South Dakota

Vasili in front of his new favorite store!

Nicolas is peeking out of the camouflage rock

in the back round!

We left Rapid City, South Dakota Monday 9/28 and spent the day driving across the state of South Dakota. Such wide open, flat spaces with nothing! No hills, no trees, no houses . . . just beautiful wheat colored grass lands, sprinkled here and there with cows.

Our BIG stop for the day was "Cabela's"!! Now, some of you out there already know what we are talking about! But for those of you who don't . . . . well, let me tell you, it's a man's manly store!! It's the kind of store that Tim-the-tool man-Taylor, from "Home Improvement" would highly approve of! It has every very kind of outdoor hunting, fishing, camping gear one could ever dream of!~ The biggest selection of camouflage you've ever seen! (besides jackets and shirts, you can get camouflage under armor, dozens of hats, gloves, sweats, tents, blankets, curtains, even furniture!!!) The best part of all, are the displays of real stuffed elk, grizzlies, caribou, foxes, otters, lions, sheep, mountain goats, moose, and lots more! It is really amazing!

We stopped at Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the night.

Raptis RV Trip '09 -1, by jennifer raptis

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Mt. Rushmore, Wyoming

Mt. Rushmore

Such beauty and patriotism! What a gorgeous day! (Sat.9/26) We have been wanting to come to Mt. Rushmore for several years now! And here we are finally! It was a very long drive from Yellowstone, WY to Rapid City, South Dakota! It was beautiful country, but tiny back roads and lots of road construction! I think the whole US is under road construction! ~ We finally made it 12 hours later and thankful to park and stop!!

We have been having the best weather possible! And this day was perfect! What splendor and talent are displayed in these rocks! We enjoyed a Ranger-led talk giving details and history on how and why this National Monument was created. ~ We returned the following evening to see the evening light program, also well done and full of national pride for our amazing country, the United States of America!

We were surprised on how much there is to do in and around Mt. Rushmore. Many attractions were closed or about to close for the season. But our choices were many, from “Reptile Gardens”, to” Bear Country USA”, to wax museums and crystal caves to petting zoos and wildwest chuck wagons!.

Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln

Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks!

After an 8 hour drive from Eagle, Idaho we arrived at the East entrance of Yellowstone National Park. We still had a 2 hour drive to our camp site within the park. We stopped at “Old Faithful” along the way. The Lord was good! We found our way to the RV park 5 minutes before the office was closed and were able to have the staff show us where our site was and the best way to approach it. This was a blessing because it is pitch-black at Yellowstone at night! The camp ground was full and the sites were pretty tightly packed together. We were happy to be settled in!

The next day dawned spectacular and sunny after a very chilly 35 degree night! We were feeling the effects of the almost 8,000’ elevation too! We decided to take a pretty hike that looped around to Yellowstone Lake and back again. In the beginning of the hike, we were able to see a herd of buffalo not too far from the trail along the banks of a small pond. However, we later found out that they had crossed over both trail heads leading in and out and we were forced to forge a new trail of our own in order to make it out!

Our second day, another gorgeous day, we drove out the South entrance into Grand Teton National Park and spent the day there! We ended up at the Jackson Lake Lodge and relaxed and enjoyed the beauty of that magnificent view! We were fortunate enough to secure the last seats of a River raft tour that left later that afternoon. We enjoyed floating along the Snake River seeing Bald Eagles, beavers and more! Again, we arrived back late and in the pitch dark to our camp site, happy not to have encountered any bears! (Jennifer’s paranoia!)

A boiling pot at Yellowstone, near "Old Faithful"

See those buffalo in the backround?

They crossed over the trail later on and

we had to forge a new trail out of there!

The majestic Grand Tetons!

A river raft tour along the Snake River at Grand Teton Nat'l Park

What a beautiful sunset!

Nick's Picks

HHEELLLPPP!!

Hear lies Nicolas Raptis

King Nicolas on his throne

My cousins Emily and Megan discuss Megan's wedding

My uncle's dog Jack sitting in front of pumpkins

from their killer pumpkin vine

I'm meeting Binky the 9 day old baby llama

Me with Jack

CrackerJack

Emily getting ready to go back to her dorm room

Good Old Faithful

Pretty

I..I.I t thin nk he wa antss to o be f friendsss. RUNNNNN!!

There's nothing to be afraid

of it's only 353ft to the bottom.

IT'S THE BUFFALO BILL DAM

Nicolas Roosevelt

I didn't do anything!

We saw this fat prairie dog,

I am surprised that that thing can go underground!

Two psychotic Donkeys try to take our car

because we didn't feed them on a nature drive

Mt. Rushmore at night

Idaho! ~ So much fun!

Sorry everyone, for not having posted anything for a while!! We were having way too good of a time in Idaho and then we didn't have any internet service while visiting Yellowstone! (I know, excuses, excuses!)

So, let's catch you up on what we've been up to and where we've gone thus far! After visiting beautiful Zion National Park, Utah we drove to Eagle, Idaho (just outside Boise) to visit Mark & Melinda (Jennifer's sister and brother-in-law) and her nieces Megan & Emily. We spent 3 wonderful days filled with good times together!

On our first day, Mark had a fun day of dirt biking planned for Vasili & Nicolas up at Bogus Basin. While the boys were off tearing it up on the bikes, Jennifer & Melinda went wedding dress shopping with Megan!! (Who will be marrying Joel from India in January!) We then visited Emily, who's a senior at the College of Idaho, which is a 1/2 hour away.

Sunday, after church and a delicious early dinner, we all went on a bike ride along the green belt that winds itself along the Boise River. ~ The following evening we went to a corn maze where we got to pet some adorable baby animals. Our favorite was "Binky" a 9-day old llama! Okay, let's hear everyone say "ahhhhh"!

The weather was glorious, our time was wonderful and we hated to say "good-bye"! ~ But, we consoled ourselves with the fact that we'll be back in January for Megan & Joel's wedding!

So, off we go to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming!

My wonderful sister, Melinda!

Jennifer's nieces, Emily & Megan, in Emily's dorm room

at the College of Idaho

Vasili on Mark's dirt bike. The boys head up to Bogus Basin

while the girls go shopping!

Shopping with Megan for wedding dresses!

Mark grilling us a delicious lunch!

Vasili and "Binky" the 9-day old llama!

Melinda getting kisses from all the babies!

Lost in the corn maze and having fun!

Zion National Park ~ So beautiful!!!

We climbed to the top of this mountain!

Nick holding on for dear life!

Cooling down in the shade

What a beautiful place

Today we went to Zion National Park and fell in love with this beautiful place! We went on a pretty difficult hike up to the top of a peak called Angel's Landing! Vasili & Nicolas went all the way up. I stopped at the part where you had to hold on to chains in order not to fall off the 1200' drop down!~ Yikes! Every where you look you are surrounded by amazing huge colorful rocks lifting straight up to the sky! There is a beautiful river and trees and flowers and the sky was so blue! This is one of the MOST beautiful places in America!! You have to come visit if you haven't already! (it's just off Hwy 15 past Las Vegas!)

Tomorrow we will head out early toward Boise, Idaho to visit my sister Melinda and her husband Mark. We'll have about a 10-12 hour drive! It will be a long day, but we're looking forward to our time together!!

Well, thanks for checking in with us! We are so wiped out from our fun day in Zion! ~ Enjoy some pictures of us and red rocks!

Here We Go!!!

Well, we're off!! And our adventure is just beginning! It was A LOT of work and took much time to tedious details, but we finally left San Diego at 7:30pm last night!! We feel like a "turtle" with it's large home on his back! ~ For those of you who have just "tuned in" to our adventure, we are traveling in a 35' RV for the next three months. The RV is my parents' and came fully loaded with just about anything you could need! We added a new flat-screen HDTV in the bedroom and all our personal belongings you could need for a 3-month trek into the fall/winter months of the east coast.

We are taking Nicolas, our 13 year old son and home-schooling him along the way. It was hard to say good-bye to Athan & Alex who are staying back home together and attending college at Miramar and Palomar. I think it was a bit hard for them as well!

We made it as far as Prim, NV and spent our first night on the road in the parking lot of the Prim Valley Resort & Casino! ~ Hey, it was Free!! - and just a place to sleep. We arrived at 1:00am. Vasili did a wonderful job driving this "beast" of a vehicle!

We had a good day of home-schooling on the road. It's going to take some time to get into a routine! We stopped in Mesquite, NV for a yummy lunch at a Casino buffet. And then we made our final stop of the day at Zion West RV park in Leeds, Utah. We are going to sight-see Zion National Park bright and early tomorrow morning. We took a scenic drive this evening and saw beautiful red rock formations and vistas and ended in the town of Springdale which is at the entrance to Zion.

Please stay tuned as we trek along the United States! If you have any suggestions of good places to see, we'd love to hear from you!

Welcome to our blogspot!

Hi Everybody!

Welcome to our blogspot!

We hope you'll enjoy keeping track of us as we travel across the United States and Europe!

Our estimated date of departure is sometime during the week of Sept. 15.

Stayed tuned as the date approaches for last minutes updates!

Thanks for checking in with us! We'd appreciate your prayers for our family as Vasili, Nicolas and I get ready to leave and Athan & Alex prepare to stay behind. May the Lord keep us all in His careful care until we are united once again together!