Trip to Montana

We were lucky enough to spend our anniversary in beautiful northwest Montana last week. Todd was invited to interview for a job there and his prospective employers paid to fly the whole family out for a visit. We had a wonderful time.



Moments after stepping off the airplane - so happy to be here! (You'll notice Anndra is holding one of her shoes. She never keeps them on for more than 2 seconds these days).



We immediately turned around and took this picture from our gate:



But it was the only sunny picture we got the whole trip because a few minutes later it looked like this:



And then it was either raining or drizzling the rest of the trip. But we still thought it was beautiful.

The kids loved the yard behind the condominium building where we stayed. They called it "the park" even though there wasn't a playground:



Notice the sweatshirts. We went from 100 degree weather in Florida to refreshing coolness in Montana (low 50s).



The day after Todd's interviews we drove up to Glacier National Park.



Even though it was overcast and we couldn't see the mountains very well, it was a breathtaking experience. Every time the clouds would part for a second, Todd would snap a picture:



Due to the record snowfall during the winter, the rivers and waterfalls were bigger than ever (at least according to what we were told).



One waterfall on this river was so powerful it seemed like a smaller version of Niagara Falls:





Those of you who know Todd can imagine how happy he was to be back in his beloved Rocky Mountains and to enjoy all this cold, wet summer weather:




Lincoln was really excited when he saw this sign, but we didn't have time to hike to it:



Our last stop in Glacier Park was Avalanche Creek (which is as far as anyone can drive into the park right now because they haven't finished clearing the snow from the road higher up).



The kids LOVED throwing rocks into the river. Todd taught Parker how to skip rocks for the first time. And Lincoln is STILL asking me to take him back - even though I've tried to explain to him how far away it is... He is very much in the "Why?" phase these days.

The 3 guys:


The 3 girls:

Anndra is still up to her hair-pulling tricks. :(



One cute story I have to tell: Anndra was absolutely enamored with the pink flowered car-seat we keep for her to use at Grandma's house. She kept saying "my flowers, my flowers" and would get all excited and point to each flower saying the colors, etc.



When we got to the SLC airport, she came unglued when she saw us putting it in a large black trash bag (to protect it as it went through the checked baggage system). I don't know if she thought we were throwing it away or what, but she threw the biggest fit ever - screaming and crying and not wanting to let go of it. She must have thought she'd never see it again.

But the best part of this story is her REACTION when we got the seat back at baggage claim in Montana. You never saw a little girl so happy in your life. It was adorable. I wish we had it on video. It got me thinking about all the times we freak out about things in this life only because we are too 'young' to understand that everything is going to be alright. I guess that is where trust/faith comes in.



Anyway, in summary: we loved our time in Montana and we can't wait to go back!