We have finally come to the last day of vacation photos! (Day 9 was packing up and driving home…non-event really, and definitely no pictures. lol)

So. Day 8. We were getting used to being lazy in the mornings and taking our time getting out of the house. The boys were getting good at finding things with which to amuse themselves. (Yeah. It creeps me out every time I look at it…)

The main event for the day…. !!

Seriously. It’s like Heaven for boys. Don’t worry…there won’t be too many pictures of creepy crawlies…just a few. This one is not creepy at all…love his colors.

Beautiful flowers all over the place. I guess that is supposed to appease the girls…

This is a picture of a boa constrictor from the top level of the conservatory. You see that guys legs…he is walking on the pathway on the lower level…the pathway goes directly under this boa’s perch. Yeah. Loved that….not.

After walking through the dome, we decided we were going to find the snake show. (There are three ‘shows’ at the Reptile Gardens…a snake show, an alligator show, and a bird show. We wanted to see them all!) As we were trying to find the show, the bottom fell out of the sky. Pouring rain. We found the snake show, but it was full and the audience area was not very protected from the elements. I took off and found some shelter for me and my camera. The boys, Wade, Grandma, and Grandpa stayed in the area of the snake show. The rain poured for about 45 minutes. And mixed in with that rain…hail. (You see those little white dots on the sidewalk…)

So, I stayed nice and dry…the boys ran in the rain. Drowned rats, they were. They had a ball! When the rain was done and the sun came back out, we walked around to see more of the gardens. These giant tortoises were amazing!

Yes. I touched him. He felt like sandpaper…soft sandpaper…

Lunchtime.

Due to the rain, we missed the alligator show, but we didn’t want to miss the bird show. We walked over and got front row seats. Lucky for Tyler…he got picked as a volunteer to help out with the show!

Most of the birds were flying so fast it was hard to get a good picture. This is the best I got of the bald eagle that flew in right over our heads.

After the show, the boys wanted to see how their wingspans measured up to the big birds…

I absolutely love this picture…

These head-cut-out things are irresistible…. And how perfect was this one with three cowboys and one cowgirl?!?!?

After all of our excitement at the Reptile Gardens, we headed back to Hill City for some dinner. We got finished eating just in time to see the local gunfight. This one had some crazy inebriated characters along with the requisite town sheriff.

The boys found the jail after the gunfight and practiced their ‘jail faces’…

The boys with the characters… haha

Just across the road from our cabin there was an empty field. The boys had been watching a couple of big machines mow the field and then roll the hay into bales. They were fascinated. When we got back to the cabin after the gunfight, we decided to go over and take some pictures. (The cowboy hats are courtesy of Grandma. Definitely the boys favorite souvenir.)

Cowboy Avery…

Bad boy Tyler…

Silly boy Benji…

This was my best hay bale shot. LOL!

As we were walking back across the street, the boys spotted something jumping around in the rocks. They thought it was a grasshopper, but it wasn’t. It was a tiny little frog!! He didn’t like to be held much, but I managed to get this picture of the little guy in Wade’s hand.

And that concludes our South Dakota vacation recap! Thanks to everyone who made it this far. Hope you enjoyed it! I’m off to finish watching the football game. Go Broncos!!!