The International

 On Wednesday we took the International (cutest boat ever) across Waterton Lake to Goat Haunt, MT. We got passports for the girls before the trip and were rather disappointed that they wouldn't give us a passport stamp when we entered Canada. We heard that they give them in Goat Haunt but we had no such luck. So we still don't have any stamps in their new passports- lame. We hiked to Kootanai Lake and were eaten alive by bugs. It was a gorgeous hike though so that made up for the bugs. The boat was the perfect way to see more of the park and it was fun to see the literal line where Canada meets the US.

 Red Fish needed to have a slingshot on this trip so she immediately bought one in town. She spent a good deal of time shooting rocks into every lake.

 Our whole group- The Wallace Family and the Olcott Family.

Dipping our toes in Waterton Lake while we waited for the International to take us back to Canada.

1st Day in Waterton

 New Fish, Owen, Red Fish and Lorali- best friends for life. JJ's family has a fabulous cabin right in Waterton park so we were spoiled rotten. JJ is an amazing host. My girls LOVED her kids and felt right at home.

 We hiked to the top of Bear's Hump- a very windy perch with an amazing view.

 
We also went to Cameron Falls and walked around the charming town of Waterton.

Heading To Waterton

One of my best friends, JJ, from childhood has been trying to get me to her family cabin in Waterton Lakes park in Alberta Canada for about twenty years. I called her earlier this year and told her I was ready to drive up and meet her so she brought her husband and four kids from Atlanta Georgia and met us in Canada. It was truly a trip, twenty years in the making. Our kids had such a blast together and I'm so glad we went.

 On the way through Montana we stopped at Choteau and took pictures with all of the bizarre dinosaur statues and old west props. It was a fun place to stop.

 When we got to Waterton, our friends had a huge picnic and campfire ready for us. They introduced us to all kinds of fun Canadian treats . The kids got to throw rocks in a river, the eternal favorite pastime of all kids. I unfortunately did not take any pictures. We very excitedly told our friends that we saw three grizzly bears and a black bear in Yellowstone. They were not impressed. They took us on a twenty minute drive up one of the roads in Waterton where we saw 3 black bears and 1 brown bear (I never realized that black bears come in multiple colors and they are all really just black bears) within about ten minutes. No wonder they were unimpressed with our Yellowstone stories.

 coyote

Yellowstone Day 4

We went to the towers waterfalls and drove to Rosevelt. We ate at the Rosevelt Lodge and went on the Yellowstone stage coach as a special treat from MeMine and Pop Pop. Asia was bummed they wouldn’t let her ride on the top of the coach but you had to be twelve.  In addition to all of the bison we saw up close we saw a Yellow bellied marmot, which Asia loved. Asia was trying to catch herself a Clark’s Nutcracker. Every place we go, Asia is sure she is going to catch a bird. Hopefully the birds continue to stay one step ahead of her.

After the stage coach ride, my brothers needed to get their babies back to the campground so the four of us continued on to Mammoth Hot Springs. We got to see a grizzly bear close and a gray wolf. Asia has always wanted to see a wolf in the wild so she was freaking out. We saw otters and a sandhill crane and a barrow’s goldeneye duck on the lake on the way home. Asia likes me to keep track of these things. I was never interested in all of these animals until Asia became so interested in animals. Now I love keeping track of everything we see.

The next day we packed up the camp site and went to Norris and ate lunch in West Yellowstone. We drove to Helena, MT and stayed the night and we all got to have a shower!

Marmots

Mammoth Hot springs

Gray Wolf

Yellowstone Day 3

 Dragon's breath

 Yellowstone river

 All of the grandkids

 On day 3 we hiked around Dragon’s Mouth and Dragon’s Caldron- very smelly. We saw a whole flock of white pelicans flying over Yellowstone Lake. We drove past Yellowstone Lake every day multiple times - it is truly beautiful. We walked around the Mud Volcano Area looking in every stinky hole and went to the Lower Falls lookouot before having a picnic lunch at Otter Creek. The kids ran around being crazy together. After our picnic we went to Yellowstone rapids and were completely swarmed by bugs. They didn’t bite but the kids were going crazy. Red Fish was especially excited about seeing cutthroat trout trying to swim upstream through the crazy rapids.