Glacier!!!

 And so begins the saga!  We left on Saturday morning (July 21) and went to Brigham to visit Grandma Christensen for a few minutes.  Then we stopped in Pocatello for lunch at Cafe Rio with mum, dad, and Kira.  Sadly, I only took a picture of Whit and Winston, because they were twinners :)

After lunch we drove the rest of the way to Helena and spent the night there.  We went to church in the morning and then drove to our lodge near Whitefish, Montana.  It was a beautiful drive and Winston did pretty good.  It was really nice to finally get there though!

 Monday morning we went for a little hike near our lodge.  There was this old truck parked at the trailhead.  We hiked for a little bit but Winston kept crying, so we turned back so we could take him home.  Of course, on the way back he fell asleep!  So Whit and I walked along the road up to Beaver Lake for a bit, and then turned around to go home.

 This is the sign marking the entrance to the lodge.  It was in such a pretty place!  It was really fun to stay in a place all together.  Thanks Grandma!  We went up there to celebrate her 90th birthday, and she paid for the lodge so we could all stay there, it was awesome!

 That afternoon we drove to Whitefish Lake.  We walked around for a bit and some got in the water, but we just watched from the shore.

 Tuesday morning we made the 45 minute drive into Glacier National Park.  We all met up at the Visitor's Center and then decided to go on a little hike.

 Here we all are :)

 The hike ended at a beautiful overlook of Lake McDonald.  So pretty!

 After the hike we stopped for lunch, and then drove to another part of the park.  We found another little hike, they called it a nature trail.  It was supposed to be a "leisurely" hike, not very strenuous or long.  So we thought we could take Winston in the stroller since he'd been in the backpack all morning.  So we started along the trail and the stroller seemed to be ok, even though the trail got pretty narrow at parts.

 And then the trail went straight uphill!  We were all kind of surprised at that, but Whit was a champ and just kept pushing the stroller.  You can't really tell in the picture, but it was a really steep trail!

 All of the bouncing around put Winston to sleep!  He's so funny.  We took his picture by this pine tree, because they are both so cute :)  This part of the park had a big fire about 10 years ago, so we were walking through all of the new little trees.  The tallest ones came up to our shoulders, and it was so cool to walk through this mini forest!  It made me feel like a giant, since all of the trees were so little.

 Here are my aunt and uncle in the middle of the tiny trees!

 And here is my Grandma Fife with all of her children!  She is one neat lady and it was so fun to be near her old stomping grounds.  She grew up in Canada and used to go to the Canada side of Glacier Park for her summer vacations.  Some of them got to go up to Canada to visit where she grew up, but I didn't get my passport back in enough time, so we didn't go.  But I did get to go a few years ago, so it's ok.  I just wish Whit could have gone.  We'll just have to go back sometime!

 Of course we had to take a jumping picture :)  Whit told Kira she has chicken legs!

 By the time we were winding up pictures, Winston woke up.  So we got a cute family photo :)

 Wednesday we drove back to the park and drove along the "Road to the Sun."  They were having some construction along the 2 lane road, so we had to stop and wait for a long time.  But it's not so bad waiting when this is the view out of your window!  I took these pictures with my phone.  It was just so pretty up there!

 Another view from the road.  We finally made it up to Logan Pass at the top, and then decided it would probably be faster to continue on to the other side of the park and go back that way, instead of on the road to the sun again.  It seriously took us about 45 minutes to go 10 miles on that road!  It was pretty but really slow going.  So we went to the other side of the park and guess what?  The road we needed to go on was closed!  Of course.  So we had to make a 35 mile detour to get to where we needed to go.  So much driving!

 But we finally made it to Two Medicine Lake.  Mum and Dad paid for us to go on a little boat ride across the lake, so we could hike to a waterfall.

 This is where we got on the boat,

 and this is the waterfall where we ended.  It was a super pretty hike and it felt even better to be hiking since we had been in the car all day :)

 I know we are bad parents, but Winston is really good at sitting up on his own.  So we put him on this rock in the middle of the river so we could get a cool photo.  But he wouldn't smile.  Oh well!

 He sure smiled when he got to pull grandma's hair!

 I just love his double chin :)

 Thursday we just spent hanging around the lodge in Whitefish.  It was in such a pretty spot and it was nice to just relax before heading home.

We got all packed the night before, so when Winston woke up at 5:15 Friday morning, we fed him, packed up the last of our stuff, and were on the road by 6:00!  Winston was a champ and slept for so long!  Then when he did wake up, he was happy and just played in his car seat.  We were pleasantly surprised that he was so good on the way home!

 We stopped in Missoula for breakfast, Idaho Falls for lunch, and here at Tremonton, just to get out of the car and stretch our legs.

We ended up pulling into our garage at 6:00 pm.  12 hours exact for the drive home.  We were so happy to be home!  It was a wonderful trip, we had such a great time seeing new places and being with family.  Whit says we put 1875 miles on the truck, so now we know how Winston does on long road trips.  We'll probably be up for another one, just not anytime soon!  It's really true, there's no place like home!