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Family Trip #7--Visiting Glacier National Park

 In the spring of 1994, we purchased a used Toyota van. It was not a beautiful car but it had pretty good ratings for reliability and we needed a bigger vehicle for our third child who was going to be born in December of that year.

That gave us the courage to go on a big trip that summer to Glacier National Park where we were going to meet my family and go camping. We took off on July 15 and drove to New Salem, North Dakota, where we found a campground and camped that night. This was the home of the largest cow in the world and we found that it was, in fact, quite large.


The next day, Saturday, we drove to Great Falls, Montana, and spent the night there. We went to church the next morning and then drove to Glacier National Park. We camped there from Sunday until Thursday.

This trip has a couple of memories I should mention. After we arrived and set up camp, we were sitting around reading comic books. My mother suggested going swimming in one of the (ice-cold) lakes. My father said, "Susan! On Sunday?" My mother said, "It's better than sitting around reading those spiritual Crankshaft books!" So we headed to a nearby lake. Scott decided to go in the water which was absolutely freezing. He was out in the lake about 10 feet and Jan who was about 18 months old decided to follow him in. After a few feet he fell into the water and was taking on water when Scott rescued him. This picture was taken right after that traumatizing event.


David and Liesl hanging out. They liked watching the eternal baseball game from this perch. (see below). The baseball game was the main entertainment for the younger set.


A mountain goat

Glacier is famous for it's "Going to the Sun Road" which has really amazing views.

David, Jan, Paula, Liesl, and Heidi on a little hike

We rented a boat for a few hours and enjoyed boating on Lake McDonald.

Jan loved hanging out in the car.


I remember one more event from that trip to Glacier--running out of gas. I kept telling Scott we needed to get some gas for our van but it was not convenient. So we didn't do it until we ran out of gas and it was really not convenient. I think it's the only time we've run out.

Glacier was a nice place to camp. When we got back to Orem, Scott went to Boulder, CO, for something related to his studies while the rest of us stayed in Orem a little longer. I went up to Maple Dell and saw Brian get awarded his Eagle at Scout camp. After some time in Orem, we loaded up and drove back to Wisconsin. We enjoyed a break from our usual activities and enjoyed seeing family and friends.

Brian getting his Eagle

Our Toyota van in all its glory--we were taking back the cradle for our new baby. We just gave that cradle away on Facebook Marketplace.


Right before we left to go back to Wisconsin:  Brian, Mom, JoEllen, Jan, Bruce, Scott, David on his back, Heidi, Liesl, Dad.

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