness, so we were lucky none were too close to us.  Well, a few were, but they were resolved quickly. These two photos were taken the same day, in different directions, both from our home.




Laborday weekend, we decided to go visit another river that isn't too far from us: the Cheyenne. This isn't nearly as big as the Missouri, at least not where we went to view it. The water was dirty and the ground was too rocky to make wading very comfortable.

there were old bird nests all over under the bridge

We probably would have left sooner than we did, except for all the cool rocks littering the ground around the river.



we found this baby there too.



Right away Elora found a really neat fossil, (what do you think it is?)



and we found several more rocks with embedded seashells and the like. It was pretty fun! But I still haven't found my own trilobite, one of my life's dreams. Ah well, maybe someday.