Tally Lake 2012

 From August 12-17, our family went to Tally Lake. For the first two-three days we were there with Granny and Grandpa Paul, Ken, Tracy and Nathan and Michelle's family. Then we stayed a couple of extra days on our own. We love lots of things about Tally lake...the beautiful mountains, the warm-ish water, the cliffs for jumping, the ability to find glassy water for water skiing, and the nice campsites.We had some great times there again this year.

Monday and Friday were perfect weather for boating. Calm, hot, sunny and with very few boats. On Monday all the cousins took their turns and almost everyone got to do something behind the boat. Tuesday was more windy, especially from the afternoon on. We enjoyed time on the beach that day, and did some crawdad hunting at night. On Wednesday the weather was cool. We helped granny and grandpa and Michelle's family pack up camp, played a few games and went into Kalispell for supper (Alyssa's birthday request). On Thursday, it warmed up, but was still cool in the morning. Friday was just our family and it was an awesome day. I got up on the wakeboard for the first time and Rob got up on his new ski. It was hot and calm and we spent lots of time at the far end of the lake with the most beautiful cliff faces. Sadly, we had to leave that afternoon to get home before the Magrath swim meet on Saturday.

Unfortunately, I didn't get my camera out on the first few days of the trip...except to take this first picture, so you will have to forgive me for missing some of the best photo ops.

We left for Tally Sunday at 5:00, after church. I drove Grandpa's truck pulling the boat and Rob drove our truck pulling the trailer. On the gravel road just south of the border, a rock (or something) hit the windshield on the boat and shattered it. That made for a slow and painful trip to the lake. We met up with Ken and Tracy at Browning and they helped us all along the way. In Browning we tried to tape cardboard over the pane. That wouldn't stick so at East Glacier, we cleaned out most of the glass and took the tarp off the boat so that the wind coming through the missing pane wouldn't wreck the tarp. We had to move all the equipment from the boat into the trailer. I drove a little slowish through the pass, not being experienced at towing on windy roads. At Columbia Falls we stopped at a car wash and vacuumed out the remaining glass. At Whitefish we stopped and filled the boat and all the jerry cans with gas. Needless to say the 3 hr trip took 5.5 and we didn't arrive until nearly 10:30 at night. By then Granny was pretty worried about us. Since there is no cell service at Tally, they had no idea where we were.

Alyssa was trying to learn to jump the wake on the wakeboard.

Tubers

Preston was forced onto the kneeboard

Alyssa was getting quite good at cutting on the fat boy ski

Rob on his new ski which the kids dubbed "the bad boy ski" in contrast to the fat boy.

 

Alyssa had her birthday on Thursday the 16th at the lake. She got an iPod touch.

Our new tent

Carrying Mark over to the boat. What a good dad!

Austin, Alyssa and Mark hang out on the tube on the shore waiting for it to warm up on Thursday morning.

Rob building an inukshuk

We filled Alyssa's tent with balloons for her birthday. How many kids can you spot in this picture?

Austin jumping off the front of the boat.

Alyssa cliff jumping.

I was swimming Preston over to the cliffs. Any idea how hard it is to swim when you are being ridden like a knee board?

Even Rob went cliff jumping

What a beautiful dive

three cute boys!

proof I got up on the wake board.

Interesting "tan lines" Rob's man-boobs, "moobs" seemed to protect part of his stomach from the sun.

Austin standing on the knee board....can't hold the rope, but can go around the lake standing on the knee board. What a kid!

Mark chilling in the boat. I never knew that the seat in the boat can lay down. We made use of that discovery and laid Mark out on a flattened seat. He was quite comfy and happy with sunglasses on to protect his eyes which were looking straight into the sky.

Rob on the rope swimg. Alyssa had a close call on that rope swing. She started high up and when the swing dropped all of a sudden her whole body weight was pulling down and he lost her grip. Unfortunately she was not yet over the deep water and landed in about a foot of water, right at the shore. Luckily, she wasn't hurt too bad. I think her life jacket protected her back.

In the swimming area there is a floating platform. The kids played and played on it.