The Stevens do South Dakota

     Welcome to Rapid City!

   

 We will spend 12 weeks in this part of the country. We have already been here for 6 weeks. That time has flown by so fast. We have been to and seen so many wonderful places and things.

     The weather here is unpridictable. One day it is snowing the next day it is sunny and warm enough to wear shorts and flipflops. As I write this I am soaking up the sunshine while the kids play at the park. Yesterday however we awoke int he morning to a ground covered in snow.  One thing we can count on is that it will be windy. The wind is always blowing, from a slight breeze to knock you over winds.

    

  The poeple here are very nice and welcoming. The ward we are in mostly military so they are use to people coming and going, not as fast as we will but they leave just the same. There is also a large Native American population here(obliously). We heard the prayer in church given in Lakota Indian!

    

  We got to South Dakota in Feburary, because of this we deciced that it would be best if we ditched the RV and stayed in a hotel. Its a good thing we did. The winds would have drove us crazy. Also all the RV parks are closed for the season. That would have been interesting having to drive the RV to fill up and dump the tanks every few days. The hotel staff is great. They know us by name and they love the kids. Best part is we are right next to an awesome indoor water park!

  We look forward to exploring this area for the next 6 weeks as the weather warms up more and we get to do more things outside.

When there is snow outside and we need something to do

Badlands

Mt Rushmore 

Learning about Devils tower.

Daddy doing nails.

School work in the lobby.

Down town Rapid City. 

Bobby and CJ at scouts. 

Playing the game of life

   

Please Be April Fools

"Someone" broke the screen/digitizer on mom's surface pro 3. None of the kids know what happened or who did it(isn't that how it always goes).

To bad it wasn't an April fools prank.

On the bright side we are impressed with our composer and patience as parents. No yelling, accusations, or threats.

Over the years of spending nearly 24/7 as a traveling family we have learned as parents that things are not as important as our relationships with our children.

As soon as we would yell they would get scared and stop listening, so what's the point. No one wins, you end up with mad parents, scared kids and no solution.

Not to say that we never yell,  because sometimes that is the only way to be heard when there are 5 voices talking at the same time.

As for the laptop, the kids won't go with out consequences. Come on it is twelve hundred dollar laptop something has to be done. They will no longer be allowed to use Mom's laptop for games, to surf the web, or even school work. They will all have to just take turns on the "kid" computer(it will extend school time) but that's what happens.

Now to figure out what to do about mom's laptop.

Until next time; I love you C, M, B, C, E and L.