Montana Vacation ***Long Post, Lots of Pictures

We just got home this weekend from spending a week in Montana with Scott's entire family. Yes, that's right, his parents, all 7 children, their spouses and all their children. It was crazy and we were packed like sardines, but we were enjoying ourselves so much we barely noticed it. It was so nice to spend time with all my in-laws - they are truly an amazing and super fun group of people to be around. I definitely lucked out in that department. :) This is the cabin we stayed in while we were there. It is Scott's grandparents' cabin and we were so glad we could stay there for the week. You'd never believe it by looking at it in this picture, but all the adults stayed in the cabin (plus the 3 babies) and all the kids got to sleep together in a tent on the lawn. Mister had never slept in a tent before (despite his best efforts, Scott has yet to convince me to go camping) and was absolutely beside-himself-giddy at the idea.

Our week included mostly water sports: boating, tubing, waterskiing, kayaking, fishing, swimming, wading, skipping rocks, "diving" rocks (see who can throw a rock in without making a splash), etc. The cabin had a pretty nice amount of beach front for us all to play on and Pumpkin was in heaven. The beach was all rocks and pebbles so he spent most of his days throwing rocks into the lake, examining them, tasting them and carrying them around. He's our cat (aka: averse to most forms of water and getting wet) so he stayed on dry land the entire week. Mister (our fish) was more adventurous than I've ever seen him. He tried a ton of new things this week that I'd never been able to convince him to do. Like ride a boat. He's always been petrified of boats for some reason and we could never get him to come on a boat ride for all the bribes in the world. But on this trip we couldn't get him OFF the boat! He also went tubing a few times which he also loved. I think it was seeing his cousins doing it - he didn't want to be left out of any of the fun they were having. We had campfires every night, which of course included s'mores for everyone, and Mister FINALLY tried one. And I didn't even have to ask him - he just dove right in, which is another first. We've never been able to convince him to eat s'mores (yes, he's THAT picky).

Of course no trip to NW Montana is complete without a trip to Glacier National Park. We spent the entire day there and had such an amazing experience. Going To The Sun Road is the long, windy, cliff-clinging road that you have to take up to the summit (Logan's Pass). Fortunately, since our last visit they've installed some wonderful guard rails on the edges so I wasn't petrified of plummeting over the side this time. Whew! Once we got to the top we hiked about 1.5 miles to the top and saw some amazing flora and fauna on our way. We saw mountain goats, big horn sheep, marmots, and the friendliest, most fearless chimpunks (or were they squirrels?) I've ever seen. Poor Mister was wearing new shoes (aka: not broken in yet since he's just gone up to the next size) and his feet started hurting him, so he hitched a piggy back ride from his cousin and then a shoulder ride from Papa. Lucky boy. :)

All the original in-laws, minus my mother in law who wasn't there that day:

After our hike we went to St Mary's Lake for lunch and a swim. It's a glacial lake, but it was so hot and it looked so inviting I decided to be brave and take a dip. It was like walking into a bucket of ice water (literally, I was looking for floating ice....) but I did it. Then I quickly got out. Mister didn't mind at all and happily played for about an hour and a half in the frigid water. Good thing it was so hot out to compensate for it.


Mister in St. Mary's Lake:

Scott and me at St. Mary's Lake:

Another pretty view of St Mary's Lake:

At the end of the week we all did a service project for Grandma. The cabin has a very long, wooded driveway area and we cleared all the sticks and logs out and put it together in a big burn pile at the front of the property. I was wondering how I was going to tear Mister away from the lake to do work, so I told him we were building a big fire and he had to come help us bring the wood. He heard that and got really into it. He kept singing the "Wonder Pets" song: "What's gonna work? Teamwork!" with all his cousins. I wish I could've recorded that, it was so cute.

Everyone in front of the burn pile:

We couldn't believe how incredibly well our boys traveled on this road trip. The way there was great, but the way home was incredible. They both napped, didn't fight, didn't whine, no complaining, and we didn't even have to resort to putting on movies to entertain them. Mister knew we had them but always said "No thank you" when I asked if he wanted to watch one. Huh? We stopped for lunch a few hours into our drive but the place didn't have a playground so we decided to head to Cabela's a few exits up the road. Boy did the boys love that store. They were mesmerized by the animal exhibits, the aquariums, all the tents on display, and of course had to test out all the different camping chairs that were set up. I think that was my favorite stop along the whole drive. :)

Needless to say though, it was wonderful to come home and sleep in our own beds. Vacation was so much fun (and not the kind I came home from feeling like I needed a vacation to recouperate from vacation) and we were sad for it to end, but were all happy to get home to our dogs and our beds. I only put up a few pictures on this post, so if you want to see the rest of them go to my Facebook page - they're all there.