August Randoms

August randoms. Cam boating with the Priests. 

Ada dressing up for church at home. 

 I want all the ice creams!

My onions were the crop that did the best this year. 

Oh and zucchini! We have so much zucchini!

Counting money! We split up all the bread money (tithing, spend and save) and headed to the bank so all the girls could start a bank account. 

So much money!!!!! We have found out the demand for bread never ends! Paige got a bit of money, but we tried to keep track of who was helping with bread, etc. They all are rich kids now! We saved a lot, and the girls have loved making visits to the bank. 

We also started collecting quarters. We only have about half as many as we need!

 And just some cute pics!

Silverwood

We made it on our annual Silverwood trip! It is near impossible to take pictures at the water park. We loved being in a pool again! The slides are always fun. And life felt normal for a little bit. 

We were there from the time the park opened all the way until it closed (11am-10pm). Paige stayed awake the whole time. And we did pretty much everything! 

We had to go on a Saturday so Cameron could come too. It got so busy by 7pm. We kind of had to throw social distancing out the window at that point. It was crazy to see so many people together without masks. I couldn't believe they were even allowed to be open like that during these times. It was insane after being in Washington with such strict policies. But I guess Idaho is a different world!

 Silverwood's famous single scoop of ice cream!

It felt like a normal day any other summer. Which was nice, but also a little unsettling and Cameron and I were glad that our one trip was behind us for the year. 

But if I am going to go on a Coronavirus rant, it has been a struggle watching the world reopen while we feel like we are standing still. Kids in other states are going to school, playing soccer, and much more. So we feel like we are lagging behind and missing out on so much. We are wearing our masks when we venture out to the store or in public, which isn't too often. We have been blessed with great neighbors and cousins nearby to keep us sane.  I am confident we will make it through this and this will just be a small memory in my kids life. We have had some positive experiences through all this as well. We have read the scriptures as a family way more than we ever have. The bond between our girls has grown. They have also strengthened some talents that they may have never discovered. Aubrey and Ada have literally spent hours and hours on our trampoline. They can now do forward and back flips, handsprings both directions, aerials and many other amazing tricks. I love watching them. They are incredible and Penny isn't far behind. Better than I ever was. 

But, we will be so grateful for everything when life can return to a new normal with more opportunities again. 

Montana Trip

We had a great trip to Montana the first week of August. The girls did so well on the drive to Montana. We didn't even stop anywhere, so when we got to the gas station near Kalispell to fill up our gas I snuck in and came out with some big popsicles. 

A fun treat! We stopped by Mom and Dad's for a few cabin essentials, then headed up to the cabin. We planned to spend a good chunk of our time up there. We arrived later on a Friday evening, and eventually headed home to Spokane the following Saturday evening. Lots of swimming, boat rides, bike rides, walks, perfume making, and much much more!

Catching minnows! We haven't ever used the motor on the boat much and we enjoyed daily cruises around the lake. 

The water was so nice. We were able to swim everyday. 

Smoreo

It was hot and dry so for the most part we just used the grill and didn't make any fires. We did one small fire one day when it was cooler. 

Sunset swim

Seems like we would head out for a boat ride after dinner most nights. It was a great way to end the day. 

Bond Falls will probably be on our to do list every time we visit the cabin. The girls were so excited this year after dunking in the ice water last year. It was such a good memory for them and they couldn't wait to do it again. 

Getting ready to get cold!

We let the girls dunk and play and Cameron and I were mostly content to just sit and watch. After all, we had jumped in last year....so we already had pictures. Haha. But we eventually got talked in to jumping in again. It was sooo cold. 

Cameron, Ada, and I all jumped in once. I think Aubrey jumped in three times. You have to have confidence that you can swim to shore in freezing cold water. 

Aubrey pencil diving

Hiking back to the truck. 

We also floated the river again. One of my favorite things to do. We felt like it went fast this year! Aubrey and Ada are great kayakers and were able to paddle better this year without wearing out. 

We loved looking for fish, collecting rocks, and playing kayak games. We also stopped for lunch and the girls made mud balls and talked about selling them. 

Taking a break to jump in!

Mud balls!

And more mud....

I was able to sneak away with my parents and head to Mt Gould in Glacier Park, and Cameron stayed behind with the girls. They baked cookies and made friendship bracelets, and then went for a swim at the Wolsteins. 

I was always surprised at when Paige decided she needed to swim. Some days she refused. Other days she would walk right in and swim the whole time. 

Hiking Mt. Gould was amazing. It had been years since I had been to Glacier and hiked a peak. We got a perfect day for it too! We left the house around 4:30 and started hiking before 7. I think it was in the low 70s when we started. I think we got to the peak by 10:30am. We casually hiked down because none of us were in a hurry to get back. I loved it up there so much I decided we had to head to Glacier as a family the next day. 

You really can't beat the views in Glacier. 

Sneaking a pic with Dad. 

I don't think it will be long before my girls can make this hike with us! Aubrey I think could join us next year!

More great views. Great conversations. It was so good to spend some time with my parents kid free and enjoying something we all love so much. 

Well, we woke the kids up at 4:30 the next morning, thinking we could throw them in the car and they would fall back asleep. You guessed it- they didn't. They were all excited for a trip to Glacier Park too! We followed my parents up, and then they jumped in the tail of the truck at Lake McDonald Lodge and we drove them to the Gunsight Pass trailhead so they could hike through the park and back down to the lodge.   We could tell it was windy and colder, but we thought it was just because the sun hadn't risen yet. 

After dropping my parents off, we claimed a coveted parking spot at Logan Pass around 8am, and prepared to get out of the car. The truck temperature read 43 degrees. And the wind was howling. 

We rooted around for all the warm clothes we could find. Luckily my parents had left a few things in the back of the truck. Then we all prepared to jump out hoping we could hike part of the Highline Trail. 

We made it as far as the bathrooms before we had a couple kids crying because they were so cold. 

We went back to the truck and sat and listened to our book for an hour, thinking that once the sun came out the day would get better. We knew that if we left the parking spot we wouldn't get one again. Well, after another attempt an hour later, this time making it only slightly further, we snapped a pic and were all pretty discouraged thinking we would just have to head home. 

As we got in the car, we decided that maybe we should try the waterfalls since they were down the road a bit and at a lower elevation. Good choice! We still struggled to find parking there for a minute, but then we were off. It was still windy and cold, but not quite as bad as Logan Pass. 

St Mary's Falls

Made me so nervous to have my kids so close to the water. Especially Paige. 

And Virginia Falls

The girls were loving Glacier despite the cold!

When we got back to the car we started driving down, and eventually decided we would just stop somewhere-anywhere- and try to get another little hike in. When we got to where Mom and Dad and I had started hiking to Mt. Gould, we decided to try hiking there. You start at Going to the Sun Road and basically hike up a waterfall. The girls loved the rock scrambling. They were all such good sports. It was still cold, but if we kept moving they were all happy. 

Scrambling up the waterfall led us to the Highline Trail, so we decided to hike back to Logan Pass and hope that Cameron could hitch hike back to our truck for us. 

I know I have done the Highline as a kid, but it had been years and years, and it was a perfect hike for the girls. Paige was such a good sport in the backpack (she didn't want to hike), but she only took about a half hour nap...and getting up at 4:30 was catching up to her. She didn't cry or whine, which was nice. But when we finished the hike and finally got her out, she just completely lost it. 

Seriously the views are incredible

Penny wore Papa's sweatshirt all day. We were so grateful he left it in the truck. 

Gould in the background behind the clouds. 

We had the best trip!

Driving home

Take a pic of my zucchinis so I can just take them to the trash. I probably shouldn't have...but I like smaller zucchini and we had plenty of those too. 

 And somehow we forgot all the babies at home. So Paige was pretty excited to see them all again!