West Coast -- Glacier, Lake MacDonald

After our epic day on Wednesday no one was anxious to be too ambitious Thursday morning. We all slept in and took it easy in the morning reading, relaxing, and hanging out at the cabin. Every once in awhile someone would say "Well, does anyone want to make a plan as to what we should do today?" and then we'd all lazily go back to our books again. Eventually we landed on taking a picnic lunch to Lake MacDonald and then seeing about renting kayaks again. After we ate lunch at the Apgar picnic area, the girls wanted to run down and check out the water. We ended up spending some time there on the shore as the girls played in the water. Jonathan tried his hand at standing and balancing on an old log lumberjack style, while Bob took about a million videos of his attempts. Later on we rented kayaks again, starting out with Nana, Bob, and Evelyn in the canoe, Jonathan and Sierra in the 2-person kayak, and me in the one-person kayak. The girls wanted a go by themselves in the double kayak, so we beached and switched around. They paddled quickly out into the middle of the lake, but then got tired and had a hard time paddling themselves back into shore. When they were at their best, though, they could really make some time cruising through the water! On the way back Nana and Bob wanted to try the double kayak so Jonathan took the canoe with the two girls. Unfortunately the kayak seats worked out horribly for Bob and he had a hard time sitting in such a way that he could paddle. Between that and Evelyn having a complete meltdown, we were all glad to be back on land. The girls enjoyed playing at the beach for awhile and Nana and I went up to the gift shop for a few minutes. I did manage to find a Xmas ornament as a momento from Glacier (a bear), and also a mountain lion ornament for Lassen, as I had forgotten to get one when we were down there. On our way back home we stopped back by the Fun Park to do the remaining activities there that we had missed the earlier day. We did the bumper boats first and all got completely soaked from squirting each other with the water guns. After that we took on the huge bi-level walk-through maze. Yikes! Bob went solo and the rest of us tried to stick together at first. After nearly an hour Nana, Evelyn and I were ready to be out of there so we took a hint from one of the workers and split from Jonathan and Sierra. We were quickly done and they finished about 15 minutes later as well. That night we went down to the fire pit again to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. Unfortunately on the way down Sierra slipped at the bottom of the trail and really scraped up her leg and ankle. She couldn't put weight on her foot at first, but after awhile (although she was diligently hopping around on one foot most of the evening) it became clear that it was a bit of an act, as she would forget now and then and walk normally until someone would notice and comment that her foot must feel better. Then the hopping would resume.