Our Vacation Part 3

 

N's grandma knows a man who carves and paints carousel horses for a living. This man also happens to own his very own carousel that sits in his backyard- which is also on the lake. N got to ride the carousel when he was little, and now it was R's turns to ride it herself!

Isn't it beautiful?!

The trees were pretty thick but you can sort of see the lake in the background. I can't imagine a more beautiful setting for a private carousel!

I have never captured so many smiles on camera as I did when R was on the carousel. I don't think I've ever seen her more excited over something that doesn't involve cars. It was the sweetest thing. N's mom took her on a couple of rides and then N took her on some as well. The owners were so kind to give us so many rides!

I didn't ride the carousel because of my motion sickness but they made me pose for a fake action shot, haha!

After our carousel ride we went to pick cherries. One of the women in N's grandma's neighborhood has a bunch of cherry trees in her backyard and she happened to be out of town when they were ripe. She gave us permission to go over and pick as many as we wanted!

N was in charge of the camera for this excursion, haha!

R was just the sweetest thing picking and eating cherries!

Self timer test shot! ;)

We took the cherries home and I washed and cut them up to make an easy cherry cobbler. All you do is cut up fruit, then mix cake mix with one stick of butter and layer that over the top of the fruit. It was really good although I am pretty sure there was more than one worm in it. As I was cutting the cherries open, especially the Bings, I found SO many worms. It was so gross but that's nature!

This little diva just kills me!

On our last day in Montana we drove to the quaint little town of Bigfork. It's on the other side of Flathead lake and they usually boat over to it, but because the boat was broken we drove. The town reminds me a lot of the little mountain towns in Colorado and there were lots of gift shops and little restaurants. I bought huckleberry everything (fudge, tea, chocolate, honey, etc.) and ate all my huckleberry fudge before N and R even got home. I am trying to restrain myself from ordering more off the internet. That will probably happen anyway...

I don't remember what R was having a meltdown over but she definitely has a flair for drama. Which brings me to the collection of all my favorite pictures of R taken throughout the trip. It pains me to say this but if I didn't think she was my child before (aside from you know, the fact that she's physically like a little clone of me) I know she is now...

I think there's a good chance we'll be headed up to the lake next year, and I know that at least I'll be getting a two way plane ticket, haha. I miss it so much already and I have already been dreaming of floating along in the river watching the birds.

And speaking of the birds...

I had been talking about getting a tattoo while in Montana because there's a lot of great shops in Kalispell but I didn't think I'd actually do it. Then when N and I were running very early on our way to the airport I decided to stop in one of the shops that was on the way and see if they could fit in a quick walk-in. I lucked out and ended up with this pretty little guy. I have been thinking about a swallow tattoo for a long time now (I love old school tattoos) and after all my swallow watching at the lake I decided it was time to pull the trigger. I love it and tattoo fever is back in full swing!

Maybe I'll get one on the other side next year. ;)