S P R I N K L E R !

Daddy, why isn't there any water in my pool?

What's daddy doing out in the yard?

Not so sure about this sprinkler thingy....

This is F U N! 

Joshua looks like he's doing some serious running!

Summer time is so much fun!

Busy Busy Summer!

Seems like we've been constantly busy summer! Here's some of what we've been up to...

Our little grizzly bear..

This is the shirt daddy brought back for Joshua from Montana.

 ( I think our little grizzly even has a fish in his mouth)

This is the mountain goat that Daddy brought Joshua. If you look in the previous blog, you can see it's very real looking!

According to the goat's tag: Mountain goats are very well adapted to their high altitude habitat. Remarkably agile, these sure-footed mammals can leap & clamber up vertical cliffs with ease. Their thick, shaggy winter coat is lost with the return of warmer weather and is replaced with a much shorter summer coat.

Playing (I mean working hard) at the shop!

The squeaking of his shoes stopped and I went to find him... this is where he was. The got up here by himself and was "reading". Perfectly content. :)

Running!!! Who needs to walk when you can R U N!!!

 We use baskets for lots of things... sometimes as hats!

Later that day we visited Great Grandma & Great Grandpa Pershing

Joshua asking Great Grandma to turn on some music!

 

Giving a high five to Great Grandpa....

...and Great Grandma!

The blue chair Joshua is standing in front of is something Great Grandma & Great Grandpa found Joshua for his little play house. Just his size!

Joshua thought he should use Great Grandpa's cane. 

We feel so blessed that we have 4 grandparents and 3 great grandparents in Indiana for Joshua to visit. So wonderful that most (all but Jim's parents which is only 2.5 hours away) are in Lafayette! This is another reason I take so many pictures...these are such special moments with his great grandparents I want him to always to have them! We need to get over to see Great Grandma Barbara & out to PA to see Pap Pap soon!

After we left Great Grandma & Great Grandpa's house we went to visit Grandpa Bruce at his office.

Dad's office has a stuffed dog. It's nearly as big as Joshua!!

and he's apparently thirsty! ha!

We finished off the day with fresh (made that morning) homemade Great Grandma Evelyn's apple sauce!

Joshua actually won't eat store bought applesauce. Great Grandma's was the first he had, and obviously there is nothing that compares to it!!

David & his mommy Andrea came down to play, so mommy combed my hair.

Joshua looking for "DAAAAA" out the window.

...and here he is... and he found Clifford!



 Baaaalllll pit!!

 The boys went up and down the hall way playing in Joshua's room then in the living room. In the picture below, they were waving bye bye to each other then closing the door. So funny!

Joshua *had* to put his hat on because David had his hat on. 

The boys doing some redecorating.

Apparently this chair looked better in the living room then in Joshua's room.

Play dates are so much fun!!

After our play date we went to dinner with our friends Matt, Amanda & baby Lucas at Olive Garden.

Joshua liked mommy's pasta!

Montana Part II: Glacier National Park

Since I knew I wasn't going to get back to Montana anytime soon, I made plans to travel home on Sunday so that I could spend all day exploring Glacier National Park.

So early Saturday morning, I got up and started the 2 hour drive north.

Something we don't get to see in Indiana...sunrise over a mountain range.

The drive from Missoula was very scenic.  The city of Missoula sits down in a valley and the highway leading up to Glacier follows that valley all the way north so there were mountains on all sides of me.  The highway also runs along side of the National Buffalo Range (unfortunately there were no buffalo along the road) and the very large Flathead Lake.  As I later learned, Flathead is the largest natural lake in the western United States at almost 30 miles long and 16 miles long.  On the way up, I drove up the east side of the lake and was surprised by the amount of cherry farms along the coast.  None of the cherry stands were open that early so I didn't get a chance to buy any to enjoy while I was visiting the park.

I entered the park through the West Glacier.

One of the first stops I made once in the park was the Visitor Center.  This was the sign they had posted outside letting everyone know about the status of some of their trails. 

Don't worry, I wasn't planning on hiking any of the trails with the bear or mountain lion warnings anyway.

Glacier is full of all sorts of clear blue mountain streams, waterfalls, and glacier dug lakes.  The first lake I came to once inside the park was Lake MacDonald.  I stopped numerous times along the big lake just to take in all the views.  It was amazing to see the reflections of the mountains in the bright blue water.



Traveling along the Going-To-The-Sun Road, the road eventually started to follow MacDonald Creek up into the mountains.

MacDonald Falls

The road followed the creek for quite a while before starting to climb up into the mountains.  Along the way I made plenty of stops to take in all of the sights.  I also took the chance to try out the panoramic settings on my cell phone camera.

Just to the right of the center of this picture you can see a massive waterfall formed by all the melting snow.

Another view from a stop along the road.

I took the road to its highest point at Logan Pass.  There is a visitor center located there as well as several trail heads and this is where I had planned on doing some hiking.  The road up to Logan Pass had been only open for 2 weeks when I was there due to all the snow still remaining on the ground.  The snow on the ground was still almost 3 feet deep in some places and one of the park rangers told me that it had melted considerably over the last 2 weeks.

Standing on the Continental Divide at Logan Pass

The trail I was planning on hiking was Hidden Lake trail.  The first 1.5 miles out took you to an overlook and the second 1.5 miles took you down the mountain to the edge of the lake.

The view looking back over the first 1/2 mile

The view looking ahead after the first 1/2 mile

It was really a lot of fun hiking on top of two to 3 feet of snow on the last day of July.  I stared the hike wearing a fleece pullover but eventually had to take it off because it was so warm!  There were a lot of people on the first part of the trail just because it was so fun to play in the snow.  I saw a lot of people "butt sliding" (sledding with no sled), but I decided to pass on that mode of transportation.

As you got further up the trail, the snow started to clear way and I started to find signs of summer (maybe spring?) all around.

A shallow pond of freshly melted snow

The start of the mountain wildflowers. 

These yellow flowers are called "Glacier Lillies"

A close up of the Glacier Lilly

I was told by someone back in Missoula about all of the wildflowers I would find at the park, but due to the snow melting so late, these were some of the only flowers that were blooming.  I was told that these flowers are always the first to start blooming and they can appear as early as April - but not this year!

Along the trail I had the chance to meet several locals...

A mule deer,

Several mountain goats,

And numerous friendly marmots.

The last marmot pictured actually came up and sat with me on a big flat rock while I ate my lunch of trail mix made up of soy nuts, pumpkin seeks, almonds, and cranberries. For some reason, I don't think the marmot was that interested in me, he just wanted my food.    Don't worry, I followed all of the rules and I did not feed the wildlife.

Speaking of lunch, I had hiked about a 1/2 mile past the overlook where most people who take the trail stop and I decided to take a break and enjoy a nice snack.  The meal might have been really simple, but the view was fantastic!

You can see Hidden Lake down at the bottom of the mountains.  Most of it was still snow covered.

A picture of me on the trail with the lake down below. 

Even in Montana the Purdue t-shirt earned me a lot of comments.

After talking to a few hikers coming up from the lake, I decided not to hike all the way down due to amount of snow on the steep trail and due to the fact that I was hiking alone.  Besides, I was more than happy with the view so I just sat up there for a half hour and just enjoyed soaking up all of the scenery (and apparently the sun too based on how red my face is now).

After I was done hiking, I decided to head back down the mountain the same way I had come up since it was starting to get late in the day and I still had to travel back to Missoula.  Back down at the entrance of the park, I did manage to stop and get some ice cream and check out the Flathead River.

The amazing blue water flowing down from the mountains and into all of the area lakes and rivers.

No muddy brown water here!

I really had a great time at the park and I wish I had more time to explore all the areas I didn't get to see.  Hopefully we will get the chance to take Joshua out there when he gets to be older and we can spend a week seeing everything and hiking some more of the trails.

When I got back to Missoula that evening, I still had time to walk over to a park just a block from my hotel and take in the sights and sounds of the Missoula Celtic Festival.

The Young Dubliners making their homeland proud up on stage

I have to say I had a wonderful time out there and I really need to thank Andrea and Joshua for allowing me to stay out there a few extra days to enjoy some time to myself.  I know it isn't easy on them when I'm away and I am very grateful to them for allowing me to take that time.  I really do have a great family.

By the way, if any of our family or friends ever move out to Western Montana, plan on us coming to visit as much as we possibly can.  I would say that we would move there ourselves but that would be a really long commute for Andrea to go to the shop everyday.