Day 1- Getting to Glacier

One of the biggest disappointments of 2020 was having to cancel our long-anticipated vacation with the Morales ladies to celebrate Grammy Q's 60th birthday.  But back in March of this year we hedged our bets for vaccines and lifted travel restrictions and set our sights on Glacier National Park in Montana for a second attempt at making this trip happen. And this time it did!

We debated for only a day or two about how to get there- 21 hour car ride through South Dakota and the entire state of Montana, or a plane ride?  

Everyone was happy about the choice we made. 

We try to pack light, but there is always room for best furry friends on our trips!

Our first plane was pretty small- two seats on each side- but Adam and Noah took good care of each other in the row by themselves. 

And we spotted our house!  We live about 15 minutes away from the airport now, so I was pretty sure someone would be able to see it from the sky, and we did!

We spotted some snow too!

We had a nice quick and uneventful layover in Denver, and finally we made it to Montana!  There were no real great flight times to chose from, so we ended up just tacking a day onto either end of the family reunion in order to maximize our time there.  It was a late night but thankfully all we had to do was head to the hotel in Kalispell for some sleep.

Well, as soon as Daddy picked up the rental car.  But these kids are never at a loss for ways to keep themselves entertained. 

Our rental car was the exact same minivan that I currently drive, down to the year.  And it was $1,000 cheaper than our next rental option. We weren't exactly cruising around in style on this trip, and there were a few times that we looked at each other and said, "this noise or this dinged side or this questionable AC are definitely worth the savings!" We were just glad to have a car- apparently there is a national rental car shortage, and thankfully the car wasn't a complete clunker, just a well-used budget rental van!  And we knew exactly how to maximize every nook and cranny of it, which came in handy the next morning when Jenny, Emily and I hit up Walmart and Costco.