2026, June 22-28

The Missoula crew continued getting settled into Montana life. Diamond and Caleb gave us sudden news that sent Hallie flying out to Texas! 

While Mike is up on campus, the girls have gone on some adventures in town and further out. On Monday, they went to Rockin Rudy's, Missoula's "Original Hipster Department Store. They found soem treasures to bring home and even got Mike a couple of treats. 

Eliza has spent time making her bedroom her own, finding her packed boxes and moving things into her new space. 

Mike caught one of the local deer meeting Fergus for the first time. She seemed genuinely curious about what kind of strange creature was sitting on the front porch. Ferg took it in his stride, as is tradition. 

Eliza had a riding lesson on Tuesday. 

On our evening walk with Kai, we caught sight of one of the bucks and a couple of does. They're still getting to know Kai, and he them. 

The Coca Cola Company seems to be recycling the idea of round thermal detonator-themed bottles from Galaxy's Edge into soccer ball-themed ones for the World Cup. We've enjoyed this tournament so far. Lots of exciting action. We're also glad to see the people who visit the US having a fun time.  

Plenty of flowers are in bloom around campus. The catalpas are in bloom. UM Campus is the State of Montana Arboretum, and we have many native species along with those from other areas of the country and the world. 

On Wednesday, the girls went to Helena so Hallie could run an errand and so they could go over to Marysville, a historic "ghost town" that still has people residing there. 

Some lovely poppies in bloom. 

A lovely Hallie looking at lovely poppies. 

We took Kai into the back yard to play and really tuckered both him and Fergus out. 

We wanted to get ahead of the weather, because we were due for rain on the weekend. It started Friday and continued all the way through Sunday. 

Diamond called Hallie to let us know that she and Caleb had been matched with a birth mom named Kayla and that Kayla was going to give birth this coming Monday. Hold the phone! Someone is going on a trip to Waco, Texas, meet her new granddaughter! We're so happy for Diamond and Caleb and grateful to Kayla for entrusting her daughter to their love and care.  

Ferg doesn't seem to care about much other than sleeping. 

This is the local woodpecker pecking at the metal cover on top of this street lamp. It's noisy but not particularly effective. 

This is a sticker from UM's Branch Center. They get belonging right, and it makes us proud to be part of this community that takes belonging seriously and doesn't manipulate the idea for its own ends. 

On Saturday, Hallie needed to get a few things for her trip. Diamond asked her to find some Hello Kitty-themed stuffed animals, and Target delivered.  

Sunday morning dawned rainy and with a bunch of cars rolling down 6th Street East due to the marathon. Fortunately, that didn't stop us from getting Hallie to the airport. As of this writing, she's in Austin and making her way to Waco to meet up with Diamond and Caleb. 

Mike and Eliza and the animals spent a quiet day at home. Eliza slept in before taking Kai out for a walkabout. Fergus mostly slept. Mike tried organizing the boxes of stuff we moved up to Missoula and retrieved from the storage units earlier in the week that are now taking up the basement before watching the Canada-South Africa World Cup game. Go, Canada! 

He has listened to several great audiobooks over the last year and more and particularly these couple of weeks while working, getting things organized, walking, and so on: Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman and A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck, which draws inspiration from the Jorge Luis Borges short story The Library of Babel. Been a thought-provoking couple of weeks. He's grateful for Audible and Libby and how they provide access to such a wealth of creative and meaningful print media set to speech.