So, after having the week set, we then had no idea where we were going! Tommy had mentioned earlier this year wanting to go to Goblin Valley for a day or two, so we considered that but realized that could be done as a weekend or shorter trip, and we had 5 days, and we figured we should take advantage and go out of state. I talked to the boys about Glacier, Yellowstone, and Rocky Mountain National Parks and showed them pictures of all of them and they chose Glacier because they thought it was the prettiest and looked the coolest. Of course they picked the one the farthest away! Fortunately, right on the way was the Sacagawea Heritage Center located in her birthplace of Salmon, Idaho, and so I knew immediately we would spend a day there due to Tommy's interest in Sacagawea after reading a couple biographies about her last year.
After settling on a location, the planning began! And I spent quite a bit trying to plan just the car ride as I knew we'd be in the car a lot and I did NOT want to rely on technology to keep the kids entertained! My goal was no portable electronic devices and no movies for the first day and to limit them after if we needed to. We knew we had an 11 hour car ride and had our work cut out for us. Thanks to some Google searches, we got a few different car bingo games, scavenger hunts, and even printed out a little mini van picture that we attached a string we tied across the car and let the kids move along to follow our progress so they knew how close we were getting. We also limited sugar intake of sweets by making tickets that they got every 30 minutes, or they could earn more by finishing some of the activities. With those tickets, they could purchase some sweets for either 1, 2, 3, or 4 tickets. The healthy snacks they could have any time they wanted. I think the tickets were the biggest hit--all the boys loved them, followed closely by bingo. Tommy was diligent and completed every one of the activities, including multiple scavenger hunts and even the license plate game (which took us 4 days to finish).
During the drive we also enjoyed cloud painting with the huge, fluffy clouds in the large sky and listened to a lot of movie soundtracks and I had the boys see what songs and composers they could remember and I would quiz them. Our first day drive took us to Salmon, Idaho, and took about 6.5 hours. The last few were on a highway and we didn't pass a single structure or other vehicle for about an hour. I loved it!
We went straight to the Sacagawea Heritage Center in Salmon and arrived there about 4:00. The boys spent well over a half hour in the Interpretive Center, despite its small size, playing with the fishes and other activities they had for kids. We then departed for the mile long walk through the outdoor area that takes you past various exhibits teaching you about Native American culture. It was hot! It was over 90 degrees and had little shade, and Tommy was asking to turn around after seeing the tipis, but we pushed ahead and finally arrived at a shaded area with several people who were staying there for the week in tipis they built themselves and were teaching Native American hobbies and crafts. The boys made some bead necklaces and had a great time playing with the dogs there as well! I enjoyed seeing the re-built sweat lodges by the river, as the sweat lodges were very spiritual places for the Shoshone people where they went to pray, be purified, worship, and learn from a higher source.
UPDATE, APRIL 2016: Well, I forgot two things: First, to finish this post. Second, to actually post it! So, I will post now what I wrote a while ago, and perhaps will get around to finishing the post. We shall see, but I wouldn't count on it (I know myself too well).
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