Maffett Family Vacation - Black Hills, South Dakota

We just returned from a great week with my family in the Black Hills of South Dakota! My grandparents spent their last 30 years or so there, so we were familiar with the area. None of us had visited the area since my grandmother passed away over 14 years ago. What a beautiful part of our country! We all had our own cabins - Sean and I had the itty-bitty cabin for two people, it was cute. We did all sorts of things - hiking, horseback riding, Mt. Rushmore, more hiking, etc. No TVs, barely any cell phone service. Sean and my brother Kevin went trout fishing several mornings of the week, and they brought back 10 trout. Kevin cooked them up on our last night, and as much as I don't love fish, it was very good. I have a ton of pictures, so I'll have to post more later. And the ones below are out of order. :)

Sean and I hangin' with the Presidents

My sisters and I on top of Harney's Peak - it was a long and tough hike up there. Harney's Peaks is the highest point between the Rockies and the Swiss Alps.

Trying to figure out where the trail to Harney's Peak starts. It's not very well marked, and we spent 45 minutes on the wrong trail. Oops...

One of many waterfalls we saw

The boys rafting down the stream that ran through our cabin area

The beautiful stream right outside of our cabin - very cold water!!

Our itty-bitty cabin

A sign posted in the Badlands - yikes!!

We drove through the Badlands on our way to the Black Hills

New Deck & Screened-In Porch!

The progress of our current house project in a series of pictures...

The before picture

The walls are started!

The screened-in porch will be on the left and
the deck will be on the right.
We will have a patio to the left of the screened-in porch,
hopefully with a built in fire pit!

One happy Sean!

Jada's wild ride....

Sean and I took the two dogs to the vet today. On the way there in our Escape, the dogs were enjoying the car ride with their heads both out of the back passenger side window. All of the sudden, out the corner of my eye, I see Jada fall out of the car. I yelled, Sean slammed on the brakes, and I was out of the car before he even knew what the heck happened. Luckily, Jada was on the side on the road in the grass (standing), and not playing in traffic (it was a busy street). She cowered and didn't know if she should run from me or lay down. I talked nice and got a hold of her. My heart rate had to have been close to 200, and I was shaking like a leaf. We get her back in the car, all while traffic is backed up. She managed to jump from our car traveling around 30 MPH and escape it all with just a few scrapes and bruises. Luckily we were already on the way to the vet! She was checked out thoroughly, and somehow - she's ok! God must had slid an invisible pillow under her right before she hit the ground. :)

We were baffled at how this could happen - it's not like this is her first car ride! My theory is that she was in competition with Sadie to see who could get their head out the farthest, and Jada took it just a tad bit too far. Seriously, she competes during walks - making sure she is just slightly ahead of Sadie.

I've been complaining an awful lot about our dogs lately (can you blame me?!?!). I think this was God's lesson to show me that I really do love them and would be sad if they were gone.

Another lesson learned - the windows can only go down 4 inches or less when the dogs are in tow. :)