The Weaver Family Vacation.......Part two

Well, we're a little behind in updating our blog for the second half of our family vacation, which is due in part to the exciting Olympics. We also had a visit from Mat's aunt Sue and cousin Kerry last weekend, who drove from Portland for a short visit. We had fun touring around Boise, and visiting the Birds of Prey Center.

Now on to the Second half of our vacation..........

After leaving the Small Farm we headed down to Bozeman. This was one of the longer legs of our trip, and we had to make a few stops along the way to let the boys out of their car seats. Our drive was pretty uneventful, and we arrived in Bozeman to a warm welcome from Mat's dad, his wife Rachael, and Grandmother Martha. The next few days were pretty relaxing. We spent lots of time visiting, and watching the boys cruise around the house. We were very impressed with the organic garden Richard and Rachael have been working on all summer. We also checked out the new library, and went on a fun hike up to the Trout Lakes. After a great breakfast in the beautiful Gallatin Canyon, we headed home. We decided last minute to drive through both Yellowstone and Teton National Parks. We arrived in Boise late and exhausted, but excited about our fun week.

Since our vacation, Kessler has learned to crawl. Both boys have also cut two teeth. I continue to be busy with the renovation of the Idaho State Capitol, and Mat has been traveling some to Eastern Idaho to work with local communities on water rights.

The Weaver Family Vacation - Part One

We took the boys on our first big family vacation last week and had tons of fun! In fact we had so much fun, and visited so many people, we are updating our blog in two parts. The boys were great travelers despite the 1800 miles we drove over the week. So here is part #1....

Our vacation took us up North to Montana to first visit friends, and then family. Unfortunately, our trip started out somewhat a disaster (which of course now we can laugh about!). After a brief stop at Craters of the Moon National Park, we headed to Salmon, Idaho. On the way we managed to get two flat tires; spend 5 hours stranded in the middle of nowhere in the blazing heat without cell service; ride in a sheriffs car where the babies enjoyed playing with the straps of various ceiling mounted guns; hit a deer; loose a hotel reservation; and spend $650 on new (10 ply) tires (because we were in rural Idaho). We seemed to get the kinks out of our vacation right away, and woke up the next day to beautiful weather which followed us all the way up to Whitefish, Montana. We had a great time in Whitefish visiting our good friends the Peppmeiers (Doug, Kelly, Will, Jack, and sweet Annmarie), and the Larkins (Scott and Stefanie) who are expecting their first baby this winter (Congratulations!). The boys particularly enjoyed watching Will and Jack zip around the house, and chasing Gus (the Jack Russel Terrier) around the living room. I actually think Bridger was a little jealous of all the attention he was getting.

Caulder has become very good (quick) at crawling, and is even pulling himself up on the furniture to cruise around. Kessler is just testing the waters in the crawling department, but has dove full throttle into the jabbering department. Both boys practiced their skills endlessly at the P. house.

We next headed to Glacier National Park. It was spectacular as usual. We managed to do two hikes, and view lots of wildlife. We particularly enjoyed the Mountain Goats on our seven mile hike up the Hanging Garden trail. The boys bounced along on our backs in their packs, which they seem to really enjoy.

After a noisy stay in West Glacier (trains consistently sped by all night long and garbage trucks took hours to empty dumpsters at 6:00 am), we headed down to Columbia Falls to visit the Small Farm. We enjoyed visiting with Mat's Grandma Glenna and her many children and Grandchildren who just happened to be visiting last week. The farm was beautiful, and Mat had fun catching up with relatives he had not seen for many years. Unfortunately, we could only stay for a few hours since we were headed down to Bozeman that night.

Phew.... that takes us through half our week.....more to come.