Birthday and Canada

So it's been a couple of busy months and realized that I haven't blogged any of it. In July I celebrated my 22nd birthday

And then I went with my mother and father-in-law to Canada to go to the Godfrey Family Reunion. It was so beautiful and everyone was so nice. We stayed in Cardston Alberta ... Interesting fact.... Brad's great something grandpa settled Cardston and they named the town after him. Cool huh? So I forgot my camera on the trip so I had to steal pictures off the internet. I'll try and remember to get some pictures from my in-laws tomorrow, but for right now all the pictures you see of my Canada trip are from the internet, but they are all places I have actually been to. So on the way up to Cananda we went through Polson Montana which has a beautiful lake called Flat Head.

Isn't it just beautiful? Well, as the drive goes on it just keeps getting prettier and prettier. We were going to go through Glacier National Park, but at 4 in the morning part of the road gave a way so we had to go around, but it was still just as gorgeous. There is a mountain in the states called Big Chief Mountain and you can see it really good in Cardston all the way to Waterton. I just love this mountain- so here's some pictures from the Canadian side:

One of the reasons I loved this part of Alberta so much was the cool rock faces and all the green rolling fields with hay bails and farms everywhere. It was so beautiful. The second day we were there we went on a hike in Waterton...THE PRETTIEST mountain place on earth. Before I start diving in about the hike here are some pictures of Waterton so you can see just how breath taking this place really is.

It's even more beautiful in person. Wildlife is everywhere. Bears just roam where they want (we saw a couple just a yard away from us) deer and mountain sheep are easy to find. This place so so amazing and there wasn't huge crowds of people like at the parks in the States so it was so nice and relaxing. OK..So onto this hike we took. Before we left on the trip Grandpa told us that it was going to be a nice easy hike. So I just brought my running shoes and nothing else. Luckily Robert threw in his backpack because when we got there we found out that it was a pretty hard and long hike. The hike is called Crypt Lake. The hike features a 15 minute boat ride across Upper Waterton Lake to the trailhead at Crypt Landing. The trail passes close to 4 spectacular waterfalls and you endure many different terranes. The hike is 5.4 miles one way and you gain 2300 feet in elevation. You get to climb a steel latter and walk (crawl or walk hunched over) through a 60 foot long tunnel through the mountain and then maneuver your way around the cliff holding onto a cable if needed. Once you get to the top you see a glacier lake. At the far end of the lake you are in United Sates boarders. kind of cool. Here are pictures from the hike

15 minute boat ride where we learn about bear safety (bear whistles and bells don't work)and that the last boat leaves at 5:00 so don't miss it.

at the top of that waterfall is Crypt Lake...out destination

And that is an arial shot of crypt lake. It was really pretty. The lake water was FREEZING but was perfect to put our water bottles in to get cold for the hike back. The hike back seemed like it never ended. We were so tired and our feet and legs killed. We came to a fork in the trail on our way back...

Since we saw the other way coming up we took this way going back down. WHAT A MISTAKE!! Tt was so steep and rocky. Ruth and I decided it was called Hell for a reason and that we learned our lesson to never do anything will the name Hell or Devil in it. Well we got done with our hike and BARLEY missed our 4:00 boat. It was just pulling out of the dock when we got to the trail head. So we had to sit around for an hour. Which was ok for me because I could take off my shoes and let my poor swollen feet soak in the freezing Waterton Lake. My whole pinky toe was a huge blister so it felt good to soak. The next day I could hardly move! It was so pathetic. And to top it off I was as red as a tomato. We did a session in the Cardston Alberta Temple and I was the youngest person there by far and my nice white clothes made me look even redder.

Other than the fact that I was really sore and sunburned the Temple was amazing and so pretty. I loved all the murals that where painted when the temple first opened. We went back to waterton after the Temple and did a little hike around Cameron Lake. It was really beautiful and a lot easier hike than Crypt lake. At the end of the trail you could see lots of waterfalls from the melted snow and once again the mountains at the end of the lake where in the States. Kind of cool. The water wasn't nearly as cold as Waterton or Crypt lake, but still pretty chilly. It was so crystal clear and the scenery around it was so beautiful and green.

These next pictures are ones I took with my cell phone...not the best quality and it totally ruined the beautiful colors. But here they are none the less

The family reunion was great. We had a lot of great food and the devotionals at the end of the night were my favorite. The speakers did such a good job and I felt like I was at my own family reunion. There was even a part when I started tearing up because I felt so close to the great grandparents that I have never met, but was so glad to call them my family. They were amazing people and I hope to be more like them. They even lived in China for awhile and the speakers talked about how much they loved the Chinese people and they even had a tape of Grandma and Grandpa singing a church song in Chinese. How cool? I am so excited to go to China and experience some of the same things they did. I was sad to leave such a beautiful country, but so excited to see my sweet husband that I've missed so much. I wasn't able to talk to him the whole time I was there. On the way home we were able to drive through Glacier National Park. There were tons and tons of waterfalls.