Millie is four

Our girlie turned four years old this month! We in the primary presidency made those birthday signs, and it was a thrill for Millie to see it on the lawn on her special day.

I had been daydreaming about making her a barbie doll cake for a long time. Then I allowed James to help decorate it.

Our kissing picture with the birthday child

She runs around and tumbles everywhere with these brothers, but sure can scream if she feels disrespected. As I type this, she is rolling on the floor with James as he pinches her nose and pokes her tummy. She wants Andrew to do her bidding all the time. 

We got to see my sister Rachel on Millie's birthday, and she pampered her.

Nona made her a new dress that is absolutely darling.

Nona made it long so she can wear it a while (she's been trying to wear her other pink one for two years now). She looks so grown up in that picture. A far cry from the chubby baby pictured below at Lagoon.

BTW, when do the 3 year old tantrums end? Because I sure hoped they'd magically disappear the moment she turned 4.

Richards getaway- Fairmont hot springs

Thursday morning the families all said goodbye to each other. Most were going to drive all day home. But I still had the next day off work, and we still hadn't been to a hot springs, so we found a room at Fairmont Resort near Butte Montana and drove there. First we stopped in Missoula for lunch.

James choose a peanut butter/nutella sandwich in the car. Then we played at the same castle playground from the beginning of our trip.

We got to the hotel at 3 pm to check in, and then we swam and swam and swam. 

At some point Millie changed swimsuits.

James felt a lot more brave by borrowing one of their life jackets. Then he went down the big slide on JB's lap and then my lap multiple times. He and I also stayed longer than the others into the evening.

Andrew went down the slide on my lap twice, then I told him he ought to just try it alone. He was nervous -- look at that face -- but then realized he was just fine, and did it a few more times alone.

Friday morning we didn't have to checkout til 11, so we ate cereal in cups in our room (no breakfast in hotels any more these days), and went back to the pool. We tried the outside pool this time. The water everywhere was just perfectly warm and the hot part was perfectly hot (these two boys loved the hot).

Max didn't want to put his cut finger in the water too much, though it was pretty much healed. Also, cool shot from JB's iphone!

Wake up early enough and the pool is pretty much yours. Millie insisted we play dolphin momma and dolphin baby. The boys were constantly trying to drag each other under.

Then, guess who got brave and did the slide all by himself? This 7 year old. That saved my legs from doing all the stairs, and helped Millie not scream when I left her side. I did take her down twice. She buried her face in my chest and gripped by swimsuit straps. 

Then it was back in the van and 3 or 4 movies later, we were back home again. Back to mowing the lawn, doing laundry, etc. But what a great week.

Richards getaway - Glacier National Park

Can you believe this view from the deck? It was the best VRBO, right on Lake Five, just outside West Glacier, with room for everyone. It just had the funniest old mismatched kitchen stuff and needed shampoo. 

We got up really early on Wednesday morning to get into Glacier National Park before it filled up. Joe did great research on what would work best for our group.

We started with the beautiful Trail of the Cedars.

Then most of us hiked up to Avalanche Lake. I tried to get Millie to walk as long as she could, and the big boys tried to give me a break by carrying her, but once again she cried if she wasn't with me. So I just carried her pretty much five miles round trip in the backpack, and took ibuprofen and tylenol at the end.  Joe carried Rachel and Suzanne carried Silas, but those cuties are around 2 years old each -- this now-4-year-old can't ride on the next hike. 

At the lake, Millie and James and I sat and waited and chatted with other folks who were coming and going. The first two couples I said hi to were both from Utah.  The rest of our group hiked around to the other side of the lake for that view.

James again was the holder of a Camelbak and it helped him feel purposeful. Here he is giving Andrew a drink.

I was feeling glad I brought Millie along, because of the views and everything around us. Until she said the water was waking her up. It was a loud water fall.

See?

We were very happy to get back to the cars and see that Collette and Spencer and Nona had a big picnic spread for us.

Near these tables was the Flathead River. This was a fun spot to skip rocks, collect rocks, play with rocks, pile up rocks, etc.

After that, I was glad to get a ride with Bart and take James and Millie back to the VRBO. They were too tired, but the rest of the group did another short hike to Rocky Point.

That night we had a blind root beer tasting contest as a family and I played spoons with the four oldest cousins and we all just chatted and enjoyed time together. My kids all slept surprisingly really well on the whole trip. Probably because they were so tired every day! A couple times early on in the week I gave them Melatonin at night when they were too excited and bouncing around and I knew we had to get up early.  

Richards getaway - hiking and a lake

We hiked on Tuesday morning by Wallace.  

The Polaski Tunnel Trail was beautiful. Steep for me at the top though. We were supposed to all meet and do it together, but Google Maps led our minivan up into the mountains with no service. We turned around and asked a local, who pointed us to the right spot. The others started ahead of us, but my mountain goat Ben caught up with them on the trail.

These little legs just don't go that fast.

JB carried Millie for the last bit in the carrier backpack we borrowed.  I carried her shoes.

I was the last one to stagger to the top, then we took this picture with Kim's timer.

The trail commemorates the firefighters who survived the massive fires of 1910.  There's information along the way, and a memorial at the top. Andrew wanted to pose with this firefighter axe, until James jumped in. This is a forced smile.

Real smile.

The green forest canopy was simply beautiful.

I carried the girl on the way back down, because she absolutely screamed when someone else tried to help. Notice:

(Methinks this baby is too big for this)

James did so great if he had a backpack and a purpose.

Then we drove up a gravel bumpy road to a mountain lake called Lower Glidden that Jeff had read about. We were glad everyone's cars made it up! The view was just spectacular. 

It was too cold to get in (though Jeff paddled across and pointed out a bald eagle he could see). The cousins loved the slack lines he set up on trees.

And these cousins loved each other!

We drove that afternoon along so many zig-zagging Montana state roads around lakes and rivers 3 or 4 hours west to get to our VRBO by Glacier National Park.  Oh, we all stopped at the same time without planning to get a Huckleberry shake at the same place and JB took pictures and couldn't stop laughing.