Relaxin'

There are OH so many ways to relax in God's Country.  Luke didn't get that concept.  He liked to start each day around 5:45 a.m.  Since no one else was awake yet we would go out on the deck to keep the house nice and quiet.

About an hour later Griff would roll out of bed and join us on the deck.

The deck has so much to offer... tugboats

Table dancing

Chillin

 

Watching the Sunrise

And last but not least, Dog riding.  Ammo is a good sport.

When we weren't on the deck we had lots of fun inside Omie and Kug's house too!

They pulled out the balls and ball house...

then the swimming pool for balls, who need's Chuck E Cheeses?

And when we got tired of that, we just started pulling stuff out of the cupboards.

Another one of our relaxing daily activities was running/walking/hiking the driveway.  Omie and Kug's driveway is one mile round trip.  The way down is steep and easy.  The way up is steep and HARD!  We would pack up these little goobers and trek it on down the mountain.

And of course stop for a photo op on the way back up.  Can you believe how beautiful this place is?

Later we'd hop in the hot tub and stare out over the amazing Flathead Lake.

Once in a while we would get crazy (take showers and put clothes on) and head into town.

This little park was fun for everyone!

Luke loves the swing!

Griffin is terrified of the swing... 

Luke got a little wasted... or maybe he was just loosing air because of the choke hold I have him in?

And we took a generous amount of self portraits.

Glacier National Park

On Monday we loaded up the older kids (Omie and Kug watch Luke and Barrett) and we headed out to Glacier National Park.  

Back: Beck, Cami and Carson-- Front:  Griff,of course

This is me trying to keep Griff occupied while we waited for our food. We couldn't start off a day of adventure without lunch!

Apparently Cort and I have a thing for dirty old men

Once our bellies were full, we took of for the Trail of the Cedars nature trail.

Griff throwing rocks in the river

Going, Going, Gone!

Then we were off to Logan Pass.  Not without first sitting in construction traffic on the Going to the Sun road.  When we finally made it to the top there was no where to park.  After circling the parking lot several times with no luck Cort started to have an anxiety attack so I quickly jumped out of the car and kindly asked a man sitting in his car if he was leaving.  When he said yes I just stood in the middle of the spot to reserve it for us!  All was well!

Griffin did quite a bit of hiking on his own but took full advantage of the free ride also!

It's a good thing that we finally saw a mountain goat because Griffin said about 900 times, "I wanna see a mountain goat, I wanna see a mountain goat mom!"

The only place that I have ever seen snow in August!

Cort did her fair share of toting this guy around too.

Heading back down.

This place is just breathtaking.  Everywhere you turn is something new to take in!  I'm so glad we got to go!  Cort and I agreed that we both missed our husbands on this trip.  Mostly, because they would have been the ones driving home so that we could sleep in the back.  Haha, I joke!  Neither of us had been there without them so we really did miss them.

Montana: Day 1 & 2

The boys and I packed up, grabbed Addie and headed up to Montana for a week.  My friend Cortney's parents live there and she was staying with them for the entire month of August. My dad was nice enough to let us use his truck with lots of room for all the luggage that comes with vacationing with two kids.  

Hello there Uncle Sam!  Please guide us on our way!
(Yes, he is permanently mounted to the dashboard.  Yes, he does have a bobble head,  Yes, his pointer finger has been broken off.)

Ok, well Uncle Sam didn't do his job very well.  Neither did the GPS (I was wondering why it kept telling me that our estimated arrival time was getting later and later.)  Yes, let's blame it on them that we ended up in Burley, Idaho.  75 miles in the wrong direction.  I obviously am not used to being the one who drives on these adventures.  So we made a quick stop at the A&W for lunch, turned around and got back on track.  So what if we just added 2+ hours to our already 10 hour drive?  It's about the journey, right?  Addie and I got a good laugh anyway!

Luke, enjoying Addie's Carmex for lunch.

Once back on track we made it a good 3 hours before stopping in Butte.  We found the perfect little park for the boys to run around.

Getting some energy out!

We happened to get a photo of the 12 minutes that Griffin slept.  Both of my boys did very well, thank goodness!

We made a very quick stop in Missoula to drop Brady off to my sister Megan.   I forgot to mention that he was traveling with us.  He had been staying with my parents for a couple of weeks.  She lives near Spokane, Washington so this was a convenient meeting spot.

And, finally, we made it!  This is the amazing view of Flathead Lake from the Kugler's Deck. They live in Big Arm, Montana.  

Our first day we took it very easy.  We went into Polsen for the Art Festival where I scored a darling quilt for what felt like stealing it was so awesome!  

Griff at the art festival, wanted to take this horse home with us.

Later that day we ventured down to the lake to let the kiddos play.  Griff was not really diggin it.  It was COLD and he didn't want to go out far enough to really even get wet. 

Luke, on the other hand has no fear!

This place is absolutely beautiful!

We ended the day with a nice warm bath and some discovering that one of these things is not like the other...

Luke, Barrett and Griff rub a dubbin!