Trip to Glacier National Park

We shared an action-packed adventure with Nate's family in Montana last week. His mom, sister Sarah, and her family (Bruce, Sam, Will, and Julia) all came out to celebrate his mom's 70th birthday. We spent most of the time near Glacier where we enjoyed some scenic hikes, swimming in clear mountain lakes, shared time at the cabin we rented, and a few bike rides. Claire loves spending time with her cousins, and she and Julia had some very cute moments together. (They also had some "Mine!" moments interspersed throughout the visit.)

Glacier is 5-6 hours away, so though it's in Montana, it isn't a place we've visited since living here. The trip up there was scenic (revealing all kinds of new territory we want to explore), and Glacier does have some spectacular alpine country.

The Pink Panther soundtrack is especially for Sam and Will who introduced Claire to "the mouse," as she calls it, while riding in the rental vehicle with its own built-in DVD player. This was a big hit for the many car hours they had over the week! Thanks to Nema, Tia, Bruce, Sam, Will and Julia for being such great travel companions and making the week so much fun.

Weekend in Denver

Claire and I spent a long weekend in Denver with my good friends from Calvin College. The Nydams graciously hosted us again, and Elisabeth and Simon Cooper flew in from Little Rock. Having four 2 year olds running around wasn't always conducive to in-depth, long conversation, but we did manage to fit our talks in here and there. We loved watching the kids together and sharing in the joy and frustration of being moms of toddlers.

It was hard to get a picture with all four together and happy since chances were one was in some kind of funk at all times. However, in the photo below they had some yummy homemade Popsicles made by Sugar Nydam and Trevor Nydam was making the kids laugh in the background.
We had a little pool time in the backyard. Here we were trying to bribe them with candy, but they weren't really going for it.

Bath time was a little chaotic...especially with Simon deciding to wash everyone's hair for them.

Claire and Elsie are great little buddies.

We attempted a hike. Let's just say Jane's sister, Jill, had to bring the car closer so it would be over sooner.

Since Jane and Elis are both expecting new babies in the fall, we're not sure how to make next year work...but we had a great visit!

4th of July Hike

After toying with the idea of going to the Ennis rodeo for the 4th, we decided to avoid the masses and go for a hike together in the Elkhorns. According to the map, we could drive to within a mile of Leslie Lake where we might find some of the cutthroat trout that are still native to the Elkhorns' streams and lakes. As I'm continually re-learning in Montana, the word "road" has many different interpretations on the maps. In this case, ATV track would be more accurate. We ended up stopping about 2 1/2 miles from the lake after a minor injury to the Subaru's bumper which Nate had to fix using his shoelace. Claire is "helping" in the photo below.

Not wanting to call it quits, we decide to see if Claire could last in the backpack the 3 miles or so that remained to the lake. She actually was quite content to ride in the backpack, and we made it to the lake just in time for a downpour to start. We weren't quite prepared gear-wise to hang out in the rain, so we ate a quick snack and started to hike back in the rain. Of course, the sun came out just as we arrived at the car. Still, we got out, saw some new country, got some exercise, and had a beautiful drive home on a back road that cuts from our house through the Elkhorns.