Our first night of our trip out west we spent at Mount Rushmore, where we were able to see the ceremony where they light up the monument. It was just a beautiful, moving ceremony.

The day we left for our vacation was Meg’s birthday, so I made a black walnut pound cake – one of her favorites that I make – & lugged it in my carry-on across the country so we could celebrate that night when we got back to the hotel. It was just a fun evening to kick off our trip.

We – Meg & I stayed in one room, & my friends Evie & Pam stayed in another – got back a few days ago from our trip with the Gate 1 Tour Group to see some of the national parks and other sights in the western states. We flew into Rapid City. I had never been to South Dakota before, so that was very exciting for me. We’d left early in the morning, so with the time change we had a while to walk around downtown and explore the city before supper time. It was a very cool place. In keeping with nearby Mount Rushmore, they had statues of every president on the street corners around town. We didn’t have time to see them all, but we had fun guessing who was who as we were approaching. The sculptors did a really good job – we knew this was George H W Bush from a ways away :-).

And of course knew Harry S Truman from the famous photo…

There was the prettiest little park near out hotel that we spent some time exploring. The weather was perfect for standing on the bridge and listening to the creek run under the road.

This past Thursday we were in Chester to see Clara and her Lady Blue Eagle teammates in action. So proud of all of our girls. They lost the match by 3 shots, but I think everyone was pleased with how they played – Clara said it was the best score the team had shot since she’d been on the team, so that was exciting. I got these pictures afterwards – Sherri came up to see her in action.

And reviewing the match with her dad…

This afternoon Jeff & I headed to Chesnee – about an hour down the road – to their Labor Day Festival, to hear the Piedmont Boys – a SC band that Jeff has loved for years, and that I like a lot, too. They only played maybe an hour & a half, but they were so good it was well worth the drive to get there.

Last night we were in Rock Hill to see Adam and his Bearcats teammates take on legendary powerhouse South Pointe in his first JV game ever. He plays middle linebacker and on special teams – and that is a direct quote from my son. I don’t even know what all of that means. Anyway, he was in the game a good bit of the time, so that was exciting. That’s him in the white, going nose to nose with one of the South Pointe players.

After a fabulous, and frankly unexpected, 41-20 win. It was so much fun and so exciting. So proud of this kid and all of his teammates.

Wednesday afternoon my friend Flo and I went to Rock Hill to see the movie The Forge – so, so good – and then made a Krispy Kreme run before stopping by Andrew & Jenny’s house to drop off this treat for our football player, whose was having both his birthday and his first JV game the next day.

Andrew brought him in from practice while we were there, so I got this one final picture of him as a 15-year-old before we headed home. What a special afternoon.

We had been trying for over a month – since her birthday in July – to get the family together to celebrate June’s 17th birthday, and we just could not make it happen. So this past Tuesday she & I went out to eat her favorite, Mexican, to celebrate. I almost forgot to get a picture, but snagged this one as we were waddling out after stuffing ourselves 🙂

Neither Meg nor I were able to go to the baby shower for Lig and Taylor last weekend, so yesterday we headed up to visit and take our shower presents, and we ended up getting to babysit little almost 18-month-old Heath while his mom went to her pregnancy chiropractor appointment. He is so cute and smart and funny. What a fun, fun afternoon.

St Michael’s Catholic Church, where the funeral was held, served us an amazing lunch afterwards, and then we got some pix. Here are a couple, including the grandkids with their grandpa…

…and Jeff’s brother Mark with his son Christopher and daughter-in-law Sara. I hate that his granddaughter Dakota wasn’t there for the picture, but at four years old they thought maybe she should just go with her other grandparents rather than being at the funeral. She sure is a cutie, though.