Learning how to be when it's minus 3

Happy New Year!!! We've had quite the stretch of frigid temps ... so much so that when it finally broke above freezing yesterday it literally felt like Springtime!

I was very thankful that Jason's employer had shut down for the time between Christmas & New Years which meant he was home and able to help with the kids while we were all feeling a bit stir-crazy.

We also thankfully found a number of indoor type (and FREE) activities to do around Rapid City.

A trip to the Museum of Geology at the South Dakota School of Mines (a science and engineering university with about 2,500 students). There were so many cool dinosaur and other prehistoric animal fossils and remains, along with an amazing collection of rocks from around the world, including some that glow in the dark!

At the South Dakota Air & Space Museum in Box Elder, only 20 minutes away.

We kept on tubing nearly every day also, even if we could only stand the cold for 10-15 minutes. It was good to be active for a bit and then of course, we had A LOT of indoor activities ... trays of baking soda to be creative with, tea parties, pajama dance parties, watching Polar Express for the first time, putting beads on pipe cleaners, playing kids Sequence ... 

New Years Eve we gave the kids scissors and newspapers and had them work on making a bag of confetti for our evening party. They were diligent and it made for a very festive evening.

New Years Day we went for a gorgeous sunset drive to Mt Rushmore. It was zero there and the indoor exhibits were closing so we didn't stay long, but it seemed like the right way for a South Dakotan to greet the New Year :)