Some of My Favorite Places - Glacier National Park

August of 2008 I was fortunate enough to take my family to Glacier National Park. This include my husband, my then not quite 2 year old, my then barely 3 year old, and my parents. We all loaded up into a motor home and headed to northwestern Montana to visit a national park I had wanting to scratch off my "To See" list for a while. The drive was long, but it was worth it.

We spent most of our time hiking around this picturesque piece of the big sky country. The above photo was taken at Avalanche Lake, a fairly easy hike with a few difficult spots. My husband and I did it with our toddlers in backpacks on our backs. My parents also came along, although they said if the ending hill had been at the beginning, they probably wouldn't have tackled it. The view was spectacular, and the sun seemed brighter than it has anywhere else that I have ever been. We even met a friendly Ranger in his 80s, whom my daughters invited to the youngest's birthday party.

We also hiked the Hidden Lake Trail at the top of the Going to the Sun Road. Here the gazillion steps nearly turned me back initially, but once it was back to solid ground, okay really snowy ground in August!, it was a pretty easy hike. Here the mountain goats were close enough to touch and the sheep were visible in the distance.

We got to see the Going to the Sun Road up close, which my great uncle engineered, and we spent time wandering on smaller hikes and strolling by the lakes. It is a gloriously beautiful place that everyone should see.

Toys that Stood the Test of Time

Okay. So we all know how the Christmas toys fall. Some are barely looked at before they are set aside. Some are played with on the day of, and even a few days after, but quickly become old and tired. Then there are the few, the proud, the toys that stand the test of time. These are the toys that two months later, are still being pulled off the shelf everyday. For my girls there are two presents from this Christmas that really stand out. The first is the game Hullabaloo by Cranium. It is a wonderful moving game that practices colors, shapes, and categories. It also focuses on listening, and while they have the winner "do a funky dance" there is no real feeling of losing since we all just dance.

The second, and my favorite, is a handmade gift from their Grandmother, my mom. These dollhouse purses allow them to play pretend with any and all of their current toys. They also make for a great toy when you are heading off to somewhere you know you will be waiting, like the doctor's office. My girls adore these, and I have been known to play a little pretend with them as well.

The Inexperienced Expert Goes Skiing

The day was inexplicably gorgeous. The kind of day that is a welcome gift early in February. At the top of the pass, the sky glistened it was so blue, and the sun beat down on us to the point where we took off hat and scarves and instead donned more sun screen. This was the day to try skiing. The only unfortunate side-effect, was that everyone else was skiing as well. The gobs of human nature packed on the hill around the lodge, and drizzling down the snow packed hillside frightened me away from my original intention of downhill skiing for only the second time in my life, and instead lead me toward a more familiar side of cross country skiing. Still, I had not been in 15 years, and this time I had toddlers.

Simply strapping my girls into their skis became the first challenge. Unable to help, or even understand the point, my daughters flopped like rag dolls in my arms while I inexpertly popped first one toe, then the other into their skis. Immediately my youngest began to slide down the hill. Scrambling for her, trying to keep the oldest by my side and then put myself into my own skis, began one of many comedy of errors for that day. Finally everyone strapped in, we were ready to take off. My three year old immediately fell down and soon began her demands of being let out of the skis. We convinced her to give it another try, and off we took, again.

The two year old between my skis, and the three year old between my husband's skis, we used the practice loop to test our technique. The girls' poles were soon discarded and my husband and I dragged our own behind ourselves. I am sure we looked awkward and unbalanced, but it worked. Practice looped mastered, and three year old wavering between wanting to do it herself and wanting to be done, we turned to tackle the hill down to the easy course. The key word here, is the hill.

I was never skilled at skiing down hill. My husband was a downhill skier, hence the motive behind my plan. First, I must note that this is a very small hill, but I was terrified to crash on top of one of my girls. My husband would take one girl down and leave her at the bottom of the hill. He would then come up, get the second girl and ski her down. I would then ski down the hill, crashing as few times as possible, and that, with only two falls on my part is pretty much how it went.

At the bottom of the hill, we found a patch of snow and decided to make snowmen, but the ground was too iced over, and we soon abandoned our idea. Strapping back up, no more gracefully than the first time, we took off on the flat path through the woods. This time we were able to ski beside the girls holding onto one hand and moving fairly quickly. I was unbelievable proud of my girls as they plugged along for 10 or fifteen minutes. Cross country skiing, however, is hard work, and they were about done. We turned around and headed back. The girls did really well the whole time. The two year old starting to ask to take breaks, and the three year old starting to ski on her own. We made it back to the top of the hill and even had time for hot chocolate.

Altogether we probably only skied a quarter of a mile, and were out for maybe an hour, but it was exhausting and invigorating. The girls both slept all the way to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and everybody slept good that night.

Some of My Favorite Places

I decided that I wanted to include some of my old, and hopefully new, vacation photos on my blog. I am going to post the photo of somewhere I have been (they won't just be Internet photos, but ones I actually took) and loved. At the end of the month I will write a short post about where it was and what I remember about it. At the same time, I will add a new photo. My first is from a trip last summer to Glacier National Park in Montana. Most will be from the Western USA. Many will be from National Parks since my family loves to explore the outdoors. Occasionally I'll delve into my older international photos from some areas in Europe, Mexico, and Russia.