31 Days Challenge - Day 4 - Waterton National Park

My parents come to visit in August. We spent a day hiking and boating in Glacier National Park, then spent a couple of days in Whistfish Montana and even got to do a zipline! Then we traveled up to Canada to visit Waterton Canadian National Park before heading to Missoula for shopping.

I enjoyed the entire trip, but my favorite part had to be Waterton. Everyone in Montana has visited Glacier, but I highly recommend making the extra treck up to Waterton. We experienced much more wildlife in the Canadian park. In fact, that is where we saw this bear playing golf.

I'm excited to plan another trip to Waterton to explore a little more.

Oktoberfest

On Saturday, we went to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest. It was a great time!
Waiting for the bus at 2:00am!

Our first stop, the Paulaner tent.

View from inside the tent.

The best chicken I have ever tasted!

Jake's first beer for the day.

It was my birthday, so I got a birthday cookie!

A huge statue! Seriously the biggest I've ever seen!

A pretty good view to show how BIG Oktoberfest is, and this was only one of the lanes!

We did get away from Oktoberfest for a while to explore Munich.

Waiting for the bus at 10:00 pm.

It was a LONG day...but we took it slow and survived. We both said we would probably never feel the need to go again, but it is nice to say we have.

Baby Maisy & Happy Birthday Susie

I spent the last week with my sister's family in North Africa, so I have a few pictures I want to share on my blog.

First of all, the new baby I got to meet! My sister's first child, cute little Maisy!

She is wonderful! I was completely amazed at how developed she seems to be, at only 3 weeks. I just figured she would be like a bump on a log and sleep all day. Boy I was wrong. Maisy seems so developed. She's gained a pound from her birth weight, she squirms her arms and legs around alot, she can hold up her head for quite a few seconds, and when she hears her mom or dad's voice she tries to turn her head in that direction. She is a very responsive and happy baby.

Bryce, Susie, and Maisy are all very lucky to have their new little family!

Aunt Maggie and Maisy

Sisters

I also happened to be there for Susie's birthday, so we of course had birthday cake!

Barcis Lake - Take 3!

So...Barcis Lake is really pretty, and not too far away, so it made for the perfect girl's day out! So, I ended up there for the 2nd time this week. We spent some time laying out in the sun, hiked up a short trail, ate lunch at a park, took lots of pictures and grabbed some gelato on the way home. Great day! I just wish we had gotten a picture of all of us together.

The only picture I have of everyone (except me): Megan with the pink backpack, Katie (holding Kylie) in the middle, and Betsy leading the pack (she was the one who got to walk into the spider's webs!)

I like slides!We did make a pact to make a girls day out once a week (starting the week after I get back.) Our next plan is to go to the big shopping mall in Udine. Udine is about 45 minutes away and I hear it's one of the biggest malls in Europe! There is even a Disney Store! Since we have all read the Twilight series, we have considered going to Volterra, but I'm afraid that might be an overnighter. We'll see!

Barcis Lake - Take 2

We went up to Barcis Lake last month, but we passed right by Barcis Lake on our way to and from the National Park, so we decided to stop for a few more pictures of the beautiful lake.

Parco Naturale Dolomiti Friulane - Take 2

You might remember last weekend when I posted about the Dolomite Natural Park. Our hike was cut short due to rain. So this weekend Jake and I went back up. It was a beautiful day! And the mountains were gorgeous! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

Jake is such a goof!He was trying to push the tree straight.

Gorgeous!

I love the sun in this one!

Parco Naturale Dolomiti Friulane

This morning, we headed up to the Dolomite Natural Park, about 45 minutes away. The Dolomites are the mountains in our area that are the very southern edge of the Alps. We planned to hike up a certain trail to see the supposed dinosaur foot print and take lots of beautiful pictures.

When we got there, it was lightly sprinkling, but no big deal. We got a few pictures before heading up the trail.

Jake took the picture too quickly, I was adjusting my sunglasses.
Here's the only picture I got of Jake.

It's Meagan & Bing!
By the time we got about 50 m up the side of the trail, it was pouring! I hadn't thought to check the forecast, but the others told me the chance of rain got greater as the day went on. With the steepness of the trail and how slippery it was, we decided it wasn't such a great day for a hike.

We did get a few really cool pictures on the way home. I think the fogginess makes the photos really neat!

Here you see the sun was really trying to shine through.

Venezia

We went to Venice yesterday, so as promised, here is an extra long post with lots of photos!

One of my favorite pictures of us ever!

Rialto Bridge.

Grand Canal.

Just a small canal.

San Marcos Basillica.

The Campanile.

San Marcos Basillica.

Gondolas.

We have had too much Italian food lately, so we had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe!

In San Marcos Square.

Big Clock.

Close-up of San Marcos Basillica.

Jake likes his cappuccino.

Cartier, and an old building.

Just another small canal.

Window shopping!

Gelato time! By the way, the guy beside me is Jake's friend Chuck.

Jake wanted to share his gelato.

One last picture before we catch the train.
Drinking beer on the train ride home.