Montana....It's the BEST!

We always had to eat on the balcony because the view is so beautiful!

Our second vacation to Montana was absolutely the Best! We flew up on Allegiant Airlines out of Williams/Gateway Airport. It's such a small airport....you just walk right out on the tarmac and get on the plane.....kind of old school! The great thing is that it is a non-stop flight to Missoula Montana and then an hour drive to our destination. This year Amy, Scot and Zack came with us. Unfortunately, Scot had to leave on Monday.

Leaving for Montana

Our family is so fortunate to have good friends that invite us to spend some fabulous time staying in their cabin at Finley Point right on Flathead Lake. This year it was much cooler and the weather was perfect for bike riding in the pines, surfing on the lake, and just relaxing with a good book! This year was probably the best vacation I have ever been on because we did absolutely nothing but relax and enjoy the lake activities. The scenery was absolutely beautiful.

Let the relaxation begin!

On Saturday we spent the day in the small town of Polson watching Kevin, Beau, Alex and Jake playing in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. You know those little quaint towns that seem like they were created way back when.....that is what Polson is like. They shut down main street and set up about 20 half-court basketball courts. So many kids participated! They had the tournament set up by age group. Kevin and his friends did really well! They wore tye-dyed shirts and called themselves "Purple Haze" (who came up with that???) Long story short.....they kept winning and got tired! They deliberately lost a game so they could be out of the tournament! They wanted to go cool off in the lake. They were so fun to watch!

A close game!

Kev takin' the shot

"Purple Haze" in their glory

Zack dressed for the occasion

The best thing about Montana is the beautiful scenery and the peaceful surroundings. It stays light outside until about 9:30 p.m., so you just keep going and going and lose track of the time. You end up going to bed every night about 12:30 a.m. The Tanner's have two places on Flathead Lake. The cabin we stayed in is on a beautiful piece of property. It has a wide expanse of grass and pine trees.....beautiful surroundings. They have a huge cherry orchard in the back and the cherries were ripe and ready to harvest when we were there. So....needless to say we had all the cherries we could eat. That was good and bad. I felt like I had eaten a cow everyday. Zack loved the cherries. Maury would keep bringing over cherries and we couldn't eat them fast enough. It was fun to walk up into the orchards and pick cherries off the trees and eat them. It reminded me of when I was little in Orem, Utah and I picked cherries in the orchard by my house to earn money. I think I got paid 25 cents a pound! I remeber not loving it that much!

A fresh load of cherries

These cherries were so delicious!

Zack was a cherry lover!

Behind the cabin

Scenery from the cabin balcony

There are always beautiful sunsets!

Just scenery

Lunch on the balcony

The deer just come up onto the property and roam around. Yesterday Zack and I saw one in the yard and followed it for a bit. Zack was so excited! He thought it was a dog. Darn...I didn't have my camera! While driving to Tanner's house I also saw a little bear cub dashing through the trees. We were always on the lookout for a bear or deer. I guess the deer get a little pesky because they eat the flowers and fruit down to nothing. We were excited to see them!



On Tuesday it was a bit cloudy and windy so we decided to drive to Big Fork. It is about 30 miles away and the road follows the lake for awhile. That makes for quite a scenic drive! Big Fork is a little tourist town with all kinds of fun shops. Right before you drive into Big Fork there is the cutest little quilt shop. Stopping in is a Must! Everyone had to wait on me while I bought a few fun pieces of fabric, of course! Big Fork has fun little restaurants and flowers everywhere and a great cookie shop that Max loves called Brookie's Cookies. I have to say they are yummy! We spent a couple of hours strolling through the stores and then had a fun lunch outside on the patio of a deli. The weather was perfect.....cloudy and cool.

So quaint!

Max was a good sport

Fun shopping in Big Fork

The rest of the days were spent sunning on the lawn, riding the jet skis, eating, boating on the lake, reading, eating some more and watching the sun sets. Kevin and his friends did offer some entertainment. They were into "tube wars." They hooked up two tubs on the back of the boat and the wars began. Of course there was tough talk among the boys, oh and of course, Amy. She thought she would be the champ! It was fun to watch them throw each other off the tubes trying to be "champ." I'm not sure who was driving the boat! I think in the end, anyone that was teamed up with Jake was the champ.

The Guys

The Tube Champ

The tube wars begin

The best activity...relaxation!

I think water skiing on Flathead Lake is old school with this group. All they do is surf. It is so strange to watch. They load one side of the boat with huge bags of water so the boat tilts. Then everyone has to sit in the back of the boat on the side that has the water bags. When you look from afar....you see a boat totally running on its side. Kinda weird! The person surfing is pulled up with a very short rope. They are very close to the back of the boat. They only go about 9-10 miles an hour. The tilt of the boat causes a pretty big wave on the heavy side. Beginners keep hold of the rope and try to stay up on a special surfboard. Experienced surfers are pulled up with the rope and then throw it into the boat and then they surf the wave.....it is tricky because you have to keep up.....meaning pretty close to the back of the boat....or you just lose the wave! The boys got the hang of it pretty well. Beau, of course, is a natural. All that practice you know.

Beau had "boat duty"

Every morning was "bike ride" time. I only made it twice and Amy made it once. Max was game for every day. He wanted to ride the "Loop." It is quite a bike ride with beautiful scenery. It certainly delivers the exercise. I should have gone more often to off-set the junk food eating! I am paying for that now!






I hated to see the end of my vacation. I could get use to the relaxation and beautiful surroundings without much effort. It is always hard to come home from such a great week...you get kinda spoiled....no kids, no work! We did have a fun ending to our vacation. The Whiteman Family also have a beautiful cabin on the lake. He is Max's 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric. He invited us to fly home with him on his private jet. It only seats 8 people. I was very nervous and am not a fan of small aircraft! We cancelled our commercial flight and I flew home with my eyes closed! (not really!) It turned out to be so enjoyable....he was so generous. It was pretty awesome.




The cool, nice, relaxing vacations are done for this summer! We are home and it is still the middle of a very hot summer. We are thankful for good and generous friends who invited us to experience the best vacation ever!