Departure Day and the Simms Open House

Sunday was the day we had to pack up and leave....so sad, but we are definately coming back to the Great Bear Inn. We got up and had a great breakfast with everyone together and after breakfast we watched the slide show of pictures JP and I put together, it was so fun to see it. Then everyone packed up and we all gathered outside for a group shot. Afterwards everyone just hung out and played with the dogs and Beckham had been walking a little bit but that morning he took off and walked back and forth between Zane and I and then he would walk toward the big dogs and bark, it was so cute.
We headed up the Going to the Sun highway, it was a beautiful day. Laini, Zane, Chris, the kids and I all drove together and listened to Alabama's greatest hits....oh it brings back memories of family vacations back in the day. Anyway, the waterfalls along the roadside were awesome and when we got to the top we all had a snowball fight which Brooklyn was very into. She was getting everyone, it was so funny. On the way back down we went through the weeping wall, usually there is not this much water, but it was crazy this time. Check out the video.... Then we headed back down and we have a tradition when we go through the tunnels. We yell and honk...but about 7 or 8 years ago the yell turned into "Siyah!" because my dad started yelling that when we would pass Siyah Creek.....so if you are wondering why we are so weird, that's why... Then we ended up at the jumping rock. It's a place we always stop and have lunch and jump into the freezing cold water. The pool is usually an aqua green color which makes it look so inviting but then when you hit the water, your lungs freeze and you can't catch your breath for a few seconds when you come up....but it's a blast. Anyway,Laini, Zane, Chris and I were all pumped to jump off because it was so hot out. But because it had just snowed two weeks prior there was a ton of water moving through there and we would have been swept away just trying to swim over to the rock. People who have been there will understand the video and seeing how scary this looks......(Tori and Kelsi)





We got back to Simms just in time for the Open House. It was a really fun evening and it was great to see everyone from home. The weather was great, the decorations turned out awesome and the food was good too! We had an ice cream sundae bar which I think everyone loved. Brooklyn loved it because it was held at "the cowboy's" house and she got to see the horses. I made a slide show of pictures and put it onto Zane's laptop so everyone could see some of the pictures. And I had designed some brands for Ryan and Staci with my vinyl machine so we put them on hearts and decorated the tables with them and dried flowers in mason jars and horseshoes, it turned out really cute. After the open house we went home to my parent's home to watch Ry and Staci open their presents and then Zane and Laini put on a firework show. It was a great way to end the weekend. Brooklyn loved it and got everyone yelling and clapping, it was really cute.