All or Nothin’

Over the last two weeks the four of us have learned to ease into giving a little bit more with each other: A little more grace, a little more humility, a little more forgiveness. In the past I tended to approach discipline in black and white. You break the rules, you lose privileges. I fear having spoiled, entitled-acting children, and having rules serves our family, as well as provide a sense of control. 

But we are fallible humans and no one is going to follow the rules perfectly all of the time. When we give each other grace, humility, and forgiveness we honor each other.

So how should we react to a child beginning to lose his or her cool? An adult? How do you treat yourself when it’s you losing your patience? We give grace. 

Giving grace doesn’t mean giving up the rules. It means when one rule is broken it doesn’t start a chain reaction into anger. We are in this together. The four of us. The Gray Grizzlies. 

Tom Petty croons, purportedly to his sweetheart, in his sixth track on Into The Great Wide Open, All or Nothin’, “You want it all, you want it all, All or nothin’.” Black and white. All or nothin’. I’m making the choice to live in the Gray area for at least this bit. There’s too much good stuff here and I don’t want to miss it.

9/6: Robert earned his first Jeep badge for the off-road course in Kila, MT. Then we had a date night dinner at The Last Chair, our new Whitefish fav.

9/7: Coldest Labor Day I can remember! We met up with the Albergottis, friends from Charlotte living the RV life, and toasted the holiday at the Depot Park while the kids ran and played.

9/8: We spent the day at an RV Park. Hanging with Charlotte friends in an RV Park in West Glacier is just another thing I didn’t see coming in 2020. We checked into our new digs in Glacier. We’re calling it the Yabba Dabba Doo Cabin.

9/9: Full day tour with Glacier Guides at Glacier National Park. Jaw dropping scenery and spotted a moose! The St. Mary Lake hike was our favorite. Also loved going off trail a bit to play by the water’s edge. Going to the Sun Road is insane and a must-drive. Our guide was wonderful and I highly recommend! The kids did great, and funny enough, we ran into the Albergottis on the trail! Cameron and Aubrey’s highlight was definitely finding snow and having a snowball fight under the hot MT sun!

9/10: Clary and kiddos visited Apgar Village for some all-day swimming and playing.

9/11: Clary and Cameron visited Polebridge, MT. Polebridge Mercantile is adorable and the ride from Glacier is gorgeous! I had never driven through a new growth forest after a fire. Singed black tree trunks stand high like flagpoles over lush new growth underneath. We tried to go to Bowman Lake but I had some bad directions (or didn’t follow the directions more likely) and we ended traveling on a dirt road so far north we were only five miles from Canada. We did not find a lake, but we did find Tepee Creek where there were some very fresh bear tracks. We high tailed it out of there pretty fast after finding those.

9/12: Last time on Big Mountain for the summer season. Scenic lift and alpine slides with Albergottis followed by dinner at Bonsai Brewing. The smoke rolled in heavily this afternoon, not to leave until 9/19! Checked into new digs: a mountain house in Whitefish.

9/13: Throw me in the briar brush! The new spot in the mountains of Whitefish is actually two houses. The one the kids’ deemed their playhouse doesn’t have wifi, which is great because we know they aren’t playing on iPads (the struggle is real). The smoke is thick from the Oregon fires and so we had a quiet day inside watching the Panther’s game and doing arts and crafts. The first day we’ve had a “home day” and it was nice!

9/14: Day two in the house. Smoke is still thick! After Gray School, we tuned into a live Hilliard Studio Method workout my mom was teaching and played around the house.

9/15: Smoke clearing out somewhat. We visited “our horses” at the Bar W Guest Ranch. The Ranch was so kind to bring Skittles and Tonto down for Aubrey and Cameron to feed and play with them!

9/16: Hiked Hidden Lake in Glacier with the Albergottis and hosted everyone for dinner at our house for our last night in the Whitefish area.

9/17: WE LOVE PHILIPSBURG. A friend from UNC is one of the lead brewers at Philipsburg Brewing Co so we made a detour on the way to Ennis and stayed the night in downtown Philipsburg. It’s a town of 800 and everyone knows everyone. People were incredibly friendly but that might be because we were with easily the most popular guy in town, Brewmaster Ben. We spent the majority of our time outside at the brewery meeting Ben’s friends and their dogs. There’s a great candy store just steps away that the children loved, an Alaskan fish truck that pulls up on Fridays with the best fish I’ve ever made myself, and a place to mine for sapphires. Aubrey found a sapphire that was over 2 carats! We will most definitely be back.

9/18: Arrived in Ennis and staying on a beautiful lake in a really cool hunting cabin. The smoke is still hanging around but tomorrow’s rains should clear everything out.

9/19: First time fly fishing! We took out two boats with two guides on a cold and potentially rainy day. We borrowed some waders and drove south about 30 minutes to Cameron, Montana to put our boats into the Madison River. It was a bit windy but the sun came out and it was beautiful! Cameron, Aubrey, and Robert hit the Madison Trifecta (caught whitefish, brown trout, and rainbow trout). I wasn’t quick enough for the fish today but we all try again tomorrow and Ben from Philipsburg is joining us too!