we finally arrived in Kalispell, Montana 12 hours after we left. we stayed with (THIS IS ABOUT TO GET WAY CONFUSING) my mom's second cousin, Barry Wollenzien. and if any Wollenzien reads this, please do not get offended, but until we planned this trip, I had no idea my mom even had a cousin named Barry who was a park ranger at Glacier National Park in Montana. Planning this trip was the first time I even heard of his existence. Well, they are not first cousins, but second cousins. meaning their grandma's are sisters. and I know a lot of my second cousins, actually. some of them I am closer to than my first cousins. but I didn't even know that my mom knew her second cousins, and I didn't know that they had 4 kids, which were my third cousins. really, third cousins exist?! but we just simply referred to them as our "cousins". Barry and his wife Nancy have 4 kids: the oldest is on a mission, the one who's my age was either at work or asleep the entire time we were visiting so we never got to meet him, and the 2 youngest, Coleman and Reed, were really funny and made friends with my brothers quickly and assaulted them with Nerf guns and showed them how to fish in the river which ran through their property. and WOW their house was so pretty. I could never live out in the country, but whenever we've stayed with people who live out in the country, we love it. the houses are always so pretty, and the backyard is amazing. when we went on our New York trip and went to Philadelphia, we stayed with my dad's friend Bob who lives at least an hour outside Philly, and his backyard was practically a forest. the Wollenzien's backyard wasn't a forest, but it was huge and I heard that they like to shoot deer on their own property. (I only wish we could do that here in Provo.)
the first day, our family and Barry, Nancy, and Coleman (Reed went to play with a friend) drove up to Logan pass to hike the Highline Loop Trail. it took 7-8 hours, and it was 11.8 miles. I hiked that whole thing with an ankle brace on. my left ankle was already weak from a Prom injury (my sweet date Nate backflipped me playing bubble soccer for the day date, and I rolled my ankle while landing), and then I rolled it again in a tennis match. I was 2 games in and I ran forward to return a shot, and instead of hitting the ball, I rolled my ankle. but in the end that didn't matter, because I won the match, 8-6. so I played 12 more games on a weak ankle. (we only played a proset because of time.) well again, since I am so prepared, I had to borrow some socks from Nancy because I only packed ankle socks. in order for the brace to work effectively, my socks needed to go above the ankle. but since i was stupid, that didn't happen. but Nancy was a saint and let me use her above the ankle socks. at first, the weather was overcast and it was pretty nice. it was a bit chilly at first, but once we got moving, we were okay. but then, we started to get rained on, and this wasn't just a light drizzle. it started pouring. and then it was HAILING. and as I mentioned earlier, none of us were prepared except for the Wollenziens, who had raincoats and everything. that day, I decided to wear my tank top that was not made of dry-fit, and it didn't absorb anything. also, my Camelbak was leaking, so I was even more wet. and I didn't even have a jacket, just a long sleeved dry-fit. so I was soaked. Barry let me borrow his huge sweatshirt, which made it look like I had no shorts on. it kept me warm as we hiked to the chalet, which is some cabin type thing where people can stay overnight. they have a clothesline where we hung out our soaking wet clothes, and we just ate beef jerky and sat by a fire until we were ready to get going again. by the time that happened, it was hot. and our wet clothes dried out quickly, and we were all getting tired. but it was such a pretty hike and despite the bad weather, we all loved it. parts of it looked like it could've been in Switzerland or Germany. but no. just Montana.
Coleman and Justin were inseparable on this hike
for dinner that night, Barry cooked my favorite thing in the world: STEAK. I LOVE STEAK. it is my favorite food and I have no idea why girls don't really like steak and why they eat chicken instead. because I LOVE STEAK. while I was eating dinner, I noticed that on the fridge, they set up some sort of shrine for their son who was on a mission, and there was a list of songs he should listen to when he got back (he wrote at the top: "ex. Scar Tissue by RHCP", so seeing that he likes Red Hot Chili Peppers like I do, he probably expected the suggestions to be just like that). well, the 2 songs on the list were "Happy" by Pharrell, and "Pompeii" by Bastille. well, Bastille is good. Pompeii might be a bit overplayed.....ok, a lot overplayed now, but their other hidden gem songs are SO GOOD. but Happy?! That song was good for maybe.....3 days. so I added a bunch of songs to that list, and I don't know if the parents appreciated it, but their missionary will definitely appreciate it when he gets home!
the next day was a hard day for all of us. we had to leave the Wollenzien's house and drive all around the park to lookout spots and small, shorter hikes, but the whole east side of the park was under construction. also, it was the day that my friend left on his mission, and even though this trip was a pretty good distraction, I was still really sad. but before we had to deal with road construction, we went to a hidden spot that Barry told us about, Lake MacDonald, and we literally......skipped rocks. for about a half hour. and it was so beautiful, and we all had a good time.
the next day was a hard day for all of us. we had to leave the Wollenzien's house and drive all around the park to lookout spots and small, shorter hikes, but the whole east side of the park was under construction. also, it was the day that my friend left on his mission, and even though this trip was a pretty good distraction, I was still really sad. but before we had to deal with road construction, we went to a hidden spot that Barry told us about, Lake MacDonald, and we literally......skipped rocks. for about a half hour. and it was so beautiful, and we all had a good time.
we did NOT plan this by the way.
after going to a few lookouts, we went to hike to St. Mary's falls. but all the parking lots were closed because of road construction, so we had to take a shuttle and they only ran every hour. we didn't have to wait that long to ride it to the hike, which was nice. and it was super pretty. we got to see 3 waterfalls, Virginia Falls, St Mary's falls, and an unnamed waterfall which Wesley insisted on naming "Wesley Castle falls" and Justin insisted on "Wesley Castle Memorial Falls, because that's what will happen to him after he tries to jump off the cliff into the river!" well, whatever it was named, it was super pretty.
after the hike was when things started going completely downhill. we were all hungry, and everyone in my family gets hangry (hungry+angry) when we haven't had food for a while, but especially Wes. well, we walked back to the shuttle station, and there were loads of other people waiting too. the shuttle came after about 15 minutes, but it was already packed, and unlike Japan, where they cram as many people as they can fit into a moving vehicle, they can only fit as many people as they have seats for. my dad was going to sneak on, get dropped off at the parking lot, and drive the car back to pick up the rest of the family. but he got kicked off the shuttle. so he tried to hitchhike, and he failed. so then, my mom had her running shoes, and she would run to the parking lot, find the car, and pick us up. so she took off, and Wesley was getting very hangry, and he decided to climb a tree. well, you can't climb trees here, and my dad was trying to get him down, but since Wesley is hangry and he is a 14 year old boy who is missing some brain cells (as many 14 year olds are; I was in Japan when I was 14 and I had a few bad meltdowns out in public) and he is stubborn, he starts to argue and climb higher. well, since my dad is also stubborn, he won't stop arguing until Wes gets down. but then it turns into a full blown fight, Wesley accuses Dad of having a "sissy upbringing" (because Mom's cousin Barry did not have a sissy upbringing and was allowed to hunt sage hens and light Nerf balls on fire and throw them around as a teenager), and then my dad grounds him, he chucks a rock at either me or Justin but thankfully it misses, Dad punishes him more, and he just starts crying and lies down on the rocks. now mind you, Wesley is a normal 14 year old boy who just gets hangry and if he doesn't eat, he goes crazy. well, finally my mom comes back, we pick up 2 hitchhikers, and finally, we go to our hotel. Well, the hotel fire safety rules wouldn't let 5 people share a room, so my parents got their own, while I had to be in charge of my brothers. I thought it would be okay because we did this all the time in hotels in Japan, but no. Wesley was still in a bad mood, and Justin was scared that someone would break into our hotel room and rob us, I was just sad and tired, and none of us got to sleep quickly. but when we finally did, it felt so good, because we were ready for the next day.
the next day, we hiked to Grinnell Glacier, which was the first real glacier we got to see. and it was so pretty. but we didn't know how cold it would be that day, and since we didn't really pack well, Mom had to buy us hats. we had to take 2 boats to get to the trailhead, but the lake was so pretty and our boat tour guide wasn't too bad looking either
I promise I have shorts on!
well, as you can see, the glacier was so pretty. and so was the lake that this trail overlooked. well, at the top, it started drizzling lightly, but we didn't really care, and eventually it stopped. however, about 20 minutes from the bottom of the trail on the way back, it started pouring. and hailing. and it was so bad, it soaked through all our clothes, and our shoes were wet, everything was wet, and it was freezing. and mind you, all I have is my Timpview Tennis warm up jacket. when we finally got to the bottom, we just stayed in the shelter while we waited for the storm to pass so the boat could run again. we waited for about a half hour, returned to the lodge, and sat by a fire, tried to dry out our clothes, changed in the bathrooms, and headed out to Helena to stay in another hotel. it rained for a while, but when it stopped, we were driving on the freeway, and this bird is flying, but our car is going too fast for the bird to move, so it crashes into our windshield, bounces, hits it again, and dies. it left its imprint on the windshield, and some of its feathers got caught in our windshield wipers! eventually, they came out. but that was pretty funny.
well, it was a great vacation, even though we weren't very prepared for the weather. and it was so pretty and the pictures don't even do justice. you have to see it in real life. and we took loads more, but these ones were the best ones. so, if any of you nonexistent blog readers want to visit, please be prepared for ALL WEATHER, especially rain. then you will be fine. but dang. it's beautiful up there, and I've never seen anything like it. and I ate more beef jerky that week than in my entire life!
