Tom's National Park Adventure

Well here goes nothing! I am turning over the authorship of this blog entry to my children….. God help us all…..

Hi there! This is Kalen.

We started the day with breakfast at our Airbnb.

Then we did the Little Devil’s Tower Trail at Sylvan Lake. It’s a 4 mile hike, out and back.

Toward the very top it was a scramble straight up. Certainly the highest I’ve ever climbed.

It was so beautiful. Worth the effort.

We got to the top and it was incredible.

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Nick here! So glad all of us could join our dad for this leg of the journey. It has been surreal at times, but wonderful to hear more about his travels and spend this time together. I’m very thankful for the opportunity and am so proud of my dad for all he has accomplished these past several weeks.

Speaking of journeys, we made our way back down from the peak for a well-earned lunch and a drive-by visit to the four big presidents.

From here it’s a night in preparing a home cooked meal.

Over to Shannon-

Hello world!

I’m sitting on the couch after dinner. We had quite the feast!

Alex is known for her pasta salads and made a delicious orzo salad with feta, asparagus, dill and basil.

We had mom’s favorite cowboy caviar as an app to eat while we prepped a bunch of veggies for grilling, and I marinated and grilled some pork tenderloins.

Janine, Larry, Gary, and Bernice came with pie and other sweets, some with nuts, which the five of us kids ate without (too much) protest. We had a full house! So great to see everyone.

Hi all! It’s Logan. It’s been both a tiring and wonderful day today. Tomorrow we are planning on spending some time at Sylvan Lake then going to Crazy Horse. Before then we are working on getting a group photo tonight. Here’s a test shot!

Alex here to close things out- much as I’d love to keep dad’s phone to log our post-dinner adventures, we’re sending him home for our 8:00am start tomorrow. An emotional day to be sure, but it will be better with all of us here together. Thorough testing of the family proved necessary- I’ll wrap tonight’s posting with a few shots from the big photoshoot!