Day 18- Custer, South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore

Day 18: Custer, South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore

Happy's again!! Today we got to sleep in! We didn’t even need to wake up till 7 am where we, sadly, had to leave Cody, Wyoming.

For breakfast there were apple, strawberry, and cheese danishes and a banana for our daily potassium, dealers choice. Curious George would be proud with how many bananas we’ve eaten.

Our first stop was a Common Cents gas station (a sudo Buc-ees), Dopey’s counselor Caleb’s dream glitter destination. Fro-Yo was a popular choice for a 10 am brunch. We needed our dirty Dr. Pepper fix since we weren’t able to get them at Swig in Salt Lake City. We hopped back on the vehicles for another 2 hour drive to another Wal-mart for the cooks to shop. The counselors encouraged us to avoid buying things at our Walmart stop but knowing some people that’s impossible! 

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We arrived at Custer Park, finally stretching our legs while Kelly Clarkson serenaded us, (on repeat), for our dance competition for tomorrow evening. All the dwarf groups worked diligently to choreograph these dances and chose patches underneath the trees to escape the warm South Dakota sun. Our song for the competition, “Since You’ve Been Gone” played in the background the entire rehearsal time, practically tattooing the lyrics to our brains. We danced up an appetite feasting on not one but two hotdogs, some even eating seven *cough cough* Jake. We quickly cleaned our plates and hopped on the vehicles to go to Mount Rushmore!

There were singalongs, trivia, and even card games happening on our way there. Winners of trivia earned leis that were actually worn by the presidents of Mount Rushmore!

Ruby got a free scoop for naming all 50 states!

Anyone know where we can find a seat??

Scotty rocking a lei straight from Washington's house

When nature calls and you almost miss the group photo...

Aiden telling us about the secret room in Lincoln 

Devin wearing a lei worn by Jefferson

Oh hey?

A little better now

It's the same picture

Some of us were surprised by the scale of the heads of the monument and were in awe of the design and detail. We took our classic group photo and learned more about the carvings from Aiden! Some others indulged in the ice cream shop and chose between chocolate, mint chocolate chip, Thomas Jefferson’s Original Vanilla and the intriguing huckleberry ice cream, all house made of course. People took pictures trying to kiss the presidents, hold their heads, and recreate the poses of the iconic monument. Others spent a little more money at the gift shop buying gifts for families and friends.

Parker and Harris checking

Abby just trying to get some circulation in the hot gym

Scotty wanted to show KS his rattlesnake eggs

Ella's shower ready

Below was when we found out about the morning kickboxing class... I think we were a little shocked 

On the ride back we all jammed out to music, singing and dancing to “Roar”, just like Katy Perry herself, especially Dallas. As we arrived at the oldest YMCA in Custer, which happens to be a log cabin that is over 100 years old. We had a little free time while people finished showering, some of the boys played basketball while others played volleyball on the side. When we first filed into the gym, Dallas broke the news that our morning alarm will be a local 5:00am kickboxing class, unlike our routine ‘Wakey Wakey’ from Dallas. It was all fun and games until we saw the YMCA schedule on the bulletin board, confirming our worst nightmare. Guess we will be kickboxing in the morning…

Tonight we will get some good sleep to be ready for kickboxing and to see the Garden of the Gods! This is it from the Happy's for now. We LOVE you all! See you tomorrow!!!!