Whitefish Lake, MT

We had a blast up in Montana at our Annual Sansom Family trip to Whitefish Lake. This year Mitch and I decided to drive and had a great time seeing more of Montana. We stopped of in Missoula for a little break and ended up hiking up to the 'M' on the mountain.

Here I am standing in front of the 'M'. It was a good way to get our legs and bodies working again before jumping back in the car for the rest of our drive (about 10 hours in all). Finnley did great though...she never ceases to amaze us at what a great baby she is!

Good Morning! Trinity, Finnley, Grace and Jovie all sleepy eyed in their PJ's watching what else besides the Disney Channel!

Stephen and Mitch spent several hours catching crawfish. They collected almost 18 in all.

I had a hard time walking barefoot through the water after seeing those pinchers...yikes!

Here's Mac-Daddy w/ Jack and Rye heading over to Huckleberry Day's in town.

We enjoyed some delicious homemade huckleberry ice cream and mini donuts at the market...yum!

Mom (aka Grandma Jan) w/ Gracie and Rex

Me and Amy are training for the Hobble Creek 1/2 marathon next Saturday, and Sara is training for the St. George Marathon in October so we decided to do a long run while we were together. We did the most beautiful 10 miler around Whitefish Lake and through National Forest. We were definitely scared of seeing bear all alone that early in the morning, although Amy was more afraid of the deer (inside joke)!!

This year my dad bought a new toy to try out behind the boat. It's called the "Molecule" and it was so much fun. Here me, Hadley and Layne are getting ready to jump on.

Me, Rye and Hadley on the Molecule!

Layne, Mitch and Hadley....of course Mitch had them try every position on the molecule! It really was the BEST tube-thinger ever!

On our last day we decided to head to Glacier National Park and hike to Avalanche falls and Lake. It was B-E-A-Utiful! My dad was anxious after hearing there had been a bear in the area, so he strapped on his bear repellent. That is like mace for bears...not like bug-repellent as Sara and I first thought. Oops!

This is a pretty view of Avalanche Falls..its amazing how the water has just cut down and smoothed out all the rock. Its a MUST-SEE if you ever make it up there.

After about an hour of hiking we made it up to Avalanche lake. It was awesome. There were three waterfalls flowing into the lake, and it was perfectly clear. Finnley did awesome in the Bjorn, and of course conked out!

After our hike we stopped at Lake McDonald to have some dinner and enjoy the beautiful landscape. My mom said our pictures looked like we were standing in front of a K-Mart backdrop because it was so unbelievably beautiful to be real!Sara's little boy Jack loved trowing rocks into the glassy water.

My mom and dad are so GREAT! They do so much for our family and always plan fun trips like this. I know thats why our family is so close. Thanks again for the WONDERFUL week!

Believe it or not, you can bring boats up here...next year we are definitely putting that on our agenda. Could you imagine better ski water?