Mimi and Dylan made the big cross-continental trip to come
and visit us last week! Patrick drove the 3.5 hours each way to Spokane to pick
them up on Monday. To save the girls the trip there and back I took the
afternoon off… We entertained ourselves
while anticipating their arrival with a little homework, a few games, and a
“tattoo session”. Round about 11 pm they rolled into Canoe Gulch to much
excitement from the house-bound Lacrioxs.
I needed to work all week, so Patrick was the main tour
guide (I really should have him be the guest blogger here…) On Tuesday they
woke up and got going round-about 9 am (pretty good considering how late they
came in!) and went to Patrick’s favorite place in Libby… Aunt T’s. From there they journeyed to Kootenai Falls,
where everyone faced their fears and went across the swinging bridge. They then
spent most of the rest of the afternoon at a little beach near the bridge on
the river. They then went over to the dam to do a little fishing and then home
for dinner.
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| The whole week was hazy because of the fires all around us, but it made for an eerily beautiful scene. |
After dinner we all went down to the river to watch Patrick
fish and just take in the beauty. The kids were all pretty clearly tired
(especially poor Izzy) but generally had fun playing at what Evie calls “the
castle”. Patrick caught a few pretty decent sized fish, but not big enough to
warrant eating.
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| At Avalanche Lake in Glacier |
On Wednesday I got up super early to go to Missoula for work
and they got up at the same time to go to Glacier. I had great visions of them
having fun in Glacier for the day… surely a Wednesday wouldn’t be too bad… too
bad I was wrong. Turns out it was super
crowded and they waited for almost 2 hours to catch the first shuttle. Given
that difficulty they decided just to stop at Avalanche Lake and hike up to the
lake. It looks like it was a beautiful hike, but unfortunately not exactly an
experience in the solitude of wilderness. I think the consensus after the
Glacier experience was that Libby and the Cabinets were far more enjoyable
because there was just as much beauty but a whole heck of a lot less people.
On Thursday they took it easy and “toured” Libby and then
went with me to the River Run while Patrick went (you guessed it, J) fishing. On Friday
Patrick went into town to work for a bit while Nicole hung out with the kids in
the morning. Then in the afternoon we all headed out to float the Kootenai
River from the dam to osprey landing. It was a great float!
Complete with a few bald eagles, some time
swimming on the banks of the river, and a keeper rainbow trout for Patrick. We
topped off the day with peanut eating, shell-floor-throwing, and delicious
pizza at Red Dog. The river must have made us all hungry because we totally
polished off two whole pizzas!
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| Huckelberry Parade |
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| Swimming in the Lake |
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| Milnor Lake at sunset |
Saturday we headed out to Trout Creek for their annual
Huckelberry Festival. The Subaru is a 5 seater, so poor Patrick had to ride in
the back, on windy roads no less, for over an hour to get there. Even with a
strong stomach he was pretty green by the time we got there. We got there just
in time for the parade, which was definitely smaller than the Troy 4th
of July parade, but had some great floats. Including one from a local church
that looked like a mountain. After the
parade we headed over to the festival, where the kids finally talked us into
letting them get inside large bubbles and roll around on a pool of water. It
looked pretty claustrophobic to me, but Izzy in particular loved it. After
perusing the booths for a bit we caught some lunch and then headed back to the
car to go to a little shindig at my co-workers house. He lives on Milnor Lake,
and it was a wonderful way to end the day. The kids, and Patrick, spent some
quality time on the lake in the paddle boat and well, just plain in the lake.
By the end of the evening I decided the lake looked just so appetizing I jumped
in myself. Spirits were quite high on
the way home… this coupled with some issues with our Subaru, fear of animals
jumping out in front of me, Patrick riding in the back (aka not totally safe),
and the kids insisting on singing a song about dog poo set me (I think
uncharacteristically) off the edge of calm (aka mad). But even with a little
mad mommy it still was a great day!
On Sunday the whole crew took it easy in the morning (a
rainy morning finally!!) and then headed out to Spokane to stay the night and
then get Dylan and Mimi on a plane on Monday.
It was a short trip, but I think (hope J)
they had a lot of fun!
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