2026, March 16 - 22

 Someone else is in charge of the blog this week. Let's see how this will pan out.

St. Patrick's Day had both adults wearing green. They took a little morning trip to Dutch Bros. to score some fun merch. Mike got the "rare" blind bag item. Fun!!! We had corned beef and cabbage for dinner. What a fun tradition Hallie's mom started when they were kids.

Kai enjoyed seeing the daffodils. Hallie is grateful that Mike was able to take care of the animals while he was home for two weeks. 

Eliza and Hallie (later Mike) took care of Val and Tucker for 12 days while Becky our neighbor and her family were in Hawaii. The girls were rewarded kindly. One fun present was the coffee from Kaui. Hallie went to Starbucks to grind the coffee. Mike and Hallie have tried fun different recipes with coconut cream as if they were on an island.

On Saturday Mike, Hallie, and Eliza drove to SLC airport to drop Mike off. Mike and his colleague John flew to England! There was a group from the University of Montana who had the amazing opportunity to present a paper at a conference held at Oxford University.Technology is amazing. The adults had the opportunity to text when he wasn't sleeping. After dropping Mike off Eliza and Hallie went to Decades Vintage store where Eliza found a beautiful Mexican dress. The girls then went to the 9th and 9th district and went into Cahoots, Hid & Humble, and took pictures. Hallie opened at Starbucks that morning and by 5:00 pm was very tired. She was very glad to have Eliza along for safety.

A two hour took Mike and John to Oxford University from London Heathrow Airport. Here are just a few pictures from the first day.

That is all the fun we have for you this week. A lot of time was spent preparing the house to list for sale. Hallie and Eliza don't want to move. Mike is really loving Missoula. We love him and continue to support him in our new endeavors. 

2026, March 9-15

We spent a harried week cleaning and packing and made a quick weekend trip to Missoula and back. You could say we're a little tired. 

We're so grateful for friends and family who have helped us so far. 

We had some beautiful sunsets this week.

Mike appreciated getting to see the local ponies. 

Fergus has been quite the cuddler. 

Early spring flowers are in bloom in the neighborhood. 

With all of the boxes getting packed, one or two were sure to become traps. It is nice to have a few moments of joy from our animals in the midst of the crazy.

The local quail covey has grown quite large. There may be 20-30 from a group that started as a pair a few years back.

Another sunset caught on camera just a little late. 

Hallie's tattoo is healing nicely. She notices the passing of time in the balloon and her wrinkly skin.

Kai liked nosing around the buds north of Center Street.

After some days of deep cleaning her bedroom, Eliza was bushed. 

In addition to packing and cleaning, E babysat our neighbors' dogs. As a reward, she got some treats from Hawaii! We were told that many of the locals wear these fun clips in their hair. E tried all of them at once.

Mike caught sight of this brave, brave (sir) robin on a low tree branch on one of his walks. 

Coming back from work, Hallie saw this mysterious smoke plume. It was burning marshy terrain off the freeway. It took Hallie's friend Kora nearly an hour to get here to help load the truck because of the freeway danger. 

After we got boxes ready in the garage and picked up the moving truck, our neighbors and friends gathered together to help pack up. Took all of 30 minutes to do most of it. We are grateful to those who turned up to help ease our burdens. Even Landon's friend Zeke and Landon's girlfriend Jocie came to help.

Many hands make light work. 

Another sunset. 

Pizza for the helpers! Many, many thanks! 

On Friday morning, we drove up to Montana. The kids entertained themselves on their phones. 

We had mostly clear roads all the way to Missoula County.

It was only once we got near Missoula that the weather got bad. Mike wryly joked that Missoula was trying to show us her bad side on purpose for good luck, kind of like rain at a wedding. 

Nonetheless, we made it. We even had Gary's Local Burgers for dinner. Simple smash burgers for the win.

Unfortunately, on Saturday morning, the weather continued not to cooperate. Originally, we had planned to pack Mike's apartment with everything, but seeing the state of the ground and the continued forecast, we called an audible and decided to rent a storage unit instead. 

As the day progressed, the weather slowly improved, but not in time for it to matter. All in all, we suspect that reasons beyond our reason account for us going ahead with the storage unit option rather than our original plan. We managed to get everything from the truck we needed to get into the unit, just the four of us! Needless to say, while it took longer to unpack and put stuff in storage, it went surprisingly fast. We had freakouts, and we had laughs. The kids worked their tails off and came up with creative solutions for problems that arose (including the truck nearly getting stuck early in the day and Mike having to do what felt like a 20-point U turn after we left the storage facility). We were dog tired by end of day. Mike had promised an all-you-can eat buffet at the Lodge, but it was closed! No!! Fortunately, Dobi's Teriyaki served as a good alternative. We'll have to save Biga Pizza for the next trip. 

Bright and early Sunday morning, we had to head back out. Now, the snow had subsided in Missoula, but we had to go through snow and ice back on the way to Butte. After Butte, the roads were fine. In Dillon, we made a pit stop and got to see how the ice had caked the car. 

Hallie had to share with her Starbucks coworkers her sad protein drink. No sprinkles! And the baristas at this location weren't as friendly.

We made it home before 8:00 p.m. to the ecstatic whines of Kai, the meows of Fergus, and Jocie hard at work in our kitchen after a weekend cleaning in the house. Thank you so much, Priscilla, Becky, and Jocie! 

Next week will mean more cleaning, packing, and prepping for staging before Mike heads out to Oxford and back to Missoula.