Whitefish

Whitefish, Montana... we decided we could totally live there. We spent our first full day on vacation just hanging out and relaxing. We were all tired from traveling and both kids wanted to check things out, play tennis and go swimming. Fair enough!



I sure wish I was better at telling stories but eh, I seem to have lost that ability. Oh well! Before we headed out we made sure to snap a family pic. It probably would have turned out better had I actually used the tripod instead of just being frustrated by the mounting clip that was already on the camera - yup, that's right!


We headed into town and told the kids that they got to choose what we did that day, lunch and activities included. So, McD's it was and then we headed to the train depot to eat and watch trains. Rylan, of course loved it.


Inside the train depot they have a little museum mainly focused on the depot history but also includes some other Whitefish oddities and gems like this guy:Karleigh was kind of freaked, Rylan thought it was cool and I figured it was a hoax. However, next to it was a binder including clippings from the local newspaper and pictures of their one-time mayor? in the mid 1990's with a photo of the same type of fish that he caught, also in Iceberg Lake (which is in Glacier National Park) by using an old pearl earring that had belonged to his wife. Weird huh? Apparently it was more like skinning game and tasted like chicken. All I know is that I was totally freaked thinking about the kids pulling one of these from the lake!

After a walk through the museum and the depot, we trotted across the street to the little park where the kids ran around a little bit.

After a short bit of time Rylan's head snapped around at the sound of another train coming into the yard. We walked back across the street and stood there letting the kids watch the train go by less than 20 feet from them. They loved it!

After that we headed off to the grocery store and picked up some things for the week. Breakfast and lunch stuff and dinner for the night. That helped keep the food budget way down since we packed our lunches most days and ate breakfast at "home" every day. It was clear at the end of the grocery trip that the kids were getting tired so we headed back to the condo for some resting. And rest we did! Not too often that you get to full on cuddle like this with a 3 1/2 year old.

After the kids woke up we got them re-dressed! and they decided that they wanted to go play some tennis. No fighting from me! They really haven't played before... the Wii sooo does not count. Karleigh was excited and ready to go with her big plans of playing college tennis on her mind. :)

She was so determined to play and play well or at least hit the ball but she had a really rough time. She's kind of a day dreamer and doesn't really watch the ball all the way through. It's really funny to watch them and see where their strengths and weaknesses lie. She's a decent reader but she's ALL about numbers and math - just like Jim. She didn't do as well as she had hoped but she was so determined and didn't get very upset through out the whole thing.

Rylan on the other hand... Jim was calling him "Johnny Mac" pretty quickly. He was hitting the ball (with his racket but he wanted mine) although he didn't get to play with mine for very long because every time he missed the ball, he would "gaarrrrrh" and throw my racket to the ground. Not cool but at the same time oh so hard not to laugh at him! He's actually pretty good but boy is he competitive when it comes to sports... wonder where he gets that?!

After what I would like to say was a pleasant end to our tennis game (though in all honesty I can't really say that but the other three of us couldn't really deal with hurtling rackets any longer) we wandered back to the condo and changed into our suits for an hour or so of swimming in the pool. Great pool but I never did take any pictures of it. A little chilly but we had it all to ourselves. I have to say it was really fun taking a vacation during an off-season time. It was so quiet and so peaceful the whole time. Oh! And between tennis and swimming we spotted an elk in our backyard. Super cool!