The Seven Mile Hike

Back to the trip pictures and update. On Sunday morning, Joel decided that this would be our long hike day. I was thrilled--ha! Anyway, we went up to Logan Pass to start our hike. Before we started, however, we had to buy bear spray! I felt a little more at ease knowing that we had our mace with us!

We did the highline trail. Can you tell I'm freezing?!?!

The majority of the hike was alongside a mountain. It was definitely a little frightening at times. The clumsy should probably not do this hike!

We encountered many ground squirrels along the way, which were not afraid of people at all! I hated these things! This little guy's name was "Honkey." We had to keep it lively out in the woods--ha!

We were way high up in the mountains and there was snow capped mountains everywhere around us. It was hard to believe that we were in August and were seeing snow still on the ground!

These pictures show you how high up we were!

Funny story about our Auburn hats. You know we Auburn folks say that Auburn is like a family and there's several commercials out there that the jist is that you can run into an Auburn fan anywhere and feel right at home. Well, here we were on top of a mountain in Montana, and this guy comes running up to us and tells us War Eagle, and that we've made his day and he just HAD to get a picture with us! It was too funny. On a side note, when we went back to airport to get our bags the day we got there, we saw a guy with an Auburn hat on and I asked Joel if I should take a picture of him. So, we saw 2 Auburn folks out there!

The below shot is at our final destination of the hike. I'm probably saying it wrong, but it's at Butte Point or something like that. We did not prepare very well on this day. We had nothing for lunch and we were 3.5 miles away from the car at this point. We were starving to say the least! And tired...neither one of us exercised a bit before this trip. Heck, I haven't exercised in months, so my whole body was numb at this point! The only thing that drove me to keep going on the way back (and even did it more quickly!) was that food was at the end of the tunnel!

Joel loved taking pictures of waterfalls. We have about a million of them! I thought this one was really pretty though!

The below picture is where we were hiking to. we went up to the little plateau to the right of the top of the mountain.

We ran across a marmot on the way back.

And Fredericka, the mountain goat.

And this one was just plain Fred. He was a little afraid of us (and we were a little afraid of those horns!). These goats were right on the trail and we were able to walk right up to them.

We finally made it back to the car and went to a very late lunch where we stuffed our faces in pizza that was about 3 hours old and a bison burger. It really didn't matter what we ate...it all tasted so good! In hindsight, it was pretty disgusting!

We headed back to our hotel, which was the Lake McDonald Lodge for the night. We relaxed for a while before heading out on a boat cruise.

This is a picture of the Lake McDonald Lodge from the water.

The boat cruise ended up being sort of a flop, but we did see views like this, which made it worth it. I think the boat captain knew he had to take a certain amount of time and we got through the "cruise" faster than we should have and so at one point, we did donuts in one end of the lake. I think we went in a circle about five times before he decided to go somewhere else. It added some laughs to the boat cruise for sure.

After the boat cruise, we got a bottle of huckleberry wine and shared it on a bench in front of the water. It was a lot of fun! This was our view...

We had the best dinner probably of the whole trip that night at Lake McDonald Lodge. It was delicious!

Here's a picture of the front of our hotel. It looked neat from the outside, but man, the rooms were terrible! It was like dorm life. You could hear everyone and everything all night long! Oh well, we were so exhausted from our long hike that it didn't matter too much!

I felt a sense of triumph after we did the long hike that day. While hiking is really not my thing (have I said that before? ha!), it really was beautiful and we saw a lot of things that we wouldnt' have gotten to see had we not done it, so I'm glad we did it. We were still on the hunt for a bear though! We kept hearing tales of people seeing bears, but we had yet to see one yet! I was starting to wonder what all the hype was!

The rest of the trip pictures should go more quickly. We just took a ton of pictures on our long hike!

The Buuu Bawoon!

Ok, so he didn't really say those words together (that would be impressive at 17 months even though Joel swears the other day that he said "that's my ball"!), but he did say "blue" and he did say "bawoon" on separate occasions! After church on Sunday, we stopped by the Pig (our trusty grocery store) and picked up some things. The ladies at the checkout always love to see Hudson and gave him a balloon this time! He was in heaven. It was his best friend all day on Sunday (until we left it at Migi and Pops' house Sunday night--oops!). Good thing toddlers move on to new things quickly!

I always think when I tell him to show me his teeth that he will smile for me, but, he always just points to his teeth. I guess he is following directions--I should be happy about that!

He was mesmerized and it was wonderful until he tried scratching the balloon with his fingernails. Besides thinking at any moment that the balloon was going to pop and make us all deaf, it sounded like he was running his fingernails down a chalkboard. It was awful sounding!
Luckily, it never broke.

This last picture is just a funny from tonight. Joel has been out of town this week again (makes every week since we've been back from our trip and the week that we left--getting old!). It is hard playing single working mom and sometimes Hudson just gets to play in things that he normally wouldn't get to because I need to get something done! Tonight, it was the dishwasher. Joel would have had a fit had he been here! He never lets him on the dishwasher because he's afraid he might break it. Valid point, but it was fine! You do what you gotta do, and it sure beat him clinging onto my leg and whining for a pick up while I got dinner cleaned up!

This week I've had to put my big girl panties on (as my mom told me to do while we were on our trip to Glacier since it was so out of my element!) and I'm just thankful that Joel is about home and the weekend is almost here! I had my first book club meeting on Monday night. I knew only the girl that asked me to be in it and so I was a little nervous about going, but hey, let's face it, I need to get out and this sounded like fun (and I love to read so it's right up my alley!). And let me tell you, it was FUN!!! I'm so glad I went and I think all the girls were really great and I am looking so forward to the next one. Throw in some wine, a good book (The Help--highly recommend it!), and lots of good girl talk, it's always a good time! Then, today, I had to give a class at work and public speaking really just about does me in! I get all worked up about it and nervous and I'm afraid the words won't come out right or someone will ask me a question I don't know the answer to. So, that has stressed me out all week, but it is over with now and it went great too. I don't know why I let it get to me because when I'm up there speaking, I'm fine--it's just the build up to it that is so terrible! Anyway, enough rambling for tonight! More updates from the trip to come. I just can't seem to get it all done!

Trip - Part 2

After the zip line adventure, we drove into the park on Saturday. It was after lunch, so we only had about a half a day to do something. Joel decided that we would do a little 4 mile hike, which ended up being about 6 miles in total to see Avalanche Lake.

The trail was mostly wooded, and then all of a sudden, it opened up to this...

There were several waterfalls coming off the mountain in the distance. It was beautiful! We sat and just watched the scenery for a while before heading back.

This was a waterfall in the middle of the trail as well.

After the hike, we headed to our hotel/motel (more like a dump!), but we stopped along the road a couple of times to catch views like the one below.

I knew going into this trip that the lodging was going to be terrible, but I was dreading the night that we stayed in this one because it looked the worst when we were looking at them on the internet. However, this motel (the Village Inn at Apgar) ended up being our favorite because right outside our door was a couple of adirondack chairs looking at this view below...

We enjoyed some wine while taking in the view and watching the sunset. It was VERY peaceful!

So, while the motel room consisted of a bed and a bathroom, and that's about it (no phone, tv, or other amenities that we are so accustomed to, including cell phone service!), we spent all of our time outside and had a great time just catching up.

Every one of the areas where the hotels were located had some sort of camp store and some sort of restaurant. That night, we ate at Eddie's in Apgar and it was pretty good. It was just a short walk from our hotel. We hurried back to our room to watch the sunset!

Everyone was out on the balcony at this point, so we made a lot of friends that night. It was neat seeing where everyone was from and at what point in their trip they were. Since this was our first night, we loved getting to hear about other parts of the park, and hearing about BEAR sightings! I was terrified of seeing a bear, but most definitely wanted to see one just to say that I did! Bear sightings would end up being our goal for each day towards the end of the trip!

This was our motel that night below! It really looks terrible, but with those views, we would have stayed there every night if we could have!

We woke up the next morning and went on a 7 mile hike! It makes me exhausted just thinking about it!

Trip - Part 1

We left on July 30, the day of our 5th anniversary, bright and early in the morning. It was a very sad goodbye to our little guy, but we were excited to start our adventure! After some flight issues (gotta love Delta), we were able to get to Kalispell, MT hours before our originally scheduled arrival (we actually lucked out with our flight issues this time!). Our bags, however, weren't going to make it until later. We got our little Suburu (the "sube" as we called it the rest of the trip). We were making fun of having the Sube, but that is the car of choice up there. Everyone has one! They are all wheel drive, so I think that's why, and actually, it was really nice! We had several people ask us how we liked our Suburu! So funny! Our plan was to stay in Whitefish, MT for the first night, and then go into Glacier National Park the next day. Whitefish is a cute little ski town. They have a huge ski resort there and we had been told to get on one of the ski lifts and take it to the top and eat lunch up there, so that's what we did when we got there.

I was NOT a fan of the ski lift! It was really scary! This was the view from the top looking out towards Glacier.

I look silly in my jacket, but it was cold up there (to me).


I had wanted to ride in one of the closed-in lifts that you see below, but no, Joel wanted to ride the one where your feet dangle. He kept shaking the lift because he thought it was funny that I was so scared.

I cannot even imagine how beautiful it is up here when the snow is on the ground.

We were heading straight down at this point!

After lunch, we headed back down to Whitefish to walk around. I wish I had taken a picture of the little town because it was so cute! It was filled with little shops and restaurants and bars, and even a brewery, which of course we had to try out the local Montana brews! The big thing out there is huckleberries. All the stores and restaurants have huckleberry everything--ice cream, pies, pancakes, huckleberry beer, and huckleberry wine. We had our share of all things huckleberry while we were up there! They were good, just another version of a blueberry, but they are very proud of their huckleberries up there! :) We had a good time walking around town and then we had to head back to the airport to get our bags. Thank goodness they had arrived!

We had a wonderful dinner at the Grouse Mountain Lodge (where we also stayed) and celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage!

The next morning, we woke up to stormy skies and were so sad because that was the day we were scheduled to go ziplining at the Whitefish ski resort. That was one of the things that I was most excited about and we were worried we wouldn't get to do it because of the lightning. We went to go check it out anyway, almost certain it would be canceled. They got us all suited up and told us to wait it out a little while and maybe the skies would clear.

Here we are in all our gear waiting to go!

Finally, the skies cleared and they let us go! It was SO much fun!!! These ziplines were not for the wimpy (me!) and each one terrified me while we waited until it was our time to go. We had special positions that we had to do during the process to slow us down at times, and there was even a special landing position you had to get in because you were going so fast. They reached speeds of up to 50-60 mph as we flew through the sky from mountain to mountain. We did four of them, and they actually had 2 more that we didn't do that were even higher. One of them was so high that they had to put balls on the wire so that planes wouldn't run into the wire! I was glad we didn't do that one! It was really some of the most fun that I've had in a while. They had it set up so that two people went at a time, and Joel and I would race each other to the finish.

They had a professional photographer at certain locations throughout the course, so these pictures below were taken by him. We were glad to not have to deal with a camera.

Look, no hands! And yes, this lasted for 1 second before I grabbed the bar to hold on for dear life! The ski lift that we were on the day before had a bar that went in our laps so while I was terrified, I at least had a bar to hold onto and feel somewhat secure. This one didn't have the lap bar!

If you look at a close up of the picture below, you can see how scared I am! It was fun, but we were going so fast!
On the really fast ones, they made Joel wear a parachute to slow him down.

After the zipline, we had a late lunch and then headed into the park. Stay tuned!

Fun With the Hose and 17 Month Update

Since it is SO hot outside these days, we decided to have some fun with the hose in the driveway. At first Hudson wasn't really sure about what to do with it.

Then, he splashed himself a little bit and decided it was sort of fun.

He got a little more daring and started swinging the hose around.

And then got drenched...

And more drenched...

What can I get into now???

It was a lot of fun and a nice, cool activity for a hot summer day!

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So, this guy turned 17 months on August 1st!

At 17 months, Hudson is a busy little bee. That's pretty much the only way to describe him these days. At this stage, I can really see his little brain working and it blows me away to see how much he is taking in on a daily basis and is truly understanding things. I love this whole development thing! It just seems like life is full of information overload and it just amazes me that he is starting to understand what is going on and can react to it. For example, for the past couple of nights we have asked Hudson if he is ready to go "night night" and he has walked straight to the stairs (we have a gate up to block them). He has associated "night night" with going to bed. Also, he loves playing with keys. I don't remember a time when we have unlocked a door with the keys because we just come in through the garage and don't have to use them, but the other day, he was trying to put the keys in the lock on our door going downstairs. Joel and I were both in shock that he knew that's what those were supposed to be used for! Joel's parents were over at our house before we left for Montana and we were showing them some things around the house, and I asked Hudson to show Migi and Pops where the duck was (his yellow duck tub that he hates!). He took them right into the closet and showed them where it was, and then said "bye bye" and closed himself in the closet with the duck. Hilarious!

He has started testing me a little bit and I know when he does it (and he's meaning to do it) because he gives me this little smirk. It's a smile but not really a smile. He's just waiting on me to tell him no and wants to see how far he can go with it! The latest "testing" has been with his high chair. He wants to stand up in all high chairs. He will inch up and give me the smirk and when I tell him to sit on his bottom, he does. But, then he repeats it all over again!

He is still talking up a storm, but you can only understand a word hear or there. He has learned how to stick out his tongue and that seems to be the new thing around here. He always has his tongue out! It is funny, but sort of annoying too! And, he loves touching your tongue if you stick it out. He thinks it is hilarious! I know, it's gross.

He still will not touch veggies and I'm at my wit's end about it. He won't even try them. Really, he won't try much of anything new that I put in front of him. I feel like he is thinning out so much (I know, probably normal since he was so chunky and is now so active), but I can't help but think it's because I'm not feeding him the right things. Oh well, I guess this is just a constant battle that all mom's with toddlers have to deal with. The rolls are disappearing though and it's making me a little sad! I miss my little chunker!

He loves Ring Around the Rosy and will turn circles until he gets dizzy. It is funny. He likes to watch you "fall down" and he just keeps on turning circles. He also loves "If You're Happy and You Know it" and loves to clap clap at the appropriate times. He LOVES to dance too! Since he is starting to really love music, I finally broke down and bought a CD with children's songs on it and he seems to like it. I started feeling kind of bad blasting my country every day!

That's about all for this month. I can't believe we have an almost year and a half year old child!

We're Back!

It has been a while since I last blogged! I have a good reason though! Joel and I spent last week in Montana celebrating 5 years of marriage. Ever since I met Joel 7 years ago, he has talked about going back to Glacier National Park in Montana. We wanted to go on a trip for our anniversary since this was a big one, and since I got to pick the honeymoon location (Turks & Caicos), Joel said it was his turn to pick. Let's just say we have two totally different ideas when it comes to vacations! I'm a "lay on the beach and read 5 books kind of vacationer" while he is a "hike all day and sleep outside" kind of guy. I vetoed the sleeping outside way ahead of time! Joel would have had me sleeping in a tent for 7 nights if he had his complete choice! Anyway, so that's why we went there. It was beautiful there to say the least and we have over 400 pictures to prove it! While it was in the 100's in Birmingham, we enjoyed a week of 70 degree weather during the day and in the 40's at night, with NO humity! We had no tv for a week and no cell phone service for most of it as well, so we were completely out of touch for a week...not sure I liked that all that much, but I didn't have much of a choice!

We got back Friday night and have been loving on sweet Hudson every second since! Man, I really missed that little boy. It took me a few days to get over getting a lump in my throat every time I saw a child around his age on our trip. While it was great being away and getting to sleep in and most importantly, having conversations that didn't involve whether or not Hudson pooped that day, we also were so ready to get back home to see our little guy. Don't feel too sorry for him though--he got TONS of grandparent time in and spent half the time with Joel's parents and half with mine at the beach so he was completely spoiled the entire week. Thanks to both sets for letting us get away for the week! I'm not sure I will be able to leave him for that long again, but I know he will be just fine if we ever take another trip again!

I also celebrated my 29th birthday while we were gone so it was an eventful week. And, yes, Joel did remember my birthday this year for those who are wondering. I was a snot about it though...story to come at a later time! I'm pretty sure he wonders why he married me sometimes! :)

Stay tuned for lots of pictures and a 17 month post for Hudson since he hit that while we were gone!