The Pollard Place: August 2023

I had tried to do a hike to Ruth's Lake earlier in the year but the snow was still too bad, so I pushed it off and we went this month! We went with the Kellers and it was so beautiful! The wildflowers were beautiful and the lake was so pretty! They had so much fun on the hike running around and being free to go wherever they wanted.

I got some homeschool journals for the kids, and one morning we were outside and some cool bucks came to the yard. The kids ran in and got their nature journals to write all about them!

I signed the two older kids up for Ninja Class! They go once a week and they love it!

They brought the dinosaurs back to Thanksgiving Point this year, so we went back to see them again! We even got some treats! They all loved looking at the dinosaurs, and then afterward because we were already all the way out in Lehi we went to Farm Country and rode ponies and the hay wagon.

I got to go make some Swiss Cinnamon Bread for Swiss Days! It was my job to roll the dough out, put the cinnamon sugar on, cut and twist it. It smelled so good and felt so nice to do something like that. Baking is therapeutic for me!

For Rusty's birthday we went to Bear Lake again this year, but this year we had our own boat and our own cabin! It was a big year! We invited some of our friends up and used this as our weekend to use the neighbor's cabin. We had the Bartons, the Cowleys and the Staples all up with us and it was so much fun! We played games, took the boat out, played on the beach, had yummy food and shakes and celebrated our favorite guy! Our friends were there for the weekend and we stayed an extra two days and took the side by side out and went boating just us before we headed back home. It was absolutely perfect!

Emilie's family left us the cutest surprise!

One of the great things about homeschooling is being able to go places when the other kids are in school! I love the Vineyard Splash Pad but I hate how crowded it gets and how the big kids are so mean. So I took the kids after school started and we had a great time! They stayed there for hours.

Tired kiddos

We threw a cute Hawaiian Primary Party for the kids this summer and they had a great time!

Grandma Phyllis came to visit! We went to a Bees Baseball Game in Salt Lake- always very summery!

Another day we took Grandma on a tour of the Heber Dairy. The calves tried to eat the kids' clothes again, and we got some yummy ice cream afterward! I love that dairy!

We got really cool tickets to go see the Sound of Music at Sundance. These plays are some of my favorite things ever. We had dinner at the restaurant there and we got to sit outside. We heard some pretty big thunder and got a little worried, but decided to stick it out. Well... it poured rain on us so bad that they took an intermission to let the actors get out of the rain... while we stayed in the rain and waited haha. We got some ponchos and tried to wait it out after they started back up, but after a while we were just so soaking wet that we decided to go home.

Rusty took work off for one day and we wanted to go swimming at Splash Summit. We got there and the parking lot was absolutely insane, so we decided to skip it and go to Cowabunga Bay. We had the best time and even rented a little cabana thing and got some yummy food. The water slides were so fun! What a great summer day!

Our trip to Glacier National Park finally came! BUT. We had some issues the night before we left, and the first few days of the trip, and.... basically the whole trip haha. Friday night I got everything packed up but saw that there was mouse poop in the trailer. I decided to take in all of the utensils and wash them because it was gross, and after the kids were in bed I had all of the knives out to dry. Henry woke up and walked past the kitchen counter and one of the knives dropped straight onto his foot and cut him pretty deep. We put some butterfly bandages on it and then tried our best to keep it closed and decided we'd wait and see how it was in the morning.

Day 1: Saturday- Driving, Anaconda, Hot Springs

That morning his cut was still closed up pretty good so we decided to go on the trip. We drove to Montana and took a break at our first stop: an RV park in Anaconda. We set up the trailer but Rusty had a little accident and dropped the tongue of the trailer on his middle finger and SQUASHED it. It hurt him so bad and I felt so bad for him. In the next few days his finger turned darker and darker until a few months later the whole nail fell off. He was tough and there was nothing really we could do about it, so we just kept going getting the trailer set up. Then went swimming at the hot springs right next to the RV park (which is why we stayed here). Henry couldn't get his foot wet so he got to watch a show on the side of the pool while we swam. When we got back to the trailer I made dinner and grabbed the pan and burned the crap out of my fingers! They turned white and bubbled up. We were not off to a good start.

Day 2: Sunday- Driving, Huckleberry, Sick

We woke up today, cleaned up camp, and then finished driving to Glacier. We stopped and got some yummy huckleberry treats (after we also got some treats at a yummy bakery inside a gas station). Sadly, I now forever will hate huckleberry treats because right after this stop is when I got sooooo sick. At the time, I had no idea what it was and thought maybe I just ate something. But it lasted for a couple of weeks and then got slightly better, and then got worse. When I went in to the doctor they told me that I had a parasite called Cryptosporidium that will make you super sick for a while. So, anyways at this time I had no idea what was wrong with me other than I was really sick.

The kids got to play at this playground while we got the trailer all loaded up

It was soooo smokey

Some deer walking down the road

Day 3: Monday, Sick, Rainy, Drive

Today I was so sick and still hoping that it would just pass quickly. I stayed in bed the whole day and the kids just played outside with our neighbors (who ended up being a super cool family). We stayed in a campground just outside of the National Park. It was rainy all day but towards the end of the day we decided to go for a little drive and do the Trail of Cedars hike.

Even with it being cloudy and smokey it was so beautiful! The Trail of Cedars hike was really beautiful, nice and flat. I did have to stop about halfway through and go to the bathroom and then after that I had to go as quickly as possible to the car because I thought I was going to die again.

On our drive back we saw a beautiful pull of for the river and decided to go down and look around!

Day 4: Tuesday, Feeling better, Good Weather, Lake McDonald, Rocky Point Hike

On Tuesday I was feeling better and the weather was nice and clear and sunny, and all of the rain had taken the smoke away! We were feeling like this was going to be our day! We packed up a lunch and then went to Lake McDonald to spend the day. It is so beautiful that we just brought our food and some chairs and spent hours there throwing and skipping rocks and enjoying the sun and scenery.

After a while we decided to do the Rocky Point hike. It is just a short little one and I thought I could handle it, and I actually did pretty well! I got really winded easily, but was able to do the whole hike. We found some cool lookouts over the lake and had a blast seeing everything. Right at the end, Henry hit a tree with a stick and a bee came out and stung his arm. So our bad luck continued haha.

We went for a little drive after the hike!

Day 5: Going to the Sun Road, Sick, Pools nearby, Boat Ride

I thought that because yesterday went pretty good I was in the clear with the sickness, so we got up early and drove the Going to the Sun Road so we could get over to the Many Glacier side to do a hike. And we wanted to see the Going to the Sun Road! Sadly, it was smokey and rainy again so it was not the best for views. And also sadly, when we got over to the Many Glacier side they told me that we couldn't go in because we didn't have a reservation for the Many Glacier side, just the Apgar side. So we drove all that way and weren't able to go in.

We ended up stopping at St. Mary's Visitor Center on the way back and seeing what they had. We got to watch a lot of cool clips from different Native American tribes in the area and then watched a film at the end.

How Amelia ate her sandwich

There were some really beautiful pools off to the side of the road that we decided to stop by and play! The water was absolutely stunning and it was fun to crawl around on the rocks. We even found some little holes that had some baby fish inside!

I had booked a boat ride for tonight to take us out on Lake McDonald, and I was so excited about it! But when the evening came my sickness had come back in full force so I sadly had to stay in the trailer while Rusty took the kids. They had a blast and saw a bald eagle and learned a lot of history about the park.

Rusty's finger was hurting him less, but getting darker and darker

Day 6: Thursday- Sick, Stick around Campsite, Boat Ride on Lake McDonald

I was still sick this morning, so the kids played around the campsite (we had switched to the Apgar campsite yesterday). We played some card games outside at the table and then Rusty was so sweet and took me to Lake McDonald and rented a boat so that I could go out on the lake like I wanted to. It was really fun! We didn't bring any of our fishing stuff, but they took me out and showed me the bald eagle! And that lake is so beautiful, I loved being out there!

Woodpecker at our campsite

Bald eagle

Rusty let me drive! Haha!

Look at those mountains!

Day 7: Friday- Many Glacier, Moose, Bears, Red Rock Falls

This morning we got up early and went out on Lake McDonald on a boat again- but this time we brought fishing stuff! It was a beautiful day and we had a great time, but we didn't catch anything. Poor Henry was so excited, and was so bummed when none of the fish came after his lure (see the "Henry's Highlights" section about the lure being attractive hahaha). We had a great time out on the lake even with no fish biting!

We walked through Apgar Village and had breakfast at a little restaurant there and then walked over to the nature center. We had no idea how cool this was going to be! I'm so glad we went. We listened to a ranger talk and learned a lot about the animals here before we went in to the actual building. The kids would have stayed here for hours, but we could only stay about 45 minutes because we had to get going back over to the Many Glacier side.

On our way we stopped at the McDonald Falls lookout!

Some deer right by us at the lookout!

We got to do the Going to the Sun Road again, and today it was clear and sunny! What a beautiful drive! It was pretty in a moody way last time, but we could hardly see things because of all of the clouds. Today we understood why people make such a big deal about this drive. It is stunning!

Goose Island Viewpoint

When we got over to Many Glacier, we started our hike to Red Rock Falls. As we were just starting out some people coming down the trail told us that there were two cow moose in a lake just off of the trail. I was so excited I just took off with Della! We ran down the trail and got there and both of the moose were still in the lake!

We decided this would be a good time to sit down and have our lunch, just watching the moose. But a giant bug came and landed on my foot, and Rusty started videoing me trying to get it to go away. Eventually it does go away, but it flies straight into Della's hair! We had to be quiet so we didn't scare the moose but it was a disaster haha.

Big bug!

Another lake on the hike!

We saw a snake!

Red Rock Falls!

On our way back down from the falls we saw a cow moose with a calf in a lake, and A BEAVER! I've never seen a beaver in real life so I was so excited about it. It was such a cool scene to see all of that in one lake!

Our cute chipmunk friend

We lost Amelia about this point

As we were driving out of Many Glacier we saw a bunch of people pulled over looking up at the mountainside. We stopped and asked what they were looking at, and there were two grizzly bears up there! One man even let us look through his spotting scope.

Day 8: Saturday- Logan Pass Visitor Center, Bighorn Sheep

Today was our last day in Glacier, and with me being sick we had really missed out on so many days to be able to get things on our list taken care of. But, yesterday's one hike really got us caught up with so many things! Leaving that area after we saw the two grizzlies on the mountain we saw another giant grizzly walking along the lake. Today we got up early again so we could get a parking spot and went to do a hike at the Logan Pass Visitor Center. I really wanted to see some bighorn sheep and we were told this was one of the best places to see them! The hike was beautiful, but despite the time we took just looking through binoculars we didn't see any mountain goats or bighorn sheep.

When we finished our hike, I saw a tour group all using their binoculars and scopes to look at the side of a mountain. I asked them what they were looking at and they had found a bighorn sheep! So I showed the kids through the binoculars, but we decided to do a little bit of the Highline Trail- before it gets sketchy. The ranger in the visitor center had told me that was the second best place to see some sheep. So we went over there and some people hiking past us told us that there was a group of about five or six bighorn sheep just resting a little ways from the trail. We hurried and sure enough they were still there when we got there! They were so beautiful, and their horns are massive! So impressive.

We took the kids back to the nature center so they could get sworn in as junior rangers and get their badges.

Day 9: Driving

Yesterday we drove part of the way home, and then today we finished off. We stopped at a yummy restaurant in Idaho Falls and were happy to be home!

The school year started for us! I was definitely hoping to be in the new house by now so that we could have everything figured out, but we started it off here at the Michie house. We did our pancakes and our back to school pictures!

The house is progressing, even if it is much slower than we'd like. It's looking so good and I'm so excited to move in there! Hopefully soon!

I found this note in Korean on the drywall. Ben thought we had some crazy person break in.

I picked out the fabric for the couch.

Jack and Jill Bathroom

Henry's Highlights:

While we were fishing in Glacier he was bummed he hadn't caught anything. He switched his lure out for a new one and says, "I'm surprised no fish came after this because it's very attractive."
I love the song Karma by Taylor Swift. Part of the lyrics say "Karma is my boyfriend" and it talks about how karma is nice to her. When I was laying so sick in bed in the trailer at Glacier he walked past and said, "Are you sure karma's your boyfriend?"
Dropped the knife on his foot the night before we left for Glacier
I tried to get Henry to eat some salad and he said, "I don't like salad." And Della said, "No Henry, this is actually good salad!" And he responded, "I don't trust any salad."
Henry was having some stomach issues one of the days in Glacier too and Rusty said something funny and he yells "YOU ALMOST MADE ME DIARRHEA IN MY PANTS!"

Adeline's Adventures:

Rusty was scaring the kids on one of our hikes and the kids got upset. I told them he was just playing and Della said, "Why would he want to scare us?? We're kids! We're adorable!"
Lia was talking in the car but we didn't have music or anything else on, and nobody else was talking. But Amelia was doing her long ranting thing where she just keeps talking forever. So Della says, "Amelia can you please be quieter? I'm trying to listen... to the quiet."
Della was reminding Rusty about the time that the horse bit her finger at Thanksgiving Point. At the end of the story she just says, "And now I have a fake finger." HAHAHAH WHAT
Driving past a lake in Glacier on a really stormy day Rusty says, "That does not look like an inviting lake today." Later in the day it was still stormy and we were driving by a river and Della says, "That is not a welcome river."

Amelia's Updates:

Says "I'm tiring" instead of "I'm tired" and I laugh every time because I'm like, "Yeah. You're tiring me out haha"
She is very particular about what she wants us to say. So if she tells us a story and we say that's cool or something she'll say, "Can you say..." and tell us verbatim what she wants us to say. Like, "Can you say, Oh wow Amelia! You are so nice!"
"Sanks" for "thanks"
Was sitting next to Rusty and then says to him, "I like you but.... I don't like the fell of your teeth"
Amelia wanted some crackers but she ate them all and we didn't have any more. So I told her they were in her tummy and she said, "Well can you get them out of my tummy? I would like some!"
On a hike in Glacier Lia says while pointing down a cliff: "Can I slide down this?" "No Lia!" "Well then I will be like a unicorn and fly down it!"

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