Finally a Break!!!!!!

Jared and I have been going to Kalispell since very early in our marriage!!! In fact we went with mom and dad Puzey six weeks after our wee little Emry was born!!! Jared and his dad rode their motorcycles and mom, Emry and I drove the truck!!! When Emry was older we discovered Jared's childhood memory of going to the Columbia Falls water park, and since then we haven't been able to NOT go!!! Emry would start asking shortly after returning home when we woukd be going to Kalispell again!!! It has become a fun, family tradition!!! Two summers ago we asked Dave and Char if they would bring their family so we could all enjoy the fun of the wonderful slides!!  Last summer Char suggested we make a get together for the entire Puzey clan!! So last summer all the Puzey's were able to take a day and go to the Columbia Falls Waterslides, minus me unfortunately because I had to work :( even though they had a blast last year Jared vowed he would not do it in one day again!! Our kids were good but driving 5 hours to get to the slides, sliding for 8 hours and then driving another 5 hours home makes for a very long trip!!! This year Jared and I decided to get a hotel room and make a bit of a holiday of it!!! Myrna was able to ride and stay with us which made the trip even more fun!!!  Our first adventure was seeing an Elk not far from our home!!!

We got to Carston around lunchtime and decided to get some food in us before the longest leg of our journey began!!

 

Friday was a hot and windy day but we still stopped on Logan's Pass to take some pictures and go for a little walk!!! I love Logan's Pass, I love the altitude you climb in a very short amount of time!!!!  I love the waterfalls, the weeping walls, the wildlife, the man made rock barrier walls!!! We stopped at a beautiful waterfall just off the main road and did a bit of exploring and picture taking!!!

 

 

 

 

Once we got to Kalispell we checked into our hotel then ventured out for supper before letting the kids burn off some energy swimming in the hotel pool!! We were the only family at the pool plus a baseball team of teenage boys!!! When we first got in the pool the boys were doing some pretty intense stunts into the pool!!! Our boys were fascinated!!! The teenage boys would put the lounge chair near the pool and then one at a time the boys would run towards the chair and do some sort of flip over top of it into the water!!! After watching for a bit I noticed Calum trying some of their stunts and then he even got a chair himself, but we had to kibosh that idea before he hurt himself!!! 

Saturday morning we all slept in a little making us miss the continental breakfast :( but we got ready and packed our pool bags and headed to McDonalds for breakfast! After we were on our way to the Waterslides!!! It was so much fun with all the Puzey clan there to share in the fun!! We hardly saw Emry as she was hanging out with Leah most of the time!!! The boys were able to ride all the slides by themselves and seemed to love the independence!!! They were able to go on every slide except the straight down one, Geronimo!!! Though Armin thought differently!!! He escaped the warmth of the hot tub and headed toward the little white slide that he could do all by himself, he bypassed that slide and by the time Jared could catch him he had made it all the way up the stairs for Geronimo only to be carried down by the lifeguard!!! Jared found him with his head resting on the steps pouting!!! It didn't take long for him to get over it once he was given some watermelon!!! We slided for almost 8 hours!!! It was a blast!!! The boys couldn't get enough of the tube slides!! 

After the day with all the Puzey's we all went our separate ways.  We had our hotel for another night so we could take our time getting home!! We went to eat at the yummiest place to eat in Kalispell, "Famous Dave's" it is a BBQ joint that serves many super tasty BBQ varieties on top of a garbage can lid!!!! It was yummy!!!

It was a late night but everyone was exhausted and we all went right to sleep!! The next morning we got up and slowly packed our things before we went out for brunch!! We slowly made our way home back over the Logan's Pass, which was a good thing since our van is definitely on its last leg of life. We actually did have trouble near the top of the pass! Jared thinks maybe just maybe the van was vapor locked. It wasn't overheating and it had a full tank!! It was hot and it did have to work quite hard going up the mountain!! We actually decided to stop at the pull out near the top of the pass to take pictures of the mountain goats!! We didn't know anything was really wrong with the van until we stopped!! It was shaking but we had stopped so we just turned it off and got out to look around!! We saw a mountain goat momma with her baby and we got some cool pictures!!! 

Thankfully while we were letting our van rest Jared spotted a tow truck from the top of a trail we were on and with our camera zoomed in on the door to get the phone number in case we would be needing a tow!!!!

After letting our van rest for an hour and half we got in and prayed it would start and stay running!!! Well our prayers paid off and down the mountain we went, our van working perfectly!!! We got into Cardston around 8:30pm and had some supper and then while the sun was setting we stopped to take pictures of the temple!!!! Jared really is a great photographer and got some unique shots!!

So despite the little hiccup on top of Logan's Pass we had a wonderful trip!!! It was a much needed break, but not nearly long enough! I am thankful for my family immediate and extended! I'm thankful for the fun we have when we are all together! I'm thankful we share the same values, and that we all have the same goals!!!