Montana

 In mid August we went on an awesome vacation with my parents to Montana. It was so spectacular that I have decided to include a massive quantity of pictures. We made it to Pennie and Lee's slice of paradise in the evening. They have the coolest house and the most amazing property on earth. The evening of the 1st day was spent relaxing and exploring. The highlight of the entire trip for the boys was sleeping in the bunk bed downstairs.

We spent day 2 the first day hanging out at their house. The boys were on cloud 9 playing with boats in the stream in the backyard. We roasted smores and enjoyed a private concert from my dad on the harmonica. We ate like kings the entire time.

On Day 3 we all piled into the van and went to the Buffalo Range. It was about 30 minutes from their house. It was fun, but it was a lot of driving for the small amount of animals we saw. When we got back Pennie and Lee's the boys did more playing in the creek and collecting sticks. Lee had made a walking stick for my dad and hid it in a pile. It was pretty funny to watch my dad find it. Later we made a bunch of  ninja sticks for the boys. It's by far their favorite toy!

Day 4 we traveled north to Glacier National Park. The drive there was awesome. We stopped at a roadside stand and bought a bag of cherries to snack on. We stopped for a picnic at Lake McDonald in the park. We had the shoreline to ourselves. The water was warm enough for the boys to play in it with only their underwear on and the water was unbelievable crystal clear. We made a few more stops as we followed the road to the sun for a little hike.

Day 5,  Lee took us to Flathead lake for a day of playing on the shore and riding in the boat. It was a great day for boating. He showed us a lot of houses he designed over the years. Then Cass and I water skied. I had never seen Cass Ski. She got up on her 1st try and rode for a LONG time. It was awesome to see. The only low point of the entire trip was waiting for us when we got back to our van. Some jerk had rammed into the passenger door and drove off without a note. The cops were not surprised that it had happened, which was also pretty shocking.

Day 6, we left Pennie and Lee's and headed to Yellowstone. We came in from the top at Mammoth springs and explored for a while then headed down to West Yellowstone for dinner and for our hotel.

Day 7, we drove the lower loop and made all the key Yellowstone stops. Old Faithful, West Thumb, all the geysers and hot pots, water falls, etc. My parents bought the boys some stuffed animals at old faithful which was very nice. The weather was great until around lunch time when the sky closed up and it started dumping rain. we ate lunch in the van and drove on. By the time we made it to our next stop, the rain had stopped and the sky was clear again. We had been a bit bummed at the lack of buffalo, until we were stopped by 2 buffalo who decided to set up camp directly in front of us for about 20 minutes. It was pretty great to sit there and watch them. 

We drove back out through West Yellowstone and headed home. It was a lot of time in the van, but we had a great time. It was nice spending the time with my folks. The boys were exceptional, considering how long we were in the car. We made great memories as a family!  It was a trip that we would for sure do again!