Glacier National Park- Parrish Family Reunion

Well I am finally getting around to posting this! We went on a trip with my family to Glacier National Park-beautiful. We went July 31-Aug 2nd- I know it was a long time ago, but I need to post so I remember details-plus I got so many beautiful pictures. We were lucky and were able to break up the drive a bit. First we stopped in Rexburg to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson, then the next night we went to Great Falls Montana which is about three hours away-to stay with my brother Mitch and his wife Wendy. Then we camped two nights in Glacier. Here is a run down.

Butte Montana: Did anyone else know that they have a huge statue of the Virgin Mary? I was a little shocked to see this on the mountain top. I had a take a picture then zoom in to find out what it was. Crazy-it was like being in another country. I didn't know that there were things like this in the west. Anyway there was a fence and in some of the pictures I could see a bunch of people gathered round. Wow. Oh and all the trees that look so beautiful-almost fall like are actually dying. It was so sad-something about the sap freezing is what we were told, but like half the trees were dying. This is Emma hanging out by the garbage cans in our camp ground. There were a lot of bears in the area, so we had to be so careful with everything in our campsite. We couldn't even have toothpaste in our tents! Made me a little nervous.Luckily there were some fun rocks in our campground (or actually in the neighbors spot) that the kids had a lot of fun climbing on.
Jon and Emma just having a moment. More of Henry climbing. He loves to climb-pretty much like any little boy.The first day after we set up camp we went on a little hike (or so we thought) from Logan pass to Hidden Lake. We were excited to be able to see some Mountain Goats close up before starting the hike.This little baby one was so cute and fuzzy.I got a little nervous at this point when it was trapped between us on one side and a lot of my family on the other. It does have little daggers on his head you know.This is the trail. I thought we were going on some sort of nature walk.
This is a bunch of my family from behind. We actually were very unprepared with some of the little kids even wearing flip flops. It was about 3 miles round trip and this little board walk ended and we were hiking on snow fields.

It was so beautiful though-it was hard to think about how freezing you were. The wind unfortunately blew the whole time we were camping. I will have to say though that the sights were worth it.Henry loved the snow at first, then he started to get cold and a little worried!
He got his second wind though when we got through the snow and found some rocks to play with. This is his cousin Addison and him being silly.Emma enjoying an animal cracker some lady along the trail gave her. Yup I am a bad parent accepting cookies from strangers.
We came across some more mountain goats. It was so beautiful.Emma gave up being carried in the backpack about half way so a few of us took turns carrying her and trying to keep her warm. This is her and my Mom snuggling close to the top.Ta-Da the top. There was a mountain goat just hanging out on the edge. It was a magical sight.Jon and -oh wait there is no one in the backpack. Amazing view.Our little family on top of the world.

Our wind blown family looking down on Hidden Lake. Wow!

When we got back to the parking lot we were lucky enough to see a whole herd of Rams. They were awesome! They just made their way into the parking lot and were licking up the salt we think. Anyway I know I took to many pictures of them, but I have narrowed them down so bear with me.My little brother Micah and Emma. Emma was oblivious, she just wanted to get into a warm car.We were so close. That is my shadow. Pretty cool and a little scary. We actually put Henry on the hood of our car to let him watch while we took some pictures then he started screaming an a ram was walking right up to our car to check him out. I'll admit I was a little nervous as I went to get him down.
Jon took the winning picture. There are two Rams in this picture-how nice of him to pose for us.