road trip recap

this will be less serious....i want to tell you guys a little bit about montana...what an amazing trip! ah, it was so good just to get away from it all for two weeks. here's a little summary of what we did -

day 1 - carter and i started driving. we randomly made a decision to stop at multnomah falls and climb to the top...pretty cool. we drove to missoula which is about a 10 hour trip. then we ate "cracker barrel." (if you haven't eaten there and get a chance...do it. it is amazing). we stayed with carter's aunt and uncle, and they were so nice.

day 2 - we slept in and relaxed, then started driving to billings, with a few stops along the way. we stopped in butte for a little while. then we got to billings and hung out at the mall (yeah, we're that cool). that evening we got to jim and brandi taber's house. we hung out with them all night. they took us out to eat at the cracker barrel again:)

day 3 - we were going to hit the mountain that day, but decided to stick around with the tabers because they are so crazy cool. so, we just sort of hung out with them all day long. it was a great day.

day 4 - backpacking began. we had the heaviest packs...60 lbs. we brought enough food for a week, and that weighed us down pretty good. so we climbed 2000 feet in 4.5 miles. for a while there, literally every step was painful. after that struggle, we got to the lake...amazing. we set up camp, ate, and then carter felt sick so he slept for at least 5 hours. i feel like it was about 3 pm. so i sat around, read, prayed, and did whatever else i could to pass the time until it was time for bed. in the end, it was a good. day.

day 5 - we sort of just hung out all day. it was a little strange because the days were longer than most up there. you wake up with the sun, so, since the sun is out from about 5:30 to 9:30, every day was a 16 hour day. we had a lot of time to do nothing. so we read and prayed a lot. a couple things we did: we jumped in the lake....freezing cold because its all melted snow. we also climbed a little higher up to this snow drift and slid down it...pretty fun.

day 6 - carter and i packed up all our stuff and made the hike up to the plateau. its about another 2,000 ft elevation gain, but only over a mile or so. and there's no trail. so we bushwhacked for a while, then got to these big boulders and were literally using our hands to help us climb because it was so steep. definitely worth it though. the view was breathtaking! when we got up there, we spent some time hiking around and taking in the scenery. we set up camp and relaxed the rest of that day.

day 7 - the busiest day by far! in the morning we relaxed, ate some sweet oatmeal, and made a few awesome movies. we made one about the wild pika, and then we saw a wild dingus. for reals, we saw a wolf, and maybe heard another. pretty cool. after that, we set out to climb to the top of silver run peak, which is 12,500 ft above sea level. it was way harder than we expected and it took us a solid 2 hours to get up there. but, oh, how worth it! it was one of the most amazing experiences i've had. on the way down, to save time we slid down snow drifts...that was fun. then we got back to camp, rested (we were exhausted), ate, and tore down camp. we made the climb back down to our original camp site and then camped down there one last night.

day 8 - we packed up all our stuff and started the hike out. way easier. it was all down hill and we lost a lot of weight from food. so, we got out of there, and traveled back to civilization. we ended up driving down into wyoming to get a place to stay for the night. then we took showers, ate good food, and watched some fireworks. good day.

day 9 - we hung out in cody, wyoming for a little while. then, we drove back to billings to stay with the tabers again, which was super nice of them. we took this scenic byway thing and it was pretty cool. but after being in the mountains for 4 nights, it wasn't quite as impressive:) we got to the tabers and they made us a sweet dinner. then we slept, and it was good.

day 10 - hah...we were at the tabers again, and we did nothing. i think we just slept in and hung out until about 3. we watched probably 5 or 6 episodes of man vs wild. that's about all we did. oh, and we went and watched a movie.

day 11 - this was another day just to do nothing. we watched movies at the tabers. we watched bourne identity and bourne supremacy. that night we watched nacho libre.

day 12 - we went to church with the tabers. it was great to see their church and be a part of it. after that, we went to arbys and had one last conversation with the tabers. sweet! then, we hit the road. and we just kept driving. we made it to missoula, then kept driving past the tri-cities and stayed the night in our car at a rest stop.

day 13 - we drove probably 4 hours back home, and made it. the end.


again, great trip. i definitely grew closer to carter, and grew closer to God. the things he taught me were really simple and basic, but so awesome. he taught me about walking with him through every day and never leaving him. he made me fall more in love with him. it was so great to take some time away from everything. and then the tabers just rule. i had such an awesome time with them. it was great to talk with them and learn from them. so, God's good, and the trip was good. it is so good to be back though...the only thing that's missing is addie. she gets back tomorrow though, so that is good too!