The boys all headed to Scout Camp while the girls headed to Montana. There was much debate over where the girls were going on our girls trip. The boys vetoed just about everything we thought up. Apparently they don't think of scout camp as much of an exotic vacation. I don't know why learning how to drain a flipped canoe and climb back into it out of frigid water isn't as cool as a cruise to Mexico...We ended up settling on Montana with cousin Lydia. We had an amazing time and didn't make the boys too jealous with our destination.
Montana Trip
Monday July 6 SLC-Idaho, fireworks, license plate game, wedding dress shopping with Amanda,
Tues July 7 Opportunity Sign, drive to Montana, Opal mining, pretty drive, glad to arrive, popcorn in the lobby, swimming in pool, Comfort Inn Big Sky, Thai Food, Ice Cream at Sweet Peaks. more swimming in the pool, Nice guys lent us their blower for our intertube, showers, snacks in the lobby, popcorn in the lobby- ukulele on the bed at night
Wednesday July 8 - House looking day today. Early meeting at 9:30. Met an agent at 785 Lower Valley Road in Kalispell. The property was pretty amazing, the house, not so much. It does come with a bonus chapel so, if we need a quick wedding we are set. The list price is 1.2million but they said there was a little wiggle room as the couple is impatient. I think the house has been on and off the market for at least five years it sounds like. It has been listed for as high as 2.2 million and is at it’s lowest at 1.2 million. The property appraised at some point for $750,000. I love the location, it has a pond, it is river front and has a tiny beach. Has a gazebo, swings, pasture that is fenced in, a greenhouse, and plenty of great space as it’s on ten acres. The home itself is dated and needs a big redo. It also has a blue metal roof. Like a royal blue color, well the blue is on all the buildings and in every room throughout. I guess blue was their color.
The realtor brought a builder with her and he thought a redo on the main floor was possible. We could pull out the fireplace that is sitting right in the middle of the main floor area; open it up and modernize it. The problem is we wouldn’t have ANY money left if we bought this house. It has blonde maple throughout and the carpets all need to be replaced. Not to mention the property is huge and would take tons of work to keep up with. I think we could find a place that is already modernized for much cheaper.
We then hit the beach and checked out the Whitefish Lake State Park area. It was a gorgeous lake and the girls had a great time splashing in the water, floating on the tube and digging clay out of the lake bed. The ice cream lady came by playing her mechanical tune in her hot pink ice cream truck and the girls enjoyed an ice cream cone. I enjoyed reading my book up on the grass.
Our next appointment rolled around quickly and we went touring through a country home and a city home. We joked about the country mice and the city mice fable. Problem is I just can’t figure out what kind of mouse I am. The city home was close to the schools, very close actually the kids could all walk except Tyler. He would have to bike into school. The High School and the elementary would be a block away. They HS and Middle School get great ratings up in Whitefish. Better than down in Kalispell. Columbia Falls HS gets terrible ratings. According to testing it goes Whitefish highest, Kalispell medium, Columbia Falls dead last. The city home was well, dated. Seems to be a theme around here. It was on a .4 acre parcel but it felt pretty small as the house was set back nearly to the back of the property. There is a wide open field in the back of the house right now, farm land, but that could be sold off and parceled out into home lots in the future. I guess at that point we could buy a couple and expand the yard but for now it’s a tiny backyard with a great and spacious field behind it. The house had four bedrooms, but barely. They count a room which opens into the garage and you would pass through to come in and out of the house as a bedroom. I would consider it a study as it is clearly a walk through room. So it is really a three room house. Listed for $525,000. I was not impressed but I really did like the neighborhood it was in. The address was 1019 Creek View Rd or Dr.
The country house was on 5 acres, felt really big compared to the other lot. It is down a dirt road, long dirt road that we would have to pay to have plowed out in the winter. Has a fenced in pasture. Cool bonus room above the garage. It has closets and a bathroom, it’s furnished with sofas and a desk/computer table. Could make a fun game room for the boys. No air conditioning in either of the houses in Whitefish. What, no AC? Crazy right? They do have venting for the heater so for a quick $4500 you can have AC added. The country house had a bit more open feel to it but it had segregated dining room and entry/living room area that is not connected to anything. The Home Teaching room as we call it in Utah. I don’t really care for all the little separate spaces I think it’s wasted space. The house also had an island to eat at, a kitchen table to eat at, the dining room to eat in and the deck to eat on…..that is far to much space wasted on eating rooms if you ask me.
Anyhow, between the three properties I would not buy any of them but I did get a good idea of what is available in the area….dated was the theme of today. I hope to meet with a builder and see a new home. That might cheer me up a bit. So tired….I had a splitting headache after playing at Big Mountain, we rode the lift up and back down and explored the ski resort a bit. I unfortunately forgot my tylenol and the gift shop had closed. I think I didn’t drink enough water today while at the Lake. I must be dehydrated or something.
The girls have had a fun day, lake swimming, resort playing (Big Mountain lift ride spotted the ropes course), swimming pool for at least two hours tonight. They got McDonald’s chicken nugget happy meals for dinner. I ate leftover Thai food and we chilled at the hotel. They also got to run down for snacks out of the vending machine. It’s amazing what makes them happy. Funny girls.
Thursday- Had to get up early enough to eat the hotel breakfast so we set an alarm for 8:30 but we were already up by then. The girls are loving a bit of independence and went down to breakfast without me. They took a key with them which they think is awesome too, anytime they can take a key and go out on their own they are happy. We prepped for Glacier and got a few snacks together. The roads were under construction and I called a guy Chris Pickering to see if he could show us a new home build he is working on. He called me back just as we were heading gin the wrong direction but I figured we needed to swing around and go meet the guy. Off to Big Fork we went, it’s on the northeast side of the Flathead Lake. He was working on a house in a development there. Nice home, lots of beam work and the place looks like it is going to be gorgeous. Chris is a nice guys, seems like he would be easy to work with and flexible. He drove us over to show us a property his brother is building right now as well. It is situated Lake front and is also a really cool house. The lot next to it is for sale and I wouldn’t hesitate to grab it up. Seriously looks like a perfect setting though Big Fork is a bit out of the way. The girls were definitely getting bored of the home looking stuff but they were good sports. They like to hide under the inter tube in the back of the car whenever they got the chance. It was like a little fort in the trunk. I like Chris, he seems like he could help us find a perfect lot and knows what he is doing. He said he could design us a custom floor plan to fit whatever lot we decide on. I’m sold.
We headed off for Glacier. We missed the traffic taking a different highway north. Found a Huckleberry Store and stocked up for the boys. Couple T-shirts, Huckleberry jam and honey, etc. We were hungry and it was already past lunchtime so we grabbed a burger at the Huckleberry store, plus a huckleberry milkshake. The milkshake was great! The girls had a giggle over the Michael Jackson life-size poster. They asked who the girl was and I told them it was Michael Jackson- it took some convincing for them to believe me. Can’t say as I blame them, he did look like a girl for a while there.
We made it into Glacier Park and had to buy a new year pass as I left mine in my car. We will have two for Jackson this year which may not be a bad thing. Seems like we always need more while we are in the park. We got about ten miles into the park and found the McDonald Lodge. The girls were itching to get into another Lake and play. They had so much fun in Whitefish Lake they wanted another shot at a Lake. They changed into their swimsuits in the car and we dragged the intertube through the lobby of the hotel down to the dock. The girls played for a solid three hours. It is astonishing how much they love to play in water. They chased the minnows around and found a grocery bag and tried to net them. They eventually found a fishing lure and begged some line off the guy selling boat tickets. Tied their lure onto a stick but never did catch anything. These fish are savey. We rented a row boat and rowed out on the McDonald Lake for about forty-five minutes. Both girls got a shot at navigating the oars. They did alright. They were really heavy oars. We eventually got to hot and paddled back in. I sat and read the book “A Wrinkle in Time” I almost have it finished, but not quite. I got a good chunk of it read waiting on the girls. I eventually decided they would never finish up on their own so I made them dry off and get out so we could see some more of Glacier National Park. We packed up our stuff and slowly drove through the parking lot checking license plates. We have 35 of the 50 states found now. Getting pretty close. We enjoyed the cute Red Bus Tours with their old fashioned bus look to them. They add a nice touch to the park atmosphere. I guess you can buy a ticket with the red bus tour and they will drive you through the park and give you information while going along. We drove ourselves.
We made it to the Avalanche Waterfalls before turning off again. We hiked the Cedar Trail and enjoyed the beautiful tree trunks of the large trees in the forest. The walkway started out with much the same feel as the Bamboo forest in HI. I knew I was going to like the hike right off. When we got to the point where you keep on the Cedar Trail loop or head up to the Avalanche Lake the girls picked the two mile hike to the lake. Much to my surprsise. They wanted more time in a Lake! So we did a bit of hiking. There is a portion of this hike where the river has cut into some rock and created the most gorgeous slot canyon waterfall I have ever seen. The water is a turquoise blue color and the rocks are red and the effect of the water flowing along the silky smooth rock canyon is mesmerizing.
It was fairly strenuous and mostly uphill but the lake at the top was gorgeous. Since the girls both still had their suit son they stripped off their shoes and pants and headed right in the water. Another hour of lake play went on. I unfortunately did not have a book with me this time so I chatted it up with a mother from Uganda who had moved to Montana. They are loving it in Montana.
The Lake has three beautiful waterfalls cascading from hundreds of feet above straight down into the far side of the shore. It seems the glaciers are melting, rapidly. The waterfalls had pretty good flow. They did say it was a really hot week up here. I eventually dragged the girls out of the Lake and we started our descent. It was already after five by the time we got back to the car. We are barely even fifteen miles into the park at this point. We really had to increase our touring rate if we were going to see any of the Road To The Sun at all. We started booking it and were able to see some gorgeous waterfalls, the Weeping Wall. Jackson’s glacier, a mountain goat while the girls were still awake and an entire herd of about twenty goats after they had fallen asleep on the ride back down. We pulled off and spent some time looking at a glacier that was on the side of the road. I am shocked at how fast it is melting. It may not make it through the end of this summer at the rate it was dripping. We were starving and it was getting on past 9:00. I was hoping with all my hope there would be a restaurant open when we got to the next lodge which was on Lake Mary but not yet to the Lake Mary’s Lodge at the East Entrance. Thankfully they are open until 10:00 so we stopped and the girls ate butterlfy pasta with meatballs and red sauce, I had a Northern Bean Soup and a salad with huckleberry vinaigrette dressing. We were so very grateful for our dinner at 9:10. The girls went to the gift shop and picked out a snugly stuffed animal. Ally got a Bear and Lydia bought a Beaver. The guy working told us he had just closed his till for the night and they would be open again at 6:30am. Well, all the good that would do us. We were saying good-bye to their stuffed friends when another worker came over and said he hadn’t signed out yet for the evening and could check us out. The girls were thrilled and quickly made their purchases. Saved by the back-up worker!
The girls were wiped out and fell asleep within thirty seconds of me heading west to get back to Kalispell. I enjoyed a beautiful, not a good enough word, magnificent sunset on my drive back down the Road to the Sun. The mountain peaks seemed to go on forever and the sky glowed pinks and purples with the blue hilltops fading off into the distance. Glorious. I nearly ran over the entire herd of mountain goats. That would have been bad. Followed along slowly behind them for a hundred yards before they decided to peel off the road and head up the hillside. The drive out went by much more quickly than the drive in. I was excited for it to get good and dark so I could watch for the Northern Lights while driving back to the hotel. Unfortunately it didn’t get really dark until almost midnight. We are way up north!!! Around midnight I pulled off to the side of the road, opened the sunroof and just looked up at the night sky. So many stars were out and when cars weren’t passing by it was good and dark. I did get to see a few faint swishes of the northern lights but not quite what I had been hoping for. It was thrilling to see the faint lights but you really had to try hard to see them. Ally eventually woke and joined me for the light show. She wasn’t able to make out the few faint swirls through the tall pine trees. With much begging that we get back on the road we headed off again. I stopped again out on a county road where there was no blockage from any trees and tried to see the lights again but there was light pollution from Whitefish and it made it to hard to see any from that point. I’m a bit disappointed as I wanted a really awesome showing but just got a few little blips that Ally couldn’t even make out at all. Dang it.
The girls hardly remember walking from the car into the hotel after 12:30. They were both so tired and quickly fell to sleep.
Friday- The girls kept talking about this Ropes Course up at Whitefish Big Mountain Ski Resort. I wanted to go see something new and different but they would not be deterred so I gave in. The girls were up super early and I was still soundly sleeping, or would have been, so I had them go down to breakfast. They ate quickly, darn and returned to the room. They both needed to shower since they didn’t wash the Avalanche Lake mud off of them last night. They took a bath together in their swimsuits while I went down for breakfast. Then we packed up out stuff and said goodbye to our Comfort Inn Big Sky with the adjoining casino, that was a surprise Black Angus Casino shared our parking lot though we didn’t hardly notice.
The girls were careful to keep their swimsuits handy in case we came across any Lakes they could jump in while we traveled. The ropes course was fantastic. They had four different levels. The girls and I did the yellow, green, and blue courses. The elements were tricky enough to be hard and hard enough to be scary but not to overwhelming. The scariest on for me was the trapeze where you hang from a trapeze and slide to the next pole. Luckily I was able to hang on long enough to make it across. Lydia and Ally were both really brave and confronted each new challenge with excitement and confidence. I was proud of them both! We were all supportive of each other and very encouraging. They even helped a boy who was stuck on a zip-line and showed real compassion for his fears which they fully understood as we had all just confronted our own.
The girls outlasted me on the ropes course. They ran one extra course through. My sugar was low and I was starting to feel shaky so I pulled out after forty five minutes. They had enough time to go one more time around on the yellow though without me. Lydia was starving but Ally really wanted to go once more so she was nice and quickly agreed to go again.
Lunch was alright, it filled us up at least. I got a BLT and the girls had chicken fingers, again. It seems these girls like chicken.
We loaded up the car and headed for Idaho, our fun times in Montana were done. Well, we though they were at least. Montana is a very large state and it too forever to get back down to Idaho. The girls laughed the entire way taking good care of their new stuffed animal babies purchased last night. They also talked on their “cell phones” they bought at the gas station we filled up at just after leaving Whitefish. I made a couple wrong turns but we got home just the same. McDonald’s was our restaurant of choice again on our drive down. The girls got chicken nuggets and I had an Asian salad. The giggling was getting out of control on our drive into Rexburg. It’s good we were almost home Lydia was staring to loose her voice. Fun times.
Welcome baby Walker. 
Travelers gotta eat to. At the gateway to Shendoah, unfortunately there was not time to drive through the mountains. 
I love a borrowed baby! They are the best kind.