God's beauty and a Hoary Marmot's nest.

Before we strap on our boots and venture out on today's Glacier photo journey,  I wanted to let you know that D-man, out of the kindness of his little heart, allowed us to stay in a motel during our Glacier stay.
In my opinion, driving seven hours and hiking for the remainder of the day was not compatible with roughing it all night. Furthermore, recent bear attacks in Montana sealed the deal!
I, for one, did not want to be dinner for a bear.


One wouldn't achieve the true "Montana" experience if one did not stay in a "log" motel room with bedspreads adorned with moose.(or is it meese?)
Of course, that is just my humble opinion.


Now, back to our journey.


We found this lovely little spot on our last day in Glacier.  As we chugged down the road I looked to my left and practically flung my foot over to the driver's side and slammed on the brakes myself.  One couldn't just drive past and not at least "try" to capture the beauty of the surroundings. 


That, and the fact that, due to a massive head cold, exasperated by the mildew growth in our motel room, I had been a walking "cement head" the day before and hadn't been in a picture taking mood.  I'm sure it had nothing to do with the five mile hike that we were navigating...with no less then 12 pounds of water and food "just in case" the kids got hungry! 


I'm hoping D-man doesn't read this...because I'm not mentioning the fact that he had a 25 pound child strapped to his back!


I digress.
Let's venture back to the sweet little spot featured in today's photo journey.
God's creative hand is written all over it.
I'll shut up and let you soak it in!


























J-boy was quite peeved with the whole situation.
He desired to scale the rocks with "no help" at all.
I mean for goodness sake, he IS 20 months old.
In his defense, he has had approximately 600 days to develop is rock scaling skills.
So when D-man set him down in a spot where he wasn't able to even get close to the water, he had nothing but disgust for me and my camera!




This was where he wanted to be.
I had to remind him that C-boy has had like 2595 more days to develop his gazelle like qualities.



The End.

And now I'd like to discuss an issue with you.
On our prior two camping trips, I failed to slip into even one picture.
As far as our pictures are concerned....I wasn't even there.
So, D-man was "making an effort" to take a few shots of me with the kids.
But I often noticed that he would single me out and snap shots that my thumb would delete faster than you can say "hideous"!


However, I feel that it is my duty to share this picture with you.
As I look at it, I noticed something very disturbing.
We had been in very public places all day.
No, I hadn't used a mirror while placing the ponytail.
My goal was the "messy but cute" look.
You know...the ponytail that has the little bump above it...for that added "volume".
Outdoorsy.
Are you with me?
I quickly realized I was definitely "feeling" cuter than I looked!!

As I zoomed in on my camera's view finder my heart began to beat a little faster.
What the heck is that on my head! 
And to make the situation worse, I had been wearing my hair like this all day!
This was beyond "messy yet cute".
This was just plain ole' revolting.

And this is where the hoary marmot encounter comes into play.
Remember him?
They are native to the Glacier area.

picture by tomyris 95 on flickr


When one zooms in on the nest that was my hair, 
one can clearly see...

The hoary marmot snuck up on me and took up residence in my hair!!!!
FOR.REALS!
Dang hoary marmots.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I did not drop off the face of the earth...but almost!

To my fellow blog-buddies. I apologize for leaving absolutely no explanation for my extended blogging hiatus. While some of you might have believed that we were devoured by bears on our camping trip, I can assure you...we are alive and well. And I will address the bear issue in a later post. I am not sure I am emotionally ready to put that experience into words. (yes..I am being slightly dramatic..as per usual).

So, what have we been doing these past few or 4 weeks, you ask?
We have been indubitably sucking the marrow out of these last days of summer. Some of us have been sucking a bit harder then others...I'm not going to mention any names....D-man. He has been set on squeezing in as many adventures as time (and his wife) will permit!

This could possibly be because he is mourning the fact that, for the first time, three of our children will be in school! Two of them will be in school all day. Yes..we have decided to send C-boy to 4th grade and J-boy will be in 1st grade so the change will be palpable around here. And our little mini excursions. Well, let's just say those will come to a screeching halt. No more yanking kids out of school for a week long Arizona adventure. No more 4 day weekend camping trips. As far as D-man is concerned, life as we once knew it is over! At least for this year!

As far as I am concerned...I'm busy planning all of the things that I will be doing now that I am no longer homeschooling. The sky is the limit!

Oh wait, I momentarily forgot that I have a 20 month old son who has no ability to entertain himself thanks to his 3 older siblings!


In the past 4 weeks, after 2 full weeks of camping and a few lake days thrown in for good measure, one would think that the family from the Peanut Gallery was "adventured out".  However, this past week, inspite of being inflicted with an obnoxious head cold, I agreed to take the New Horizon out for one last Hoorah! Remember this? D-man thought a "little" trip to Glacier Nat'l Park would be the icing on the "summer" cake. And...being that it is only "four and a half" hours away, it would just be a two day, lickity split trip.

Seven...yes SEVEN hours later, we arrived at Glacier Nat'l Park.
Apparently Map Quest's estimation was off a bit. (that and possibly D-man's power of positive thinking)
Map Quest...you are no friend of mine. 



Take a good close look at this picture. It is difficult to get a perspective but it just so happens to be taken from the R.V's side window.

Helllooooo down there........


Today's installment of pictures will be documenting our journey to the sun, so to speak, on the Going To The Sun Road. I affectionately named it "Death trap" road. Another strong contender was "Make a wrong move and your dead" road. And finally, "What the heck were we thinking" road!  I'm sure the park will be thankful for my contribution and glowing recommendation of this gorgeous and yet terrifying trip.

Let's all sing together now....
I'm on top of the world looking down on creation
And the only explanation I can find......
Have I mentioned I love Karen Carpenter.

Every so often there are little "bump-outs" on the road.  I'm sure these are built for people who want to snap a few photos.  And for those "cautious" drivers, who don't want to go mock one with their hair on fire.  We pulled over on these regularly to let the cars that were "riding our hiney" move on past.

You can imagine, that in the motor-home, moving along this road creates an indubitably precarious situation.

There are vehicle size limits on this road.  Much to D-man's excitement we "just barely" met those requirements!





In spite of the danger, I was even able to snap some photos of the surrounding beauty. My pictures turned out less then desirable because there was a smokey haze that hung throughout the mountains.  But..you get what you can in these situations.



As you can see, when you are young, you don't have a care in the world.  You are unable to grasp the gravity of the situation...the fact that with one wrong turn, or blown out tire you could plummet to your death.
And so you hang your leg out the window and suck on a tootsie pop.





We finally made our destination.  Can't say this was ever one of my goals, but who doesn't want to stand on the Continental Divide?







And inspite of the haze...I must admit, the view was spectacular.

However, all the joy and jubilation of standing on the Continental Divide, quickly disappeared as we made our way back down the "Death Trap" Going to the Sun Road.

I know...it is difficult to believe that this is INDEED a two lane highway!



Thankfully they built that very sturdy looking rock wall should some poor motorist lose control of his vehicle.



Well... with the exception of this part of the road.  I think you'd be pretty much out of luck here!

Now...I would love to invite you to stay tuned for more "Sucking the marrow out of the last days of Summer" adventures in which I will discuss many different topics.  I'm not going to divulge too much information, but some of the topics are as follows:

A bear, his thirst,  and our Capri sun.
The one where a hoary marmot indubitably makes a nest in my hair...or something like that.
And the hike where I almost cut my head off and left it in the woods. 
And if that doesn't keep you coming back...I don't know what will!!


P.S...
Just in case you didn't know what a hoary marmot looks like.
Your welcome!

picture by tomyris 95 on flickr


For more really cool uses of the word "indubitably" go check out Word Up Yo!!