Montana

We are having a pretty fun summer!

We went to Montana for a little family reunion. When Matt's grandfather passed away in November it was decided that everyone should get together. Why let funerals be the only time you see all your family? So Matt's aunt, Karen, invited us all up to her cabin home for Independence day. She lives in Bear Country. Matt was hoping to see a bear, while I on the other hand was worried.

Up at Seeley Lake-- they decided to burry Scott into the sand.

Here is Scott emerging like he is a sand zombie. Almost as frightening as
seeing a bear, almost.

 

We brought out hammocks and slept outside the first night. I was still afraid of bears but lucky for us we saw nothing.
Someone did bring their pet dog and that's actually what woke me up, pawing at my side. 

Aunt Karen and Grandma Elton

 Have you ever seen those unusually large marshmallows?! Well someone brought them to roast with and this is what it looks like stuffed between two graham crackers. Lydia, in this photo, has no shame as she takes a huge bite and lets the thing ooze out on all sides. She said it was pretty good but in the end says she couldn't really eat the entire thing. :)

See -------> I'm telling you that marshmallow was MASSIVE. 

This kid decided to create a stick that could hold two
mallows. Clever!

This is a cool photo. Dustyn (Kim's boyfriend) is a cheerleader at ISU and here he is putting some of those
skills into practice. I love the mid-air shot. :)

For Boy scouts Matt learned how to create a matchless fire. It takes a lot of work, but
Matt was able to successfully demonstrate how it is done.

July 4th parade

After spending a few days with Matt's family we decided to take a little side trip to Glacier Park. Glacier Park is melting! It's expected to be GONE in 2020. So we had to take our chance before all the ice melts! Glacier Park was about 2 hours from where we were at and we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of being SO CLOSE!

Look at those glaciers!

Beautiful Montana view. :)

When we were arriving to the West entrance of the park we saw all these signs for Huckleberry Pie.
Of course it's a tourist trap, but I am a sucker for pie. :) Matt jokingly asked if we should stop. Of course my response was "yes", however, unlike Matt I wasn't joking. If you look behind Matt you can see life size posters of Dorthy and Miley Cyrus, as well as Johnny Depp. They all offered up their approval of this place.
To be honest... the pie was cold. I think it would have been better heated and served with ice cream. Oh well. 

On our first night we set up tent and decided to do some hiking. We found a trail close by and talked to a ranger about it. The ranger said: "that trail is posted, so make sure you're loud." Well the fact that she reminded us to be loud I assumed she was talking about bears. Other than that I had no idea what she was talking about when she said "it was posted". Later on I found out that trails where bears have been sighted are "posted". I made Matt talk to me the whole way up. Yes we talked about dumb things, but it was reassuring to know that we were doing our part not to be attacked.

We took some mini cereal boxes with us for breakfast. We bought a small carton of milk at a gas station but forgot to bring spoons! So....

We drank our cereal. :)

Before we even left for Montana we did some research on what cool things you should do at Glacier National Park. Apparently the "cool" thing to do is to hike to Iceberg Lake. 

Right in the middle, at the base of those mountains is the lake. 

It started off like a normal trail but the last half mile was covered in snow.

Lucky for us we came prepared with our Chacos! Don't worry... the snow actually didn't feel horribly cold and infact, to swollen pregnant feet, it was more of a relief. :) 

The worst part about hiking with Chacos in the snow is the awesome traction that these shoes provide.

You can see the lake behind Matt.

Here's another view of the lake. See that person? They're walking on it.

After we did a little hike we decided to go see some major land marks on the "Road to the Sun".

  

Look at this cute goat!! -- Not a landmark but certainly an added bonus

We didn't see a bear once at the park, although I was always nervous about it. Matt was pretty disappointed. On our drive home, along the road, we saw LOADS of deer. Matt kept talking about how awesome it would be to see a bear on the side of the road. Well.... wish granted! We did see one. 

It was standing straight up on the edge of the road and then when it saw us it scurried a way. It was pretty cute. Matt really wanted a picture and so with our little point & shoot camera, and in the dusk of the evening, he tried to zoom up on it. That black thing in the picture below, amongst the blur of green-ness is "The Bear".

 This picture, I feel, could be used a Big Foot sighting. I swear though, it's a bear.