Day 11--Black Hills South Dakota

I don't understand why Wyoming is the least populated state in the U.S.  The drive along the Big Horn mountains was beautiful, there's gobs of land, and water didn't seem that scarce.  I don't get it.

Anyway, before making the trek into the black hills Aurelia and I hit up the pool for a quick swim.  She's so fat that her legs and butt float by themselves and that's in fresh water!  I bet she could actually walk on the Dead Sea.  Maybe we should stop by Salt Lake on our way back....

We did a couple timbers into the water--standing on the side of the pool, making a chopping action at your legs, yelling 'Timber!', and then falling over sideways into the pool.  She was pretty tuckered out afterwards and so she took a nap on mom while I played by myself in the pool.

I was doing suicides--jumping into the cold pool after sitting in the hot tub--for a while.  I wished that I was eight again and that Camie, Manda, and my parents were with me and we were all playing together.  This trip has brought back a lot of good memories of when we were young.  I was going to try and beat my dad's record for holding your breath underwater but, if my memory serves me correctly, it was like 10 hours or something.  Aurelia is much too young to believe my exaggerations at this point.

After the pool we made the short drive to Deadwood, South Dakota to meet up with Val & Nathan before heading to our cabin.  Lo and Behold it was snowing when we got there.  Aurelia seemed to enjoy her first experience with it.

Aurelia really wanted to hit up Cadillac Jacks; she told us her craps hands were feeling lucky, which I totally believed, but I guess even as outlawish a town as deadwood had to draw the limit somewhere.  I told Aurelia she could always come back during Sturgis on the back of a hog with ape hangers.

The day ended at our cabin just outside Lead.  We met up with the rest of the crew (Danny, Katie, and Sara) and spent the evening playing games, having good conversation, eatin' steaks.  Mortgage backed securities are THAT interesting!

I think Aurelia has a crush on Nathan.  I think Val is jealous of all the attention Beth pays Aurelia instead of her.