Well we are home now, everything is in ammaculate condition thanks to the Wilson family. 🙂 We appreciate all your prayers and taking the time to look at this blog. The blog will stay up for a few more months, we are even thinking of just leaving it up. 🙂 You all are special to us and we look forward to seeing everybody again! God Bless, The Smythe Family

If everybody could pray, we are in the process of looking intently at properties for sale. We are asking God’s direction on timing and His will.

After a good nights rest, we drove towards the Pinkerton’s house in Coeur D Alene, ID. On the way, we almost got in a wreck. We saw an amazing sight, there on a roof of a house we saw a goat! We turned around to see it, and stopped in at the little store there. ( It was a store that sold goat soap and other goat products, one of the wasys they got people to stop was to have goats live on the roof.) 🙂  We drove on to the Pinkerton’s house. When we arrived, we were greeted warmly and invited to play a game of soccer. We played soccer for about an hour, then were shown around the house, their house is beautiful. The Lord blessed them with it about 4 years ago, and it is an amazing story to hear how the Lord blessed the house. After seeing the house, we went to our very comfortable beds and slept. 🙂 In the morning, at about 6:30 we met with the Pinkerton family to have Bible study. After a 2hour study, we watched them do chores. (We kind of helped, its more like we just watched though.) We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast ( Thank you Pinkerton girls) 🙂 and then had a restful day. In the evening, the Pinkerton’s were kind enough to open their house up to two other families that we have known for awhile, we had a blessed time praising the Lord and having fellowship. The next morning we awoke to another amazing breakfast, after which we had planned to get on the road, but as we all know when you are having fellowship, it’s hard to break away. Subsequently, we did not get on the road until 5 in the evening. (Thank you Pinkerton family for your hospitality). We had to go finally and after our goodbyes, we were on the road.

We drove from West Glacier National Park, to Banff, Al Canada, it was a great drive and we wnjoyed the scenerey. On the way we pulled up to the border, and discover the guard in the process of trying to kill a bee. After a short drive from the border, we stopped in a town, when my dad went in to get water he asked for a gallon of water, not thinking of Canada the lady behind the counter just stared. When he asked again, she just stared, finally he remembered we were in Ca. he then asked for a liter and she directed him to them. 🙂 So we continued our driving. We drove through Calgary and saw where the Olympics had taken place. As we continued our journey, we noticed little ground squirrels all along the road, they would scamper off when we came pass. There was one such squirrel that just sat there in the middle of the road with his back to us, as we wizzed by. We thought how odd he must of felt when he felt the back of his hair stand up as we came by, he had a close encounter of the deathly kind. 🙂 We think every day of the how close we are to the trip end, and how th eLord has blessed the trip. Thank you all for your prayers.

For day 25, we moved from Falcon Crest, a very nice lodge in Canmore, AL to The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. When we arrived, my dad went to check and see if we could get a room that looked out on the lake. The lady told him that she did not have any available, but that she would give us another room that she has her friends stay at when they come. When we had arrived in the room, we were amazed, the room looked directly out on the Lake and surrounding Mt. Praise the Lord!!! We still ahve no idea why they said it did not have a view of the lake. We hiked up to Victoria Glacier in the evening, and saw panoramic beauty of God’s creation. We also got soaking wet as a large storm moved in and drenched us. 🙂  After a hearty meal of Burgers, we bedded down for the night.

Today being fathers day, I want to say Happy Fathers Day to all Fathers. So we got up early, and packed up drove from Great Falls to West Glacier, MT. It was a beautiful day, just a few wispy clouds, we arrived at East Glacier, MT and played some golf. It was a great experience and some of us were actually good at it! 🙂 The game is deceiving some people say it is for gentlemen, but when you have a 100 Yard hole, that is par 2, you hit that ball like a batter at base. Anyways, my dad enjoyed it alot, and we all had great fun. After our game, we packed in the car and drove to West Glacier which is about 60 Mi. The scenery along the road was beautiful, and the trip went fast. When we arrived we decided to drive to a walking trail, we drove to the spot and took a brisk walk. Being hungry, everybody voted we get something to eat, so we went to Lake Mcdonald lodge and ate there. We were wiped out, we traveled back to our hotel and hit the sack. In the morning, we awoke early, and started for Banff, AL Canada.

You are probably wondering, why are the Smythe’s driving to different destinations than what their schedule says? We want to elude everybody back home, just kidding. We have figured out that we awake at early hours and want to drive, so we get on the road and figure out, that we will arrive at our planned stopping point at an early hour. So we drive on to a further point. Anyways, why did I just try to explain to you the Smythe’s complex thinking? 🙂 Today we drove through many mountains stretching from the ground to the heavens. We passed Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we decided it was just a copy of the badlands. 🙂 It was a uneventful trip, and we ( Ian ) slept through most of it. We drove a “scenic” by way, with scenery that left us wondering if we were not driving in circles. We drove into one town and realized that the town was soon to be extinct. There was lots of beautiful mountains which make us itch to get to Glacier National Park. For dinner we had homemade sandwiches and Henry Wheinhart Orange Creme soda. ( sorry to make Nick envious well bring back the bottles.) 🙂 All in all we are praising the Lord for His wonderful works to the children of men.

“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Ps. 118:1

So were driving along, coming through the not so interesting state of Minnesota, (sorry for those who grew up there) 🙂 we spied a large black cloud straight in front of us. Driving through strong winds, we slowed up from the usual 75 MPH pace. As we progressed through this amazing cloud formation, we saw to our right a large rain wrapped cloud that reached from the cloud to the ground, it was swirling and was extremely dark. I think we saw a tornado, we will never know to be for sure. As soon as I reported, ” there is a tornado over there,” we sped our way out of the building storm. Little was seen to report on, so this post is going to be short. (As you can see) 🙂 There was a lot of water on the ground, and flooding was everywhere. As we approached our destination, which was Jamestown, ND we realized that the next day, we would have a 7 1/2 hour drive. We decided to drive on, and we arrived at Bismarck, ND the capitol of ND. We had a good night sleep, awoke and drove on to Billings, MT.

So after driving the 5 hours from Munising, MI to Duluth, MN we stepped into our long awaited hotel room. We were taken aback….. it was amazing. Yvonne had booked this hotel, because it was a just-opened hotel which was usually used for condos. They had an opening rate that was 90% lower than the regular rate. Praise the Lord. Anyways, we walked into a 4 room suite, which incorporated three bedrooms, a large sitting room and a kitchen! Plus two bathrooms, which both had jacuzzi tubs in them. The air conditionining unit was remote controlled, as well. They had 4 30″ HD Plasma displays in them as well.( Not that we used them, they were neat to look at) 🙂 Enough of the boasting. Needless to say it was more than we could have hoped for! Everybody went swimming, and baked in the sauna. Right in the middle of swimming, the amber alert system went off warning us of a possible tornado. We thought nothing of it (since it was not in our county) and went right on swimming. Afterwards, the girls cooked a wonderful meal, and we all went to bed. In the middle of the night, a large storm ( when I say large I mean large) came up off the lake. It was very foggy and the lightning, which struck 3-4 times every second, lit the fog up. It was very eerie, then right in the middle of it all we saw a large trail of light stretching from the cloud to the water. We think it might have been a waterspout. My dad tried to wake everybody up, but only my mom and I (Ian) got up. Right in the middle of it all, I was looking to see if their was any tornado on the radar, and the power shut off. I quickly tried to grabbed my film camera, thinking I could film it, but it appears that it was too dark. After that exciting bit of evening, we tried to go to sleep, it was fruitless. We awoke to the same scene as the night before, foggy. Then as if someone had switched a light switch, the fog started rolling out of the bay and before we knew it, it was as clear as a sunny day. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures. Then it was packing time, and we were on our way to North Dakota.

“Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord: He is their help and their shield.” Ps. 115 : 15

Today was pretty boring, besides seeing the Ko’s project. Their project is a old farmhouse that they are fixing up. It was an interesting experience walking into the massive barn. The barn is probably 4000 square feet and is post and beam construction. We were sad to have to say goodbye to the Ko family. After the parting, we drove to Munising, MI a very uneventful 4 hour drive. We drove over Mackinac Bridge the worlds twelfth longest bridge. It is a suspension bridge and over 90% of the bridge, the deck is a see through grate a very unnerving experience. After a good dinner, we watched a small rowboat with two men in it fishing. They were standing in the boat and it looked kind of looked funny. They fished until dark and then we could not see them any more. 🙂 In the morning we packed up quickly to go to Duluth, MN.

After a very good sleep, we awoke refreshed to a slightly overcast day. After another amazing breakfast, (thank you Mrs. Ko) we planned out the day. Mr. Ko suggested we try Kayaking down a nearby river. After calling the needed people he reported bad news. The river was too high from recent rains, we would have to try it another time. We decided that it would be better to do something less aggressive, so it was decided we would go to the beach at Lake Michigan. In the car we got and away we drove, we arrived, it was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky. Their was a breeze that cooled everything off, after finding a picnicking spot, we had a nice meal. During the lunch, Evan and Ben dug a small whole in the sand which grew larger after continued digging. Evan finally fit into the whole and we covered him up to the neck in sand, then placed a watermelon slice tantalizing close to his mouth. 🙂 Then we got a volleyball and net and played volleyball for nearly a hour. During our time here, Ben figured out he could run and jump off a small bluff, I got the idea to photograph him doing it. After a wonderful time at the beach enjoying God’s creation, we headed back to the Ko’s house. We then had a nice evening with some friends we had met along time ago as well as with the Ko’s , we sang songs, played instruments into the night. Finally we grew tired enough to go to bed, after our adieus, we went to our respective rooms.

Congratulations to Nate who answered the last questions correctly.

The promised video is now uploaded to Youtube. Thank you for your patience… the link is here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY9_iA-lsGw

After a late start from Niagra Falls, and some minor delays on the border, we finally arrived at the Ko family house. We pulled in at about 6:00 P.M. I suggested that my dad go to the door to see if we had actually gotten the right house. But before I could say anything, Benjamin their oldest son came bounding out their door. Literally….. We had the right house :). After greeting us the ko family showed us into their house. The first thing we noticed was their piano, this piano has a long history with the Ko family. As far as I know they purchased the piano in Oregon. Then they moved to New Mexico, the piano went with them. After feeling a call from the Lord to move to Michigan, the piano also was moved to it’s new location. Yvonne enjoyed being able to “feel the ivories” again after being gone from her beloved instrument for so long. 🙂 We enjoyed a hearty meal and great fellowship. Then we retired to bed.

On a side note, on our way through customs in CA, a white 15 passenger van was going through too. We all glanced at the vehicle and saw a curly headed man looking at us and smiling and waving. Not knowing him from Adam, we just smiled and waved back. Thinking nothing of it, we crossed through customs, and stoped for a needed bathroom break. Low and behold, there was the man, he approached us and said hi. Long story short, my dad got to talking with him, through the course of the conversation the man told us why he was waving at us. Many years ago, there was a rock band from Oregon they had played with, when he glanced at us in customs, he saw my sisters long hair, knowing the band had long hair and that they were supposed to be in that vicinity in a red 12 passenger van, he mistook us for them. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 😉

Because of the locations we drove through and the time crunch we had, their are no interesting pictures to post for this day… sorry 😦