Torres Go West: Gabrielle's Birthday, October 4th

Hey all who follow our blog!

So Tuesday, October 4^th was my 17^th birthday! We had left the day after the wedding and drove all day Monday. Monday night, the day before my birthday we stopped at the Yellowstone RV Park only a mile from one of the Glacier National Park entrances. Yes, it was called Yellowstone, and no, we don’t know why! Anyway, I woke up to rain on my birthday, not a great way to start the day, but it was alright. After breakfast Mom did some laundry, we did school and Dad worked. I walked over to the laundry room and the lady who owns the RV park saw me come in. Now, about an hour earlier Ben had gone into the office and bought me a juice for my birthday, they didn’t have anything else out, they were packing up for the winter, so he really didn’t have a choice! The husband had rung Ben up and went and told his wife how kind Ben was being by buying me birthday present. The wife said “didn’t you show him the necklaces?” and the husband said that he had forgotten that the necklaces were still out. After I came into the laundry room, the wife came up to me and said that she heard that my birthday was that day. After telling mom and I the story that I just told you, she took us into the office and let me pick out a necklace, she was so sweet! We talked with her for a while, during the time our laundry was drying, she told us where to go and what to see in Glacier. Also, while we were talking, she said that we could stay another night at their park and she wouldn’t charge us for us kids (she had charged us for the previous night) because it was my birthday and she thought (correctly) that I didn’t want to drive on my birthday. Most campgrounds charge for people over 6 years of age in addition to the site fee. We left the RV at the campground about an hour later and headed to Glacier NP. On the way to the park we were looking for a place to have lunch, Dad spotted A&W Root Beer, asked me if I wanted to eat there and I said yes. Now, some of us Torres have had a birthday at an A&W so Dad and the boys have named it a “Happy Burpday” on account of them burping after the root beer. After a lunch, we made our way to the park. Now, it’s October 4^th and some of the roads are closed on account of weather and for the winter. We didn’t get to see much, in fact, it was kind of a letdown, maybe it was because of the closed roads and everything, but we really didn’t enjoy it. After driving the van around the park for about 5 hours we decided it was time for dinner. Most of the places in the little village of the park were closed for the winter, so we had to go into the town. We ate at the Halfway Restaurant (supposedly it’s halfway up the mountain), and it was halfway decent. We drove back to the campground full, and tired. We showered up, got our pajamas on, watched some Andy Griffith and had a Ding Dong cake. Here are some birthday pictures!