South Dakota: Presidential Trail- Brayden's pictures

Brayden's pictures from our walk along the Presidential Trail.

George Washington...I believe of the 4 he's Brayden's favorite.

One of my favorite pictures from the trip that he took...Easton attacking Aunt Stephanie!

The mother Mountain Goat

The male Mountain Goat

The male Mountain Goat

A fun view of Washington from between two rocks.

This boy loves his mom!

We were joking you could almost see right up George's nose.

Dad and Easton

Mom and Aunt Stephanie

Looking back at the visitor center where we started the trail.

Mom and Dad

His favorite Dad ;)

Again...George Washington

The old generator used to power the work on the monument.

The group minus Brayden

Random ladies who took our pic and while we took one with their camera for them, Brayden took one of them too!

Again, basically just George...see I think he was his favorite!

Silly Dad

Aunt Stephanie

South Dakota: On the Presidential Trail at Mount Rushmore

After looking around the visitor center and bookstore, we headed out on the Presidential Trail. It's basically a walk along a boardwalk (that at points has LOTS of stairs) that takes you to the base of Mount Rushmore and to the Sculptor's Studio (which was closed this time of year). We really enjoyed the walk around and seeing so many different angles of Mount Rushmore. And we can't forget one of the highlights of our walk...seeing the Mountain Goats! And if you can believe it, Easton was the one who spotted them first! They were so close to the trail we could have reached out and touched them if we had wanted! The mother and baby goat were on our right and either the dad or large male was on the left hand side. They weren't skiddish at all and you could tell they were VERY used to all the visitors! We also saw a woodpecker on our walk too. Just the first of all the wildlife we enjoyed during our three days.

Brian, Easton, Stephanie, and Brayden

Brayden

Easton, Jamie, and Stephanie

The beautiful Fall colors around Mount Rushmore

Brayden

Our Family

Our Family

All of us

Our Family

All of us

After our walk around the trail, we stopped at another gift shop there for a few more purchases and then ate lunch there at the cafeteria. Brayden had a Buffalo hot dog and Brian had a Buffalo burger. The rest of us stuck with some basics. It ended up being one of the better meals we had during our trip!

As you drive away from Mount Rushmore and head west, you go right next to it on the side. We all loved this view and saw it every day we were there! George Washington.

South Dakota: Mount Rushmore

Stephanie, Brian, Easton, and Brayden

Brayden in all his excitement of seeing Mount Rushmore!

Our family. We had a hard time with squinting in the sun and shadows in the shade on the observation deck.

Our Junior Ranger Brayden with his badge.

South Dakota: Mount Rushmore-Brayden's Pictures

We just spent 3 days in South Dakota taking in the sights around the Black Hills. Our main reason for going was because Brayden has been asking for the last year or two to go and see "the president's faces carved in the mountain." So with his 5 day weekend, we picked up Aunt Stephanie (who served her mission there) and drove the 10 hours to South Dakota.

Since this trip was because of Brayden, I thought about ways to capture his 5 year old excitement and I decided it'd be best to give him my digital camera while I used my DSLR. That way we could have the pictures I wanted and also see what he was so excited about! For the rest of the posts from this trip, you'll see our pictures as well as posts from Brayden's pictures. Basically a picture overload!!

With Mount Rushmore being the main reason for going, we headed there first. We took in the view from the observation deck, headed below to the vistors center and museum, made a few purchases from the bookstore, and also helped the boys complete their requirements to become "Mount Rushmore Junior Rangers." This was easy to accomplish for Easton. We just helped him fill out the 4 page preschool booklet but Brayden being 5 years old was just in between the age brackets for each book! (2-5 or 5-9) Being our inquisitive child, he of course picked the older one! So it took awhile to fill in the blanks, complete a crossword puzzle and word search, and let him write and draw about his experience! But with only help from Google on one answer, we helped him finish it and the boys got sworn in as Junior Rangers! Brayden was SO proud of that badge he wore it all day and told basically everyone we came into contact with until we got home that he was a Junior Ranger! (The waitresses, rangers at other places, and the senior missionaries at Martin's Cove all heard about it!)

Here's some of what he took during the first part of our visit at Mount Rushmore:

There's lots of silly faces from him and those of us he wanted to take self portraits with!

He loved this picture of the guy hanging off by Washington's nose and Easton happily obliged when he asked him to stand by it for a picture!

He enjoyed comparing it's height to other monuments and sights.

The Sculptor's studio was closed for the season so this picture of what it looks like had to do.

Aunt Stephanie

Stephanie and Brayden

Easton with his Junior Ranger badge on his arm.