Hanging out in Hill City, SD

Since it was MEA last week and there was no school on Thurday and Friday, we went on a mini-vacation. Actually, the whole idea was hatched by my brilliant friend Kathy as a way to get together to celebrate my big 4-0 b'day. We found this awesome rental house in Hill City, SD and booked it for the weekend.
We sweetened the trip even more by stopping in Sioux Falls and spending a day with my college girlfriend, Gina and her three kids. I hadn't seen Gina-beana in over a year. Too long!
On the way to Hill City, we stopped at Wall Drug. We were in this area two years ago and hadn't stopped with the girls before. It is a must-see at least once in your life. I think Steve enjoyed the scenery!
We met up with the Bytnar family (Steve, Kathy, Drake & Darian) at The Cosmos Mystery Area.
I highly recommend this. It was like participating in a science experiment! Each one of us were selected at different times during the demonstration. Here is Darian trying like crazy to get that darn tennis ball to roll away from her, but it wouldn't!
We were so happy with the rental house. It was fully stocked with everything we needed. Both the kids and the adults especially enjoyed the use of the hot tub.
We introduced the Bytnar family to one of our favorite outdoor activities... geocaching. It gave us a chance to explore the beauty of Custer State park. We went 5 for 5 with our caching too!

Can you believe Abby found enough snow to make a snow ball?
Here is team Bytnar & Lindgren with one of the caches we found after hiking way further than we should have. Lesson learned... turn your GPS on and leave it on, so when you drive by a cache, you can stop and not walk 2 miles to get to it.

We saw lots of fun things and had so many laughs and even added a few new phrases to our vocabulary with brand new meaning... "Get out of your strawberry jelly." "More red wine!" Best of all is having spending time with special friends!