We're Back!

Hope you are all ready for some pictures!! It took me forever to get these pictures on here and these aren't even half of what I have! We had a great time out west-I love it out there, from the wheat fields of Eastern Montana to the rustic beauty of the mountains. For this post I will just put the Glacier Montana pictures and my next post will be the Spokane/wedding pics.- and there are a lot (: Enjoy!

Here we are at the train station in St. Cloud, excited to finally be on our way! We all look pretty good for it being 1:00 am. We were traveling with my sister Danielle and her son Aidan.

Do you think we had enough stuff?

The first night on the train was miserable with all the people coughing, moving around, etc. and it was hard getting used to. I didn't sleep at all that night.

These two pictures were in the lounge car (the kids' favorite place on the train)

Here they are in the regular seats, eating candy and watching a movie.

We arrived in Glacier at around 7 pm-about 19 hours after we left home. Here is what the train looks like on the outside. It dropped us off at a cute log train depot and our hotel was just across the street.

Here's the first view of our lodge-It was beautiful! The lodge was built 100 years ago and was just amazing.

Inside the lodge-the coolest part was the huge log pillars.

The next morning we booked a red bus tour/boat ride. The buses were really cool and the kids were so excited-I haven't mentioned that Jonnie was beyond excited the whole trip and tried to make Aidan laugh all the time and I do mean ALL the time. I can laugh at it now, but it was little trying at times (:

Danielle was excited, too!

The first thing on the tour was the boat ride. It was on Two Medicine lake and was just breathtaking-I couldn't take enough pictures. It was surreal to be on a lake surrounded by mountains.

After we got off the boat we met a new friend (later we would find out they are all our friends). Here is a Columbian ground squirrel. He was just adorable and completely tame. This lake is near a campground, so I think they get fed a lot. He came right up to us and ate peanuts out of our hands-so cute!

After the boat ride, we were back in the red bus. The next stop was to a place where we took a short hike to a double waterfall. Another breathtaking stop and the kids loved playing in the 50 degree water.

This picture was on an impromptu hike near our hotel. When we were on this hike, we found a stream and hiked down to it. Danielle saw some fresh bear poop and we swear we heard a low grumble. The hairs on the back of my neck were tingling and we hiked as fast as possible out of there!

Now onto the real hike the next day. The hike was in the mountains and was roughly 5 miles long. Doesn't seem that long, right? Well, we started off singing, laughing, and yes, dancing. We were told over and over to make lots of noise on hikes so that bears and other wildlife will hear you coming. Believe me we really wooped it up (literally). I laughed so hard at Alaina and how loud she got-I didn't know she had it in her! At one time we passed a couple who thought she was a bird (: Anyway, throughout the hike there were tears, fights, and exhaustion. Mostly from one of us and you can probably guess which one without me saying who (: Overall, it was a blast and one of my favorite moments on the trip.
Here we are on our way......

This sign made me a wee bit worried....

Salvation at the end of the hike......we didn't think we could hike back and thankfully a boat was able to bring us back to where we started.

Alaina finds frogs everywhere she goes.

Aidan and Jonnie creating "ships" out of pieces of wood. It was fun hanging back and watching them play.

On our last day in Glacier we rented a car and traveled on the Going to the sun road. It was amazing and my pictures and words do not describe how breathtakingly beautiful and terrifying all in one. The road goes above the tree line up to the snow caps. I am very fearful of heights and thankfully Danielle didn't mind driving. My stomach was doing flip flops the whole time.

Right before we got on the "road" we spotted a moose! That was one animal I really wanted to see. He was adorable!

The start of the road.......

We were able to stop off at these really cool spots and hike around or just take awesome pictures. I love this one because it is the post card picture I sent Jon (:

Going higher and higher.......

Here is one of only 26 glaciers left here. They predict that they will all be gone in 30 years. It made me sad and I was glad I was able to come here when there were still glaciers. It was beautiful to see.

These next pictures just don't reveal just how high up we were.

Falling off the edge-aaahhhhh!

We walked on a very long boardwalk up to the snow.

It was strange to be touching snow on a warm day (:

We saw a pleasant surprise when we got back into the car. Looking down on us from a cliff was a mountain goat and he was the cutest thing ever! He looked like a schnauzer (:

Here we were entering the scariest road I have ever seen or been on. On one side was a sharp cliff and on the other side it was a huge drop off. I was scared for all our lives...
This was also the part where my camera ran out batteries ): I was so mad! We found out there was construction on this road and for miles it was a one lane road. The other side literally just crumbled off the edge-it was a tense moment-right, Danielle? As scary as it was, I am so glad we experienced it (: After we survived this part of the adventure, we headed to the Hike of Cedars. This was another one of favorite parts of the trip. It was like an enchanted forest with huge old cedar trees (and it smelled good, too :)). The trees are from the 1500's and is one of the oldest untouched forests in the U.S. It was serene, quiet, and beautiful and there was moss growing everywhere-I loved it and I didn't get any pictures....I am hoping Dani will send me some of hers.

We ended our trip to Glacier at Lake Mcdonald. It was the perfect place to end our trip here. It was a little misty, calm, and breathtaking! I never mentioned how crystal clear all the lakes and streams are here. It was just beautiful.

I would love to come back here, it is truly one of the most beautiful places.