Montana

On the way home from Washington we went to visit Rebecca's brother's house in Montana. Originally it was supposed to be a Little family reunion, but it ended up just being our family, Ryan's family, and Rebecca's parents. Although we missed Trenton's family and Tyler's family, we still had a fun time.

Ryan and Monica recently finished building their house in Whitefish, a smaller city just outside Glacier National Park. They built their house in a really pretty neighborhood with lots of trees on all of the lots.

One of the highlights of that trip for me was the Highline Trail hike that Rebecca, Ryan, Monica, and I did on my birthday.  It was about 17 miles long (8.5 each way). Parts of the trail were right along a cliff's edge, but other parts went up to peaks, and mountain lakes and valleys. The views were breathtaking - one of the best hikes for views that I can remember. It was difficult, but well worth it. I would say it makes it in my top 3 hikes of all time. And being able to do something so strenuous helped me feel not so old on my 40th birthday.

On another day we all went back as a group to Glacier National Park. On that trip we saw a bear, ram, and moose. We also did a hike to a few waterfalls and enjoyed the fresh mountain air.

I thought I took a few more pictures while we were there, but I guess not. We also went to a couple different lakes and swam and played around in kayaks, went to a park, and played around in Ryan and Monica's hot tub. Ryan also took me on a bike trail and showed me how out of shape I really was and the kids loved playing with their cousins. Monica was also kind enough to take the family picture that we now have as the title picture for our blog. 

This trip was a nice way to end our summer.