Testing … getting ready to leave for our trip!

Sunday, July 27

Layton left at 7am with Brandon & Brayden, to head to Lake Oahe, South Dakota to pre-fish the lake before Jr World Bass Tournaments.

Monday evening, July 28

Kensi and Mom went to the first Covenant Choir Practice. Dad went to Deacons’ Mtg. We all got home and finished last-minute stuff, and left around 11:30pm. Turned around at Crazy Joe’s cuz we discovered the RV does have place for a 12V charger up front, so we went back. On the way back Drew realized he forgot his wallet, and Mom forgot half of the cash for trip! 🤣

WESTERN TRIP HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!!!

Tuesday, July 29

Dad and Mom each a took turn driving til about 3am, decided to pull off and sleep a couple hours. Roads around Chicago were ROUGH, and rattled us all. Finally had better roads later in day.Had breakfast sandwiches and yogurt parfaits on the road. Great day of traveling, except for a severe T-storm we ran into! 70mph gusts, huge hail went just south of us! We all sat up front and prayed as we crawled along. Thank You Jesus for protection!

Got to TBF banquet just in time for closing remarks 😭 but Brandon said \240it wasn’t a big deal. Boys are hyped. They got new poles and Cabelas gift cards. We picked up our rental car and got settled at the campground. Had tacos, \240rice, and ice cream bars for supper - Brandon & Brayden came and ate too. They rigged poles awhile.

SHOWERS and BED felt SO GOOD!!🤩

Thursday, July 31

Layton, Drew, & Dad up at 4:30am (Mom was up earlier packing lunches.) Went to Spring Creek Marina to send off the boys for Day 2 Jr World Championship! What an experience!!

Dad & Drew wanted in on the fishing Lake Oahe action, so they had a chartered a captain and boat for the day. They found their guy, and headed out around 7:00 to fish walleye & bass!

Since the guys were all fishing, Mom & Kensi decided it’s a Coffee & Goodwill day for us! We definitely “caught” some! 🤣 Fun times!

Mom raced back to Marina to meet Dad & Drew - they had their limit of walleye and had caught some smallmouth too! Dad picked up Brandon & boys, and we headed in to Weigh-In in Pierre. TENSE NERVOUS waiting for results - BOYS ARE IN FINALS!!! They were #1 in Northern Division and #4 overall! So excited!!!

Brandon & Brayden came to campground, and we had fish, brats, rice w/ cream & brown sugar, and coleslaw. Drew fried the fish - they were delicious!

Wednesday, July 30

Mom & Dad & Layton were up at 4:30 to go put the boys in to the lake. It was a FUN experience - live announcers, huge sound system them boomed over the lake, prayer and national anthem- and SO MANY BOATS AND TRAILERS to get into the water! We cheered them on when they were announced!

We came back, slept a couple hours, then made brunch on the griddle. Sausage-egg scramble and pancakes - delicious! Putzed around camp and chilled.

By 1:00 Mom & Dad headed to the boat ramp to get the boys up. Then we all went into town for Weigh-in and results. The boys placed #4 out of 69 teams!

Brandon & Brayden came back to the campground for supper and evening. Dad grilled big delicious steaks, and we had friend potatoes & onions on the griddle (Drew) and salad, bars & ice cream for dessert. Gorgeous evening to sit and relax or fish.

Friday, August 1

Mom, Dad, & Layton got up at 4:30 and went to send off the boys for FINALS DAY!!! It was a fun exciting morning!

Came back and slept awhile, drank coffee, then Mom & Dad went town to pick up a few things. Came back, ate brunch, and packed up the RV.

Left camp and dumped, filled with water, headed in to the Weigh-In. It was a lot of fun, but the boys had a ROUGH day and placed 12th. Very disappointing, but we are SO PROUD of them for getting there!

We dropped off the rental car, then celebrated with Branden & Brayden at a DELICIOUS BBQ place. Headed out around 4:45.

Got to the Badlands at 6:00MST, and drove the Badlands Loop Road & hiked Door Trail. Absolutely GORGEOUS! - way way way more “vast” than I expected! The boys had a blast climbing all over! It was phenomenal!

🐐Saw a mountain goat/sheep?

Got to campground in Wall around 8:15, exhausted but happy! TYJ for working out details!

Saturday, August 2

Today we went to the Wall drugs store and we walked around in there for awhile we all found little trinkets and things😂 Can’t leave mom and dad unattended ever lol they never read signs😅

We packed up the Rv and headed towards Mt Rushmore, it was around an hour and half drive but we stopped at this little town and we did erm I forget what they were called anyways… some for device that goes down a mountain and you slide, the boys and dad did that, then mom and I did a skylift up to the top of mountain with a really pretty garden on the top☺️

Dad, again can’t leave him unattended had a little accident… AKA kidna bad but he handled it like a pro:)

After all those shenanigans we headed to Mt Rushmore, mom was pretty insistent that we do this “easy” trail and I quote” yall can just wear slides it’s so simple”, HA it was nothing but death😅 anyways after that we went to the Rv and took naps and ate extttt.

Around 8:30 ish we all rolled out of the RV😂 and went to watch the heads light up… and now it’s time for sleep🤫

I totally didn’t forget to do this earlier😥

-Kensi

Mom notes: the guys also went ziplining

Sunday, August 3

We went to a rodeo in Cody Wyoming and had a blast there. Then we drove on the rode for about five minutes and decided to camp at a Walmart

Earlier that morning we had church in the RV and then we left our campground to go to the rodeo

-Drew

Notes by Mom: We drove through Bighorn Canyon & Pass on the way to Cody. Gorgeous!! Played some fun \240road trip games on the way. Saw several moose!

Monday, August 4

Tuesday, August 5

We

06- Kensi

We went to old faithful, and saw it shoot out a bunch of water then we drove like 10 minutes to Grand prismatic springs, which was a little chaotic because of parking and stuff. Then after that we headed towards our campground, but before we got to our campground we stopped at some crazy falls😁 and we also got food at this really good burger place:)

Thursday, August 7

Long day. Jay & I got up at 7:00, let the kids sleep and on the road by 7:30. Stopped