For our next stop on the trip we made our way up through Montana to Glacier National Park and met up with Mimi and Papa! We spent the first two nights camping in East Glacier. We enjoyed skipping rocks after our hike to the waterfall and playing games, exploring and eating s'mores at our campground.
Our second day in Glacier we hiked to St. Mary's Falls and then up to Victoria Falls. I think roundtrip it was about 6 miles of hiking. It was definitely our most difficult hike of the trip (sorry Mimi and Papa!) and the kids did an awesome job! We hiked through a burnt forest and then made our way to crystal clear turquoise streams and waterfalls all along the way. And the top we were rewarded with the Victoria waterfall towering 60 feet above us and splashing us in the face. The last mile of the hike was uphill in the heat back to the car and by the end we were so tired we could hardly wait to swim in the freezing cold glacial St. Mary's lake and eat an ice cream cone!
That evening we drove to Many Glacier Lodge for a boat ride and dinner. We saw Moose from the boat and enjoyed a dinner cooked by someone else!
Our second half of the trip to Glacier was spent in Apgar Village on Lake McDonald. To get there we spent a couple of hours driving the "Going to the sun road" on which it feels like you are going to the sun! It's only open a couple of months during the year because it's so high and snowy and it's a white knuckle driving experience with sharp turns and no guard rails. The view is worth it as you see waterfalls right next to you flowing on the road, amazing vistas and then we saw deer playing the river. Paul and Dad did a great job driving and got us to the other side of the park safely!
We stayed in a rustic cabin on Lake McDonald and had fun swimming in the lake, skipping rocks, hiking to more waterfalls and exploring the woods. Montana is beautiful!
We stopped on our way to Idaho at a Krispy Kreme shop where the girls got to make their own donuts and enjoy delicious treats! A highlight for them!
We stayed in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho and it exceeded our expectations! We rented a boat and was surprised at how warm the water was given that it's a mountain lake. We had fun looking at the beautiful homes surrounding the lake and the girls loved tubing.
Mimi and Papa treated us to a couple of nights at the nice Coeur D'Alene resort and we felt so spoiled after having been camping! We enjoyed sleeping in, views of the lake, a fancy date night at a nice restaurant, shopping at the fun candy store and toy stores nearby and meeting new friends at the infinity pool.
And most importantly we celebrated our favorite 4 year old's birthday! She loved her princess cake, new books, clothes and toys. A few things about Clara at age 4. She is "joy"! We often say that she is like the character "Joy" from the movie Inside Out. She is usually happy and has a smile on her face. She adores her sisters and loves to play shopkins, barbies or legos with Gwen. She likes reading stories, especially "Fancy Nancy" and watching "Daniel Tiger" on tv. She says she doesn't like movies because they are usually "too scary". She still loves her purple "B" or blanket. She's a good eater and her favorite things to eat are pasta with red sauce, macaroni and cheese and applesauce. We love our Clare-Bear.
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