Utah!

This is another late post. Our family went to Utah in September... That was a fun birthday present. We visited our grandparents who live on Cedar mountain in a cabin. In front of their cabin is a road, and across the road is a meadow. The meadow isn't too terribly wide; you could see the opposite road from my Grandma's and Grandpa's cabin. Anyway, one day I got permission to take the kids on a little hike through the meadow. I took Mimi and Josh the first time, I think. Then we discovered a stream. It was pretty small and shallow, although a bit long; at its deepest point, it came up to around my waist. Luckily, we had brought along some good, long hiking sticks or branches (there's a small forest of Quaking Aspens next to the cabin), so we were able to measure how deep the water would be. Josh, Mimi and I returned to the cabin where Willsie and Caleb were helping Grandpa start the s'mores. I persuaded the two of them to come hiking with us.

So, after the s'mores, the five of us grabbed our sticks, some water, walked across the road, and headed down the small, steep hill. I led everyone to one of my favorite areas of the meadow; it was my favorite because the grass was slightly taller than me. It towered above my siblings. We didn't get very far, though, because Willsie was too wet. Four-year-olds who have their feet soaked, trudging through grass (both short and tall), and attempting to jump over tiny streams aren't typically happy. So we headed back to the cabin. Caleb decided to stay back at the cabin. So then it was just Josh, Mimi and me.

This is a little collage that I put together. And by the way, Grandma's and Grandpa's cabin isn't in any of these pictures. There are other cabins, though.

We followed the stream for awhile and came to a bigger pool where the water crossed under the road. That was where the deepest water was. I waded to the middle of the pool and the water was a little above my waist. In some of the pictures, Mimi is soaked. That's because she dunked in the pool, after slipping by accident two or three times.

The water was pretty cold, but before long, we became used to it. Besides, once you're soaked, it doesn't really matter if you splash through even more water. All the same, we ended up avoiding the stream most of the way back to the cabin. That had to have been one of my favorite things about that vacation.

Kalispell!

It was in July that we went on a trip to Kallispell, Montana. We stayed at a cabin for a couple days. The cabin was situated in the middle of a gorgeous forest, and since I had my Christmas present (a camera) with me, I had LOTS of fun taking the following pics.

This is the cabin. This picture was taken from a hill next to the cabin. The gray rocks in the distance led to the stream. Hidden from view, and to the right, is the road where our suburban was parked.

And here is the hill, which will become steadily famous throughout this post.

Here is Mister C. And that is also the hill.

I met Mom on top of the Hill the first morning that we were there. There was dew everywhere. By the time Mom and I got back to the cabin, our socks, shoes, and pants were soaked. This is a picture of a...ponderosa? I'm guessing that's what kind of tree it was.

This is a random pretty purple flower.

This is another random pretty purple flower.

And this is the third random pretty purple flower.

 And this is the gorgeous, ice-cold stream that ran behind the cabin. Ice-cold as it was, if you played in it long enough, you got used to it.

This is an old, forgotten cabin that we found when we followed the road for a minute or two... 

Let me introduce you to our friend the toad. Dad caught it and stuck it in a big blue tub that we had brought along. The first thing that he said when he walked into the cabin with our little visitor was; "Josh, we're NOT keeping it, so don't ask."

Of course, there are many more things that I took pictures of, but these are some of the few that pics were actually FOCUSED. Sometimes my camera can be frustrating....