Roger Mountain Biking With Friends - Saturday, July 6, 2013

Roger met some friends in the ward who like to go mountain biking.  He is so excited to have someone to go mountain biking with.  They took him on a trail in Mantua.

Our Montana Trip - Thursday - July 4, 2013

We slept in a little and relaxed all morning today.  I spent some time uploading my pictures off of my camera, so that I could have room on the camera to take more pictures.  Around 2:00 pm, we went to Two Medicine Lake in east Glacier.

 We had a lot of fun playing at Two Medicine Lake.  It was really different to see this side of Glacier National Park.  It is a lot different than the other side.  We are the minority on this side.  There is an Indian Reservation by this side of the park.  We decided to head back to Grandma's so we would get back before dark and be able to watch some fire works.  As we were heading out, we saw an entrance for a hike.  We couldn't resist stopping.  So, we stopped and went on this short hike to a waterfall.  It was so pretty. I'm glad we went.

 After the hike and on our way out of Glacier, we stopped to get some ice cream.  We figured we had taken too long on the hike and we probably wouldn't get to see a firework show, since we wouldn't get back in time.  So, we relaxed and enjoyed our ice cream.  while we sat eating our ice cream, some people across the street in an RV park, started lighting some small fireworks, so we felt like.... at least we got to enjoy that and see some fireworks.... and it was nice to be sitting, relaxing, and eating ice cream while we watched their small firework display.  So, we left, feeling like, we had a pretty good 4th of July... We had a fun day playing at a lake, got to go on a hike that we all really enjoyed, then we got to eat ice cream and watch some fireworks go off.

Anyway... so we finished our ice cream and headed back to Grandma's house.  We hadn't driven too far, when we started seeing some of the fun big, illegal in Utah, fireworks.  I asked Roger to find a place to pull over.  We found a good spot to pull off the road.  It was like we had our own private fire work show.  Alissa, Brinley, and Roger went out and sat in the back of the truck.  I stayed in the truck with Parker (he was really tired and we could see the fireworks just fine from the truck).  There was a hill in front of us.  It was covered in big tall pine trees.  It seemed like the people lighting them were just up on the hill a little ways.  We just had the perfect view of all their fire works.  My favorite part about it was getting to see the silhouette of the pine trees along with the beautiful fire works.   We loved that fire work display.  when they were finished with their fireworks, we climbed back in the truck and started to drive again.  we were talking about what a perfect day it had been.  We got to watch two fire work displays, but the second one was the best ever!  We were just feeling really blessed and we thought it couldn't get any better than this.  then we continued on down the road.  Surprisingly, it got better!  We had to drive through Hungry Horse, where everybody in the town had congregated out to the main road through town, to party and light off their fireworks.  We felt like we were driving in a parade and that was different for us.  But it was an awesome experience.  The big, illegal in Utah, fireworks were going off all around us.  There were so many fireworks going off every where.  It was just an atmosphere and excitement that I had never experienced before.  I thought it was so fun.  We wanted to pull over and enjoy all the fun, but there was no place to park until you got out of town, then you'd have to walk back and we didn't think our tired kids would want to do that.  We thought the Hungry Horse experience was the best ever!  If we are in Montana over the 4th of July again, we know exactly where to go.  Being in Montana over the 4th was very different than being in Utah.  Everybody had the big really nice in the air fireworks (the professional kind - not the dinky ones that were recently made legal here in Utah), so they are going off all around you and it is so fun, exciting, and pretty.  The best 4th of July ever!  Besides the very first 4th of July that Roger and I spent together - I will always look back fondly on that one too.

Friday - July 5, 2013

We drove home today.  Driving home is my least favorite part of any vacation.  We passed a lot of these really beautiful bright yellow fields.  I love how pretty they are, so I had to stop and take a picture.

Our Montana Trip - Wednesday - July 3, 2013

 The kids were really scared to play outside or do anything with out Roger being there with us, so we spent most of our time sitting inside.  We had fun though.  We ate some lunch and spent the rest of the time playing Jenga.  When Roger got back, the kids weren't scared anymore.  Roger ate his lunch, then we all went outside to play.  The kids had fun running around and playing and Roger an I had a nice time sitting outside relaxing and watching them.

 After relaxing at the cabin for a little bit, we headed to Bowman Lake to play.  The water was really cold!  It was hard to get used to it.  The kids had a lot of fun playing with their floatie toys.  Roger and I decided that we would both go out in the water and both of us had to go under the water.  It was so cold, so it was really hard to do, but it was fun.

There was one really annoying thing while we were there......Horseflies!  There were a lot of them and for some reason they were attracted to me.  They were swarming me pretty much the whole time we were there.  I was so frustrated.  I kept running out into the water to get away from them, but they would follow.  Eventually it got too much for me to handle.  I got mad and decided I was just going to go to the truck  and change into my regular clothes, so they wouldn't be able to get to me as well.  I changed into long pants and I wore my big hoodie sweatshirt so I could be completely covered. up.  They still swarmed me, even after I changed, but it didn't bother me as much, when I was completely covered up.  I wasn't so scared of them stinging me.  After I changed my clothes, everybody else changed in to theirs also.  Then Roger started a fire for us.  We sat around the fire for a little while.  We had planned to roast hot dogs by the fire, but we realized that we had forgotten to bring our roasting sticks.  There was a little chipmunk in one of the fire pits.  It kept popping it's head out to look at us.  We had fun trying to get a good picture of it.  We also saw a few deer.  It was fun to try and get good pictures of the wild life.

 After our camp fire, Roger had a really good idea.  He suggested we take our chairs out to the lake, eat the snacks we had brought with us for dinner, and watch the sunset.  So, that's what we did.  It was so nice and relaxing.  I loved it!  Roger always comes up with the best ideas!

On the drive back to Grandma's,  the kids started listing all of the fun toys that they wanted to get for Christmas or their birthdays.  It was fun to hear them talking about all of the fun stuff they wanted, but that lead to a talk about how to be happy with what you have.  Parker told us that he had said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to let us see a deer running along the side of the road as we were driving home.  Heavenly Father answered his prayer, but he had fallen asleep so he didn't get to see it.  It was fun for all of us who were awake.

Our Montana Trip - Tuesday - July 2, 2013

In the morning, we headed back to Glacier National Park for a fun day of hiking and playing.  Parker was being a goof and wore Brinley's purple sweatshirt on the drive there.

 We took the first hiking turn out that we had taken the day before.  We wanted to hike on the actual Apgar Lookout Trail.

 I was being creative and took this pictures, so we could see the cool reflection of the scenery in Roger's sunglasses.  Go me for being so creative!

 We got way too hot!  Most of the trail was through an area that had been burned in a 2003 fire, so there was not a lot of shade.  We ended up turning around after we came across some people going down the trail on horse back.  They told us that we were about half way.  We were already pretty pooped and realized that we didn't have enough water with us to go all the way.  We'll try again next year.  When we got home that night, Grandma asked how it went.  She said that she was really worried about us since the news was reporting that the temperatures reached a record high for that day.  I think it got up to 97 degrees.

We finished our hiking trip then drove to Apgar to eat our lunch.  We sat in the shade and enjoyed our food.  When we finished eating, we drove to a different spot closer to Lake McDonald so we could play.  It felt really nice to cool off in that water.

 The kids were begging to go play at the playground by Grandma's house.  So, we decided now would be a good time.  On the way out, I realized that I don't have any pictures of Grandma's house.  I thought I would enjoy remembering what Grandma's house looked like, when we don't have the opportunity to go there anymore.

Roger was really funny playing on the playground.  He ended up falling off of this toy, as soon as I put the camera down so I could switch it to sport mode.  I got a picture of him on the ground, but It would have been funny to take a picture of him falling.

Before we left, we decided to play a few games of hopscotch.  It was a lot of fun, until Parker got upset over how the game was going and he started to throw a major fit.  We had to head back to Grandma's as soon as he started his temper tantrum.