South Dakota Road Trip- Friday

Friday morning we kind of relaxed a little, slept in and then Charlotte and I did a little grocery shopping for the weekend. We got a bit of a late start. We knew we wanted to see Mt Rushmore on Friday, but we wanted to be there for the lighting ceremony at night. We broke out the local guidebooks and found some interesting things to see during the hotter part of the day.

First we went to Four Mile Ghost Town which was pretty close to where we were in Custer. It was a little plot of land that a family bought and set up a ghost town which you could tour.

The interesting part was that you could go in all the buildings and really explore all the stuff.

Here's Audry playing in the saloon.

And Willy exploring the schoolhouse.

There was lots of old farm equipment to climb on too!

They had some silly places to take your picture....

And baby goats (doats!)! Which Audry wanted desperately to pet, but they were afraid of her.

Next we were off to the Rushmore Caves.

At first Audry was a little scared of being a caver, so we helped her along.

Soon enough she was thrilled to be in the "baves"

Here's Charlotte contemplating stalagmites and stalagtites and other mineral formations.

As you can see, it is so fun to cave with Daddy!

Finally we made it to Mt. Rushmore.

I was expecting that since it is so much smaller than Crazy Horse it would seem really small

But they really didn't since we could go up much closer to the monument.

Willy, posing for his memorialization in stone.

And Audry did too.

We stayed late to see the lighting ceremony which Charlotte found to be surprisingly patriotic.

Audry was completely wiped out, yet again... too bad she didn't sleep later in the morning to make up for it!

South Dakota Road Trip- Thursday

We went to South Dakota last weekend for a road trip. It was exhausting, but great fun! Will and I had been talking about going for pretty much ever since we moved here to Colorado, but never seemed to get around to it. Having Charlotte this summer was a pretty good excuse and as it turns out a road trip is not a bad vacation with a little one. Surprise!
Here is us starting out for the day.

Sunglasses? Check.

We stopped in Cheyenne for a minute when we realized that Frontier Days was this week and we were in the middle of a parade! It was nice to stretch the legs.

Mainly the rest of the drive through Wyoming looked like this.

Or this.

And here is a rare image of Audry sleeping. (Car naps are never as long as bed naps, yet they should be since we were in the car for 8 hours!)

Then we stopped at a rest stop where Audry climbed and played

and stretched her little legs, er, arms with Daddy.

Finally, we arrived at our little town of Custer, South Dakota.

Something like one of the oldest towns in South Dakota? Anyway... instead of relaxing and getting settled, we grabbed a buffalo burger at the local bar and headed off to see Crazy Horse!

Here's Willy and Audry with the mountain in the back.

Audry really enjoyed the museum of Indian artifacts.

Mostly she wanted to push her own stroller around instead of us pushing her in it.

Oh, and this is Charlotte!

In the early evening, we saw a group of Lakota dancers, Audry wanted to join them.

Actually, we did. Here's Will & Charlotte dancing the friendship dance with the Lakota group leader on the drums.

We stayed late into the evening- we heard the light show was worth staying late for. Here is Willy waiting.

And here's me helping Audry to wait.

The laser light show was actually pretty good. Sadly, Audry didn't quite get to see it, but she practiced naming her colors during the pre-show when they make the mountain a bunch of different colors with lights.
Finally this is Audry after passing out after a long day and several hours after her bedtime.

Rosemary Chicken

The other day my mom called me to ask if I remembered the rosemary chicken recipe we made together some 10 years together.
Ummmmm.... no, but it sounds pretty awesome. And it just so happens that I am growing a new rosemary bush outside in the teeny little garden my chickens are so desperately trying to dig up for me. (So much for the peas!)
Here's a new (maybe?) take on the recipe. And wow. It was amazing. So mom, if your friend still wants the (or a) recipe...  here you go!
I boiled some penne pasta and tossed it with olive oil. Penne isn't my favorite shape, but it is what I had.

Next I gathered up some fresh rosemary, along with these yummy veggies!

Here's the pan getting hot with minced garlic, rosemary, olive oil, fresh ground pepper and some kosher salt until it all starts getting a little fragrant. You can see the chicken and vegetables that I prepped in the background.

Next I threw in the chicken and cooked that until it was starting to cook. Don't cook it all the way! Because it will continue to cook with the veggies, and we do NOT want dry stringy tasteless chicken. Doing it again, I might even add the mushrooms and chicken at the same time.

Here's when I added in the mushrooms and cooked that for a while. (You can see the tomato waiting patiently in the background. So patient, that tomato.) These mushrooms are quartered- a little larger than a slice, but when cooked right, they fairly explode with the flavor of the juices from cooking in rosemary and chicken. These could cook longer than I cooked them, but I was impatient.

Next I added in the asparagus, which has been chopped into bite sized pieces. It really should go in at the end so that it doesn't get mushy. (The tomato is still being patient)

When the asparagus was looking crisp and the chicken was looking cooked through, I added in the tomato. I only wanted it to get warm. (At last, your turn, tomato! I just didn't want to overcook you!) If you cook it for too long the skin starts to peel off and the tomatoes get pretty soft. I just like them hot and firm.
Um, yeah.

And at last, here it is. The saucy yummy deliciousness all poured over pasta.
The piece de resistance you ask? I was going to throw some kind of cheese on there, I was thinking feta would be good, but I knew I didn't have any, so parmesean romano was going to have to suffice but THEN I saw the last bit of chevre- soft goat cheese- and I crumbled that on top.
Hooooweee mama! Damn that was a good idea.

What is it about pasta and garlic and olive oil and cheese? It is some kind of heaven.
We ate until we kind of had to roll away from the table. Charlotte apologized for having thirds. No apologies necessary! I think I had fourths. And there was still plenty left over (except the cheese that we ate all up).

Grilled Salmon & Asparagus

I just had to post this, even though it was something we had last week and I just didn't get around to posting it last week. Because it was awesome. And we don't eat fish that often. In fact, this was so yummy, that I got more fish for this week (it's good for you afterall).... but a different kind to try.
Anyway. Charlotte said that she likes to eat fish, especially salmon, so when we were at the store, I thought, what the heck. As it turns out, they had in fresh sockeye salmon that I guess only comes in once a year. So I bought a big old slab of it and took it home.
Here it is, skin side down, getting ready for the grill!

I chopped up some fresh dill and minced garlic, and sliced up a pretty yellow lemon.

The I started with the garlic, and rubbed it in the fish. Then I liberally sprinkled dill over that.

Since I had a bunch of garlic, I decided to prep the asparagus, which I got for the extraordinary low price of $1.50 for the bunch! There is also some kosher salt and a generous dollop of olive oil on there.

Anyway, after that, the lemon slices went on the fish. Isn't it looking summery and scrumptious?

Incidentally, I forgot to salt the fish. In the end it didn't seem to matter, even to my salt-loving husband. Anyway, everything went on the grill. The grill was either on medium or low- I can't remember, until I could flake the fish easily with a fork. Oh, and the grill was closed, not like in the picture.

Finally, here it is on the table, ready for eating. And everyone had seconds, in spite of the little mini bones that we had to pick out. I made some rice pilaf and sliced extra lemons to go with it.

I would for sure eat it again!