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.