Vacation update #1

Well it's already Wednesday night and we're in Kalispell, MT, at my grandma's house.

So far our trip has been amazingly wonderful and exciting.

I'll try and post a few photos here to recap the first part of our journey but we've seen so much, done so much, and taken so many photographs, it's hard to narrow it down.

So here it goes ...

We departed Bismarck, ND, before sunrise on Saturday. The sun rose behind us over the prairie as we drove across North Dakota.


The sun was barely up as we drove through the badlands.

By Saturday afternoon we met up with the Haskins and made it to their cabin, just outside of Gardiner, MT, and very very close to Yellowstone National Park.

The cabin has a great location on the Yellowstone River. The power lines behind us are the park borders.

Here are the Haskins - they were great hosts, cooks and tour guides!

On Sunday we ventured into Yellowstone and went on a few hikes. Their daughter Sophia was a great hiker. And super cute.

The sights were amazing. This is below Lower Falls.

There were some neat rainbows below Lower Falls.

We took so many more neat photos but I'm short on time tonight so what I have up will have to do :)

On Monday morning we drove north and west to Glacier National Park. We met my parents en route. This cute black bear scurried across the road in front of us. We weren't quite fast enough to get a full body photo of him.

Monday and Tuesday night we stayed at Many Glacier Hotel, in the northwest corner of Glacier Park.

The hotel has some of the most majestic views I've ever seen. And the restaurants were delicious!

Our balcony was the perfect spot for a relaxing drink, snack, or wildlife spotting.

The hotel sits on Swiftcurrent Lake.

On Monday, after we arrived at the hotel, we stretched out our legs on a hike to Appekunny Falls.

Ironically, when we got to the top of the falls, Corey realized he'd been on the same hike before, when in high school, with his family. He knew how to get to the top, by the big pool.

Corey couldn't resist getting his feet wet.

The next day we took a boat to the opposite end of the lake, hiked over to the next lake, got on another boat, sailed across that lake, and went on two more hikes. Stay tuned for photos from our Tuesday adventure ... Corey had a run-in with a moose!