What a tremendously long & busy school year!
Summer seemed to get here incredibly slow, yet also whirlwind fast at the same time.
We didn’t get as many ‘summer break’ days this year as we did last year & it was probably a bad idea…. Last fall we accommodated to rally & pushed the start date back to allow for a cool down period & to see if 🦠 spread took off. It really didn’t play a huge role last September, but we should accommodate to rally with or without a virus at play. It’s a HUGE part of our economy & a piece of our culture. This year was the earliest date since we moved here almost 15 years ago now, that school has started. No one was able to come to our bbq as it was still rally time, they were working it, gone because of it, or at one of the multiple other events going on that are still supposed to be considered in the thick of summer, not weekend before school starts. We knew it would be small & wre able to hit the last night of rally after & get in a couple more concerts, so there was that!
It was still slightly infuriating to start even earlier than in the past & Wayne’s classroom temps were well into the 90s and remained hot clean after Labor Day. He does not have air conditioning on the 3rd floor of the High School. There were ZERO early outs for heat. I wish the pandemic could have at least driven home that kids do not need so many days in a desk. Labor Day to Mother's Day would be plenty. Schedule is one of my top 5 reasons for homeschooling my littles & this end of summer did not make a strong point to integrate back any time soon 😒.
Back to beautiful summer…..
This summer was a drought cycle summer. We knew it would be by pure past patterning. It held true. So very little moisture. Wildfire summer. The closest fire was on Ridge Road a mile south of our house. 5 or 7 different crews showed up & had it out in less than an hour. Structures were threatened & evacuations were pressing. The quick response was amazing. Solid 20 minutes of fire truck sirens blowing by.
Regardless, we packed our summer full of fun.
We started off with our annual week long Memorial Day camping trip to our local lake. It was a competitive year for camp spots again. Our group ended up spread all over, which made things a bit different than past years, but still a blast.
Zach ran State track at BHSU & a million other events that week kept us running back and forth & wondering how many years we could keep camping like we do. For me, and most my family, we would full time RV if we could. Waking up camping & every moment, if only a few, is worth it at the lake, or in the boonies.
Next year state track is across the state so hard choices will be made. Or not, we’ll see. Currently we are readying to leave the lake Labor Day weekend to drive to Sioux Falls to watch Andy play football & Zach run at Auggie Twilight at Yankton Trail Park, then we’ll drive back to be at the JV jamboree at 8am the next morning 🤯
Zach fought hard for his varsity spot & Auggie is usually varsity only, it’s kind of a big deal race & I want to see it❣️ Wayne will watch Andy play & take stats as both events start at 6pm.
Back to summer…. After Memorial Weekend, we celebrated our 16th anniversary.
Then we helped drive teams for the Mickelson Marathon. Belle ran 3 relay teams who placed top 3. It was a blast.
Andy had a football camp & scrimmage at BHSU that was fun to watch.
Then we went on our family vacation. My cousin got married in Pine, CO which was halfway between Denver & Colorado Springs. I love to tell the small world story about how her parents and mine grew up in very south central Nebraska, then her parents moved to Denver after college & had 3 daughters. Fast forward a couple decades, I go to College in Chadron, then BHSU & settle in Belle Fourche & in the mean time, their youngest goes with a kid to freshman year high school homecoming named, Jeremy Hahne. Okay, cool, don’t hear of him again until years later when they are in college. They are dating again & he comes to all the family stuff (brave guy). When I was in the hospital with Joe when I had him, they were in BELLE & asked to visit, they were there for his Grandmother’s funeral. It took a hot minute to put it all together… his family in Belle are some of our friends & there was more than one 15 county South Dakota car at that wedding. Small World. I’ll tell it again in the other post about the vacation 😉
We decided to meet the Walkers & Rupp’s there & make a big family vacation out of it. All 34 Walkers of my Grandparents decent were there for the first time ever & we have an amazing picture. Other than the wedding, everyone did their own thing.
We had an amazing time & packed in a ton of neat places. Full post on the Colorado Springs / Manitou Springs vacation HERE.
When we got back from there we did a quick turnaround to get on the road again to camp at Wind Cave with the Tonsagers, Besiches & Jensens. Hot Springs had their art in the park that weekend & Joe got to build a birdhouse with the VW volunteers. He was VERY PROUD of it.
The campground was full of out of state visitors & I do believe there were only a couple South Dakota parties including ours.
Our tourism the past two years since the pandemic started have been booming. Land of the Free. To give some incite, we play the license plate game on repeat & reset it for every trip, then compare. Our June games were:
Colorado trip: 38 plates
Weekend to Wind Cave: 41 plates
Black Elk (Harney) Peak hike trip: 43 plates
Night at the Drive Inn in Hermosa: 33 plates
We watched 10 cars pass us on i90 between Whitewood & Rapid City, of those 10 cars, 8 were not SD & only 2 repeats, so 6 different out of state plates out of 10. It was pretty interesting.
Then Rally week we saw 48/50 plates plus Canadian, European & a DC. There were tons of Hawaiian plates this year! It had been a few years since I had seen one. The only 2 states we didn’t see were Delaware & Rhode Island.
After Wind Cave it was time for the 4th of July Festivities. Those too, deserve their own post as there’s SO MUCH in our community that goes on & we have upped our involvement game. See it all HERE.
Wayne & I made a point to hike at least once a month somewhere big this summer. We summited Crow Peak, Black Elk (Harney) Peak & Bear Butte, as well as other small trails. (& let’s not forget the Manitou Incline in CO).
We also took some epic adventures with the XC summer running club crew. We got off on a trail spur at Cook Lake & out hiked the crew by over a mile…..
Then on Crow Peak, my rickety, worn pace had us still on the mountain when a thunderstorm caught us (not the team, they were already in town eating by then). Lightning struck all around us. It struck a tree above us on the switchbacks we had just been on and the tree cracked, fell & started rolling. Another struck 3 trees ahead of us causing Wayne to take off running pushing me ahead of him. We eventually made it down alive with an unforgettable amazement.
We went to our annual drive inn movie night…
And this summer got in on a big bucketlist item for me (Wayne hates hieghts & chose to forego but may get over it for an untethered ride later on he claims). I’ve always wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride & in the past few years Hot Springs has become a hub for the sport. My in laws have gotten involved & we’ve learned a bit more about it. They even went to the National Festival in NM with their friends as part of the crew. They had a fundraiser in July with a small ride up. I said yes, we’ll be there & it was pretty darn cool!
There was Xc camp, football camp, cheer camp & church camps….
Grid Iron Golf Tournament….
Other Summer Fun…
Other camping trips….
July is also my birthday…
Then Joe’s birthday. He turned 3 this year with a Maui Hawaiian BBQ theme. Check out all things Joe turns 3 HERE
By Joe’s birthday, rally people are already showing up. Sturgis pushed back official dates to the second week of August a couple years ago, which kind of stinks as many places do start school that week around the US. We had a great up year this year at the start of it, then many left early. Really, if they’d still count the first week, numbers are even bigger & the 2 weeks that it has turned into does really help our local economy.
We attended more days/nights this year than any previous & had a great time as usual. We saw our favorite local bands & went to a concert we had never heard of & found a new song to add to our playlist. Me & You by Yallawolf.
The culture mash in that concert was amazing. There was every walk of life there & people watching was top notch. One person in our party did get lost & this night, IT WASNT ME. I have a track record of this 🤷🏻♀️ see the full Rally 2021 post HERE.
After rally, well NORMALLY it’s AFTER rally, school starts. We have already covered that chaos. And it was CHAOS. Rally affects every person in our area, right down to the daycare kids who spend a little more time there because mom and dad have to stay a little later for influx of customers or even just due to traffic & are a bit more exhausted due to the same. We would be fools to think we don’t need to accommodate to rally here & we are bigger fools for not having done it this year. Everyone needs a minute after to take a breath before amping up to school starting & we didn’t get that this year.
Lizzy’s Back to School Tea Party…
But, nevertheless, here we are. Sports started, school started & the race is on.
We spent a lot of time in our gardens this year. We have been on the waiting list to extend our plot at the community garden for around 4 years & this year it happened! We now have a big plot there to accommodate a full salsa garden & vines & at our house we have 2 small tiers for herbs & other rows of veggies.
We hadn’t gotten word yet about the extended plot when we first planted, so I had stuck in a row of pumpkins, which rarely grow well at the house, THEY ALL POPPED!
So many things did so well this year. We held our breaths the entire summer waiting for hail to crush it. There’s still time before full harvest, but the drought forecast doesn’t look to threatening. 🤞🏼 We’ve even gotten a salsa batch already!
Full garden post HERE.
Labor Day, the last slow pace moment, is half filled with sports, but a moment with my feet on my new paddleboard is a moment I’m great full for! Full Labor Day post HERE.
Goodbye Summer, Hello Chaos 2021
