Friday, September 30, 2011

Summer Adventure

First Stop: S'mores in Coeur D'Alene with Leo's cousin

Second stop: West Glacier



 A day in Whitefish


Our first stop in Glacier National Park


Lots of rain, but it was still so beautiful!








Chadron Family time


Solomon loved the water at Grandma and Grandpa's cabin.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

A week in Glacier

Our summer vacation started with a trip to Glacier. Our first stop was s'mores in Coeur D'Alene with Leo's cousin. Next was a two day stay in an out-of-the-way, eerily empty, lovely log cabin resort with the most accomodating hostess. We kayaked, fished and ran laps around the lake outside our cabin. We spent a day in Whitefish meandering and taking shelter from the rain in a crafty kind of shop.









Walking out of the ice cream shop Meggie noted how Solomon has grown. We had the poor boy walking around like this.


We headed into Glacier from the West entrance and it wasn't long before it became quite spectacular even in the rain. 






 Momma and baby quail









In East Glacier Park, the circa 1912 Glacier Park Lodge was the original lodge people traveled to to see the park. They would horseback into the park from here. We didn't stay at the lodge, a bit spendy, but instead stayed at a sketch spot not too far away.  


 In the teeny town of East Glacier, they boast the world's largest purple spoon. It is actually advertising for a wooden spoon shop next door. What we all appreciated was the huckleberry pies made a couple doors down from the spoons.


We did not carry bear spray, which kept me on my toes and a bit nervous. Everyone we passed had cans of spray. Simon was fortunate enough to come just yards away from a grizzly, see it and then have it run the other direction on the path. Eva was feet in front of him but too busy swatting mosquitos to notice. And the rest of us were just too far behind to see.






 Following this path we encountered spray carrying individuals and groups who were turning around having been stopped by rangers up near the mountain pass. A father and his sons encountered a pair of young grizzlies and dropping his backpack stopped their potential attack.










Bears or not, truly spectacular!!!

Summer Catch-up

I have been lax in posting our family events and it hasn't been because of boredom. We have had a whirlwind summer between individual and family travels, home remodel, family reunions, camping and hiking adventures and just living. The littles seemed to go between overload and "there's nothin' to do" while Mom was always on overload.

The summer started with Simon in Peru. The early start to travel took him out of school a week early but caught up to him when he went to get his Junior year schedule. Apparently students are withdrawn if they are out a week. He started off the school year, a boy without a school and without a schedule. All is well now and he has more of a schedule than he'd like.

Eva was in Texas dancing  much of late June/early July and I was orchestrating bathroom, kitchen and plumbing remodel. We did manage some 4th of July activities, berry picking and swimming, but Lydia and Solomon were more than happy to see Eva and Simon's return.