We traveled to Western South Dakota over the Fourth of July (typically we spend a good part of the summer in Eastern South Dakota). Here's some highlights of our trip:
Aaron, Meredith & I several thousand feet up in the Black Hills at a look-out point on Needles Highway. If you look in the background, you can almost see an 11-acre chunk of land that my dad purchased a couple of years ago. You'll see in pictures below that this chunk of land, or "Dad's Ranch" will be a popular destination for the whole Gehrels family in the future.
My grandpa, his sons and their kids and families all vacationed in the Black Hills together. My "Grandpa Wilbur" is 86 years old and hadn't visited this spot since he was 17.
Here's all of us on the Fourth of July hiking around Lake Sylvan.
Well, the cabin's not there yet but this camper suits us just fine! Most of the crew stayed overnight at a rented cabin near Custer, South Dakota but Aaron, Meredith and Grandpa Wilbur and I got to stay in the camper at "Dad's Ranch".
While we were there, the men/boys helped Dad finish a shed. It's a wonder they got it done because it rained a lot. :(
Aaron and Meredith standing at the entrance of Navy Pier. Even though the pier is right on Lake Michigan, there was little breeze and it was SO HOT! We stopped about halfway down the pier so Meredith and Aaron could have ice cream.
Here's Meredith and I with part of the downtown Chicago skyline in the background.
The whole Staub family! Aaron's brother Michael and his wife Clare (from Houston) are on the left. Aaron's parents Arlys and Scott in the middle. That's Uncle Jeremy in front. This day was the very first time that we were all together since Meredith had been born.
Aaron taught Meredith how to "pound it" last week. She's doing it here with Uncle Jer. We met in Chicago really to surprise Jeremy--he flew into OHare that day from Venice. He had been traveling in Spain, Austria and Italy for choir tour for college. We wanted to also meet him to say goodbye--he flew to Hawaii yesterday because he got a teaching job in Maui!
Uncle Michael and Aunt Clare again with Meredith. We miss them a lot and even though they live all the way in Houston, hopefully we'll get to see them soon.
