Idaho, Washington, and Montana

I got to spend all last week with Derrick and my Mom and Dad as we traveled all over Idaho, Washington, and Montana.  What started out as a trip to California to visit our cousins there quickly turned into a trip to visit some of the places in Derrick's mission, Glacier National Park, and rafting down the Salmon River.

In all, I calculated we spent over 35 hours in the car in the course of 8 days; needless to say, we all got pretty sick of driving.  But, it was still really fun.

We took lots of pictures to document it, so that is what I'm going to do.  Really, I just want to be able to remember everything.

Friday:  We started out in the afternoon and drove to Mountain Home, Idaho to stay the night with my mom's roommate from college, Debbie, and her husband Terry.  When we got there, they had DVRed the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics, so we watched the Parade of Nations and the lighting of the torch before we went to bed.

Mom and Debbie

Saturday:  When we woke up Debbie fed us breakfast and, after Derrick and I insisted on a picture of my mom and Debbie, hit the road for Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  About seven hours later, we got to Coeur d'Alene and went straight to the Normington's house.  The Normington's are a family Derrick spent a lot of time with while on his mission and he definitely holds a special place in their hearts.  They seriously love him!  We had dinner with them and a few other families from that ward Derrick knew well.  After dinner we checked into our hotel and then walked around the city for a while.  It is seriously SO beautiful.  We went by the awesome park, walked on the freestanding dock, and saw some of the night life with the party going on at the resort and lots of people walking along the city's main shopping and bar area.

Coeur d'Alene Lake at Night

Tangled Lanterns

Part of the Dock

Sunday: My parents and I slept in and watched the Olympics while Derrick went to the Sacrament Meeting of one of the wards he served in.  Then we went with him to another one of the wards he served in after driving around and looking at some of the cool little old neighborhoods and seeing where he lived for 10 1/2 months.  The Sacrament Meeting was quite entertaining as the speakers were both about 85 years old and super funny.  He basically read word for word a talk by a GA and she spent a good 5 minutes rambling into the microphone while trying to find the place on her talk where she was supposed to start.  Hilarious!  After church we drove to Kalispell, Montana where we stayed the next couple days since it was only about 30 minutes from the entrance to Glacier National Park.