Road Trip to Vancouver, Washington, and Fun in Portland, Oregon, and Ape Cave Near Mt. St. Helens, Washington - June 28-29, 2015

 We drove from Kalispell to my house, which was a 9 or 10 hour drive.  On the way we stopped at East Wind Drive-in for ice cream cones in Cascade Locks, Oregon.  Jason got a large size.

  Jason wanted chocolate and Ashley wanted vanilla so they made it a swirl.  It was really a fun break!  The kids got ice cream cones like at Disneyland - Paisley had blue goo, Audrey had strawberry, and Spencer had chocolate.

 Then we stopped at Multnomah Falls for a restroom break and a walk up to the upper bridge.

 Earlier in the day we stopped for lunch at Meltz Extreme Grilled Cheese in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, and they were delicious!

 We got to my house before 10 pm after stopping at Mod Pizza to pick up our individual pizzas.  They were delicious!

 On Monday, Ashley and I took the kids to the Portland Aquarium while Jason worked from my house.  Here's a picture of Paisley, Spencer, and Audrey at the aquarium.

 They had fun touching the fish in the water.

 Spencer was the first one the birds wanted to sit on.

 Ashley was the second target.

 Spencer seemed to enjoy the birds. 

 Paisley was next!

 I'm not sure Audrey was thrilled to have a bird on her head!

 I love Paisley's smile.

  Spencer loved the lorikeets!  He said they were his favorite part of the aquarium.

 Even Emme wanted to check out the birds.

  The kids had fun watching the stingrays.

They watched for a long time.

There's a "Nemo" fish in this tank and Spencer wanted a picture of it.

They fed the stingrays.

They fed the fish.

They posed for a picture.

I got in trouble for taking a picture of this octopus.  There were no signs posted but I was told it hurts their eyes if you take a picture.

Paisley liked the jelly fish.

Touching was fun.

Spencer really liked the eel.

After the aquarium, we went and hiked Ape Cave at Mt. St. Helens.  Then we went to Trail of Two Forests where this picture was taken of Spencer in a lava tube where the tree had died from the lava.

We also hiked the trail at Lava Canyon at Mt. St. Helens.  This was the suspension bridge.  We went there near dark and no one else was around.

We hurried home in time to stop at Sheridan's Ice Cream and enjoyed a fun treat.

It was a busy, fun day and I was thrilled to have Jason, Ashley, Paisley, Spencer, Audrey, and Emme here to visit.

Glacier National Park, Kalispell, Montana - June 26-27, 2015

  Jason and Ashley were on a road trip and I flew to Kalispell to meet up with them and go to Glacier National Park.  It was so fun and I was thrilled with the invitation.  We stayed at a nice hotel in Kalispell and the kids really enjoyed the pool.  Paisley is swimming now!  She was doing great. 

 The kids were excited to sleep on the fold-out couch.

 Jason was working as time permitted.

 Emme's so smart.  She found the water backpack and quickly helped herself.

 Spencer and Paisley wrote the maids thank you notes and Spencer left 5 cents for a tip.  It was so cute.

 We spent hours driving in the car and Emme was so happy.  Of course, when it was time to get out, she was happy about that too.

 The first night we had dinner at this place.  It was recommended by my coworker and was better than we expected.

Our first stop was at a small waterfall.  The blue/green color of the water is amazing.

 We climbed up to this waterfall and I was lucky to get this family picture.  I think it's the only family picture the whole week together.

 Glacier is beautiful.  Just me and Audrey...

 Glacier's lakes are beautiful

 Spencer loved the big leaves and wanted me to take a picture.

 Then Paisley wanted her picture with the big leaves.

 Starting our hike on the Grinnel Glacier Trail and Swift Current Lake Trail.

 We hiked around 7 miles.

 Jason and Spencer went further than the rest of us.

 It was extremely hot.

 Jason was carrying Audrey or Spencer much of the hike.

 We tried to make the water last but ran out before the end of the hike.

 Paisley was especially hot and tired.

 We were hiking toward this glacier but didn't make it all the way.

 On the way back Audrey fell asleep and Jason carried her quite a distance.

 On the right side, just right of the bottom patch of snow, we saw a grizzly bear.  It was closer but I was too slow getting my camera out.  He was moving fast so this was my only picture of him.  It was exciting.

 This guy was posing for us!

 This was a marmot in the center of the picture.

 We also saw these two mountain goats roaming on the side of the mountain.

 For dinner we had Mongolian BBQ.

 Then, we had frozen yogurt for dessert. 

It was a really long day.  The parking was full in the park or blocked off so we had to drive about 2 hours into the park to find a place to park.  We got there early afternoon and hiked for around 3 hours in almost 100 degree temperatures.  Then we stopped and saw the animals on the way out of the park.  We got back to the hotel around 10 pm.  We were all tired out!