On the Road Again...

Bright and early Monday morning, we headed out for a week long, long awaited vacation to Flathead Lake. 5:45 am rise and shine. We stopped at Mickey D's for some brekky and then straight for Petersons's for a pit stop, some 4 hours north! It was so good to spend time with our all moved away BFF's. The kids had a ball, and to be honest, we coulda stayed there and been just fine!
But no, we had a mission, and it was in Montana. So, back on the road we got, 2 hours later.

I had Hunger Games to keep me company, so the drive there seemed so quick! too bad I had nothing to distract me on the way home....oh bother....

but

anywho

we crossed the continental divide of sweet coldness
and had to stop and get a picture for the father.
it was FREEZING.

luckily the kids all zonkered out the last couple of hours of the drive. We may or may not have given Sawyer a little child's benadryl to help lengthen the process, but do you know her at all???? It was a blessing from heaven!

and at long last, we entered Missoula!!!!
FREEDOM!!!!!

We met Robbie and Kate for dinner at Mackenzie River Pizza
yummo!!!

After another brief drive, we made it to the lake house. Oh the lake house. It's so beautiful there. Everything about it is perfection- although, the weather this week was a bit off for our liking...danget!!!!
we set right off to show the kids the lake.

then on to the housewe got everyone all settled in and the kids started in on the fun!
ARRR MATEY!!!!

con's treasures and best pirate face EVER!

we got to sleep that night, all ready for fun at the lake the next morn!
here's the real house. We were able to stay in the guest house, but this place was built last year and it's just beautiful!

back yard patio

and sweetest little stream that goes through the property

Max jumped right in

and the kids loved the bridge!

they were beyond excited to get to the dock. Little did they know how freakishly freezing the water was. They were pretty bummed when they touched it and their hair stood on end from fright!

beautimus

Sawyer was freezing but wanted to go on a ride with her dad sooo badly!

and i took this opportunity to photograph Miss Finley's first time here. Don't worry that there's a place only a mile away called "Finley Point" that we forgot to get a picture of.....sadness....

Max and dad off on a ride

Sawyer anxiously waiting her turn.....oh the excitement!!!!!!
pure gigglefest!

loved it!

i love that she was doing thumbs up with her pigs for like 3 minutes and didn't even care.

And Max got a crazy idea to jump in the water. The fact that there was all this water just lying around with no one playing in it was KILLING him. I told him he was going to hate it, but nothing could talk him out of it! So, jump he did!!!!

And 2 seconds later, he came up out of the water wailing- HELP HELP!!!!!
I really think he thought he was going to die a slow, cold, death.

Con was the most nervous of all, but I pretty much MADE her go on a ride. Then, she was hooked and never wanted to get off.

post- I think I'm dying cuz it's freaking cold in here- episode.

girls all ready for a ride!view from the docks

the nest way up there, full of little birdies. They were loud.

just needing to touch it with her toesies

so nervous to embark on this adventure. She told dad she just wanted to go medium.

and medium she went- then wanted "faster."

Conli couldn't handle not being able to get in the water cuz it was so freezing, so she just touched her toesies in too.

and after getting all warmed up from the days' festivities, the kids snuggled up for a night time movie.

We ventured into Big Fork for the evening this night, and after walking around for a while, picking up some gifts for the kids and realizing that most of the town was closed at 7:00, we were lucky enough to get referred to Grille 459.
this place was heavenly.
these beauties are scotch eggs, and they good!

brent had a 459 burger. they were not messing around.
ham- check.
burger- check.
fried egg- check.
full? bingo!

seriously, if you ever find yourself in Big Fork Montana with no where to eat, you must go here. Their sweet potato fries are DELICIOUS and pretty much everything there rules! And the servings are ginormous!!! I had a chicken teriyaki burger and it was heaven on a bun!

post Big Fork, we hit the outdoors for some more lake time.
some bits of the lake for dad

love my blonde girly

Conli lovin on her daddy. She always pets his face....it's so cute/weird! :)

cuteness

Max getting stoked about the crashing waves.

splashings

Sawyer and her drink of choice....my bad!

the waves were CRAZY this night. the picture doesn't do it justice. It was really cool. It was crazy loud and Max karate chopped at them for a good 5 minutes.

and just some more pictures of the lake house for my friends who wanted to see:
bathroom off the entrance from the lake

love this part

coolest stove ever

prettiest stairs for the girls to practice princess-ing

cute lil nook in the bathroom

kids room/ kinda castle-ish

thought it was so cool

ya, they're real life fossils just swimming up and around the wall

pretty view from an upstairs room

and this was the guest house where we stayed- it was perfect!

This was the kids' dungeon. They were in heaven!

living room in dungeon

Brent's domain for the week. The beds are queen sized. Brent doesn't share the queen sized. So, we had our own rooms. It worked out swell. All except for the night Conli and I had a sleep over. The girl is THEE WORST person to sleep with EVER. I pray for her husband that she stops grinding her teeth, and that she learns to sleep the direction the bed is made to sleep in at some point. I was constantly pushing her feet off me....not a pleasant sleeping sitch!

kitchen- modeled by con

and my room

although the weather wasn't on our team for this trip, we were still able to spend lots of time together, which was the point. We were able to cuddle up on the couch and just be. It was wonderful. The kids ate up having their daddy at their beckon call for 4 days, and so did I. It was nice to have him around 24/7 with little distraction. What on earth would we do without our Big Red!!!!! I love you Brent!

Wednesday we decided to venture over to Glacier National Park. It was only about an hour and a half away, and since we'd heard awesome things about it, why not!?
And disappoint, it did not! It was BEAUTIFUL.
can't really explain it. It smelled delicous, and everything we saw was magnificent!
we were told there were lots of mountain goats and things along the way, but unfortunately the only wildlife we saw were gophers and deer- but the kids were satisfied with that. We spent the whole afternoon driving around the park.

a lil freedom.
there were a lot of people pulled over to look at something along this stretch of pine, so brent pulled over to let the kids stretch out their little leggies. I wasn't feeling too hot this day, so I took the time for a quick nappie and boy was it great- except for when I'd get scared that a bear was coming out of the woods to attack me cuz it could smell my huckleberry licorice and i'd be left for dead cuz my family was up the beaten path.....and this my friends is what was protecting us from plummeting to our deaths a billion miles below....this bitty pretty rock wall. ARE YOU KIDDING MONTANA?????

just a random waterfall off the side of the road.see the cliff we were toying with the whole way up the mountain? AHHHH!!!

Soy thought this was a hilarious game. And don't get me wrong, it was....for the first 3 times.

there is beauty all around...

This was just a glance back on the road we'd driven up on. I could hardly handle looking out my window the whole way up. You're on this teensy little road, and construction's going on half of the time, and one side is mountain, and the other side is STRAIGHT DOWN CLIFF to your death. It was killing me. I'm not a lover of the heights! The line almost straight across is the road, and although the pictures tricks you into thinking it's nice and gradual off the side of it, it's not! And it's just a valley down there.....oh be still my heart!

All they really cared about were the little gophers everywhere. They would've watched them all day. I told them that if they flapped their arms in the air and clicked their knees together it'd get them to come over to us, but they only bought it for about 10 seconds when a nice lady walking by called my bluff....dang strangers!

our friend the gopher

We went on a little mile and a half hike up to what we thought was the base of that mountain in the background to the right....unfortunately for the girls, they were wiped out and didn't want to carry on to "hidden lake" that was probably another mile away. So, Max and the Mister went on their way, and we jumped down each and every step all the way back down. Don't you worry, I only peed twice, then tapped out on the jumpings, and just observed my cute girls.

so so so so pretty. The picture's don't do it justice.

after a 3 hour drive, all the kids really wanted to do was dig. really? we could've stayed home and saved a TON on gas.....

but we did finally get them talked into climbing a little and the view was spectacular.
this is Hidden Lake, where Brent and Max go to go. It was beautiful.

finally made it!!!!

still hiking...in flip flops.....

these trees are just little mini pine trees for christmassy goodness! They weren't 50 feet away from us. I felt like we had just happened upon the shire! I loved it! they were so cute!

plum.tuckered.out.

just being a good sport on the drive home. She was amazingly good on this drive-our biggest concern was seriously how she'd do. We were so proud of her!

Yes, she is leery every time we get in the car now- and it's been 2 weeks. Her first question is, "how long are we gonna be here?" Poor dear......

and this is Lake McDonald. Not bad for a view eh!? There was a little old polish man out fishing it, so of course Brent had to pull off the road and chat with him for a minute.

and this, is me getting caught sneaking yet another piece of delicious huckleberry licorice. It's like kool aid, but better, and better. It was soooo nummy!

picked up some "buffalo blood" for pops. It's one of his favorite things and we couldn't come home without it.

and we had to get him a picture of this tatonka....holy moly

back at the house Max got right to the water. Oh how he wanted to play in it always.

the girls were fine on the outskirts, but they still found plenty of rocks!

The rocks of Flathead Lake

my calico kidlets collecting as many as they can for their Papa

then it was time for more rides on the jet ski

cute girlies

baby girlSawyer would just squeal with delight on her rides. It was so funny!

Conli LOVED the rides!

so so so so pretty!

Apparently the boys in this family are INSANE because they decided to get in the 50 degree water.....PSYCHO balls! I guess Max didn't get his fill of "death defying feats" the day before. We went out for some more jet skiing after we got home from Glacier and Max was just dying to get back in the water. Mind you the words, "HELP ME" were screeching from his lips the last time he tried this, but no, had to do it again. And this time, dad joined in. Well, I counted to 3 and they grabbed hands and ran to the end of the dock, then Max jumped and turned just in time to see that his father, who he loves and trusts with his whole heart, and left him to jump alone. It was heart breaking. He came up out of the water yelling, "HAAAYYYYY YOU DUMMY HEAD!!!!!!" Max isn't a dummy head kind of boy, so we knew Brent was in trouble....needless to say, he succumbed and jumped right in. And he wanted to die from the coldness.
All was well as he rose up out of the water and Max started laughing his head off.

We were able to have Robbie and Kate join us for dinner our last night there at this jewel of a bar & grill in Poulsen. HOLY GOODNESS! I ain't kiddin- this place is LEGIT!!!! It was delicious! And karaoke night was going on in the bar next door with enough gusto to entertain us the entire evening! The only let down is the fact that I've been craving, madly, apple pie for months, and it was on the menu. I saved room for it and everything, and then the waitress has the nerve to tell me they no longer have it.....WHATEVER!!!!!!

luckily, my mommy loves me and bought me one later on in the week. Craving squashed.

Thursday morning, Brent got up early to go fishing. The weather was still not in our favor, so the kids just played inside while I cleaned up and got everything ready to go. Around 2:00 Brent was home and we packed up and headed out. It was such a beautiful place, and maybe we'll get lucky enough to go next year when the weather is nice so we can have the vacation I'd dreamed of---my kids (and me) playing in the lake to their hearts content for days. It will be glorious.

Either way, we are SOOOO grateful to the Visser's for being SO gracious and letting us come up and stay. They are such awesome people! Our kids will never forget it!

Montana's such a beautiful place.
I loved every bit of it.
Dad and Mom- it missed you this time, so you better get there next time!

signing off from M-town with a pretty picture of the train as we were heading out of Missoula

It was a LONG, DREARY, WET, drive home. I about had a complete come apart in Idaho Falls realizing there was still SO long to go and we'd been in the freaking car for what seemed like 45 days! The kids did fantastic! They got a wee bit antsy on the way home too, but I could NOT blame them!!!! Can you say ROAD TRIP???? let me remind you how I'm NOT a fan of the drivings.....that's true love Mr. Ramey, and you know it!

Sawyer spent lots of time playing her leapster and pretending to be "praygnit". She's in love with the idea of a baby in mom's tummy and pretends she's got one all the time. It's awesome. Apparently though, she thinks your belly has to be showing as proof to being pregnant- no, she did not get that from me- this ginormous gut is hidden at all times!

We decided we'd stay at my parents for a few days since we cut our trip short. It was a good plan. We love staying up there. Although there wasn't tons to do, it was still a vacation. My family's so good to us. Friday afternoon, we ventured off to a little zoo they have there. It's one dollar for adults and fifty cents for kids. And can you believe they have you pay on the honor system? just a box out front that says "pay here." SERIOUSLY???? Obviously we paid, we're mormon, but I wonder how much they get jipped out of every year. It's a pretty tight lil place if I do say so myself. We saw plenty of aminals to keep the kids entertained!

Started off with the monkey cages!

Hadley, and Sawyer her body guard. Sawyer about pummels her with loves all.the.time. If she wasn't such a peanut, it wouldn't be so easy, but sheesh....she's 4 pounds!

Huzzah for Cuzzins!

Weird.

huge turtle just creepin around

2 great big bald eagles that had been injured in the wild.

pretty peacocks!

little guy just tryin to get some food. He wouldn't let up! little beggar!

oodles of duckies that we spent a good time feeding. The colors on these things amazed me! They were so pretty! I never knew such a thing existed!

and this little egyptian thing was walking around the whole place.....holy colorful!

just a huge swan.

After we'd made the rounds at the fifty cent-er, we headed over to the fun parks they have! Who knew? Such goodness right there in the valley of Cache!

cheeseits!

climb that playground white boy!

dad getting the kids all swayed up

on this crazy concoction of swaying fun. Then taking his own turn.
Kind of relaxing, kind of vomit inducing.

Sawyer on a little joyride with her friend to her house-to the right. She was hospitable enough to invite me in and make me some baked goods.

Then it was off to the teeter-totter bread and water.
Daddy played a little rough, so he got thrown out.

and opted to swing on the big weird swings instead, with Sawyer.

then it was the kids' turn to get their dizzy on in the wonderful merry go round of goodness....gross. I threw up in my nose just watching them spin, and spin, and spin some more....this mama ain't made for the dizzies.....

guess lil Max wasn't made for too much of them either!

poopered out!

it was a great week spent with our family. I'm grateful that we had the opportunity and that my family is soooooo fantastic! I'm so blessed.