This past summer we headed to Whitefish, Montana to meet up with our friend Leanne and her family. This was definitely our most active and adventurous summer vacation we've ever taken and we can't wait to do it again. We basically were swimming, fishing, boating, tubing, biking, jet skiing, hiking and sliding our way around Big Sky Country.
Sam selfied her way through the trip.
I couldn't help but snap this picture. His tattoo says "Made In Montana" 😂
Warm welcome from Dixie at Leanne's house.
And then THIS! This is Leanne's backyard. Pretty incredible!
The sun doesn't set until 8:30pm!
Which made for late night dinners (and sleeping in the next day).
Montana mountain meal: Bison, mashed potatoes and gravy, onion rings and some broccoli for good measure.
They were SO tired.
But this stage perked them all up.
Kicked the next day off with a little fishing (no such luck, yet, on catching anything)
Todd with Angela, Leanne's mom.
Todd drove Nick's truck with that big canoe in it for a drink run!
Alpine Slides!
Up and down. Up and down. Over and over, so fun!
Ropes course across the way. We'll save that for next time.
This makes my heart pound. For some reason they lifted their safety bar on this ride.
Gondola ride to the very top of the mountain for lunch.
Sam was not a fan of being enclosed and swinging back and forth when the lift would pause.
Emu burgers. Yes, we tried it all.
Thatcher was excited to spot snow!
93 degrees out!
We opted to take the lift down over the gondola, much better choice!
Sam had the best hair in Montana. Lake hair we called it. It got thicker and longer somehow in that week.
She thought it looked good too.
As you can see.
Leanne's brother and his family were in town too. We met up on boats, anchored them together and boat hopped back and forth.
We FINALLY started catching some fish!
Lazy morning on the lake.
Todd was bound and determined to fix Leanne's dryer. I think he was unsuccessful but this picture is hilarious.
Walking into town for breakfast.
Cutest little drive through coffee shop.
Loula's for breakfast.
Pancakes as big as the plate!
It was so HOT!
We didn't last long off the lake.
We left the kids that evening with a sitter, rented bikes and headed up to Glacier National Park for the midnight "Going-to-the-Sun" full moon bike ride. This is an annual event where the roads are closed to cars and hundreds of bikers set out on this adventure using the full moon light as their guide.
We drove and drove and drove.
Both Todd and I had no idea what we were in for. (neither did Nick, Leanne or Angela I am quite sure).
All smiles here because we hadn't gone too far or high, yet. Oh and it wasn't pitch black, yet.
About 45 minutes in I realized how crazy competitive and in shape Nick and Leanne were and how crazy NOT prepared I was for this. Also, the bikes that Todd and I rented were one step above a beach cruiser!
All these scenic pictures are from Todd, I would not do anything but look straight ahead and pedal for fear I'd fall off the cliff.
Not only were Todd and me trailing behind Nick and Leanne, but also Leanne's mom, Angela!
About every 20 minutes or so, Leanne would holler back to us and ask how we were doing. She kept saying, "We are almost there!" After the tenth time she said this, I began to realize she had no idea when we would be there.
Leanne also got the full-moon ride date wrong so we were biking up at midnight, with NO full moon to guide us and the road was NOT closed to cars. 😳
At one point,
Todd reminded me that Nick had the bear spray (mind you, Nick was WAY ahead and
becoming a very tiny dot in the distance). So IF we were to see a bear, Todd
said, quickly turn around and bomb it down the hill. At nearly two hours of
biking uphill, if I saw a bear, I was NOT biking down. I was going to finish
the ride, alongside a bear if that was the case. Every corner, every turn,
there was just more road, where the heck was the sun?!
I have no idea what time it was by the time we reached the top.
This is what it looked like going down. Our cheap bike lights were well, cheap. That was definitely a one and done experience for me. I can check that one off, forever. ;)
Never been so happy to see these three!
We celebrated Todd's birthday when we woke.
And then our family ventured off from Whitefish to explore another part of Montana called Big Fork where we were staying in a lodge on Flathead Lake.
Flathead Lake Brewing Co.
Bigfork Summer Playhouse
Sweet Peaks Ice Cream!
Game room at the Big Fork Inn that had FREE games!
Checked into the Mountain Lake Lodge and went for a swim.
I discovered these, so good!
Look close, a baby deer!
Two now!
Nick, Leanne and Lila headed our way and introduced us to the Brookside Yard.
Leanne's birthday gift to Todd after that crazy bike ride!
Next day, back at the pool.
Our last adventure, heading out to Wild Horse Island.
We made it to the island and our ride dropped us off with our lunch, gave us a few tips, and then he boated away saying he'd be back in four hours. Our goal was to see as much wildlife as possible and if we were lucky, the five wild horses that live on the island.
First order of business, lunch. And we studied that map over and over.
And those were some fake smiles above, it was HOT!
Off we went. We hiked and hiked and hiked and we were dripping sweat. After 20 minutes of seeing no animals, we decided to take a swim in the water to cool off. But first, I had to pee. 😬
I hid behind a tree and started to go and then holy deer! I was whisper-yelling, "TODD! TODD! TODD!" No one could hear me!
The deer was NOT afraid at all. So I yelled louder.
We all gathered round and just watched as it got closer and closer.
It's a protected island and the animals are so used to humans hiking around that it is almost like they stop and pose for you. It is pretty unreal.
We had renewed energy after seeing the deer. We were all cooled down from the lake and we ventured further around the island.
Bye deer.
And hello, more deer!
It felt like a (friendly) hunting game. We were all on the lookout for the next animal.
Squirrel in a tree. Not so exciting but an animal nonetheless.
Definitely time for another dip in the lake.
And then boom, bighorn sheep staring right at us!
Sadly, we never saw the horses.
Time to head back. Our boat ride guy (I forget his name) was a master fisherman and showed us all that he caught while he was waiting for us.
All five of us did one last dip in the lake.
And then back to shore we went.
But first our guide showed us a small piece of property for sale.
Here's an interesting article on The Shelter Island Estate: Montana's Most Expensive Mansion
Our last Montana meal.
No one wanted to go home 😢
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