2026, April 20-26

Winter wants to stick around, but spring is showing all the signs that it's here to stay, from birds and flowers to high schoolers going to formal dances. 

The mated osprey pair over by Missoula College has returned, and we may see eggs and osprey chicks soon.  

Mike went to a "Potheads Paint Your Own Pot" event at the UM Makerspace on 4/20 (ba dum tiss). He chose to paint the department arms. 

Eliza made a pizza at Bridle Up Hope this week. Funny, she wouldn't eat it. Hallie had a bite and thought it tasted quite good.

Hallie and Alicia went to an open house for a therapy group that opened up in Alpine. They got some food and enjoyed some time outdoors. The ladies got to bring home succulents. Alicia thought the burger she had there was the best she has had in a while.

University of Montana is having several end-of-semester events as the spring semester winds to a close. While walking back from lunch, he and his colleagues came across this group of folk singers. Both of Mike's colleagues (who are former music teachers) lamented that not a lot of young people spend the time to get proficient at music anymore.  

We had our home inspected and tested for radon this week. The due diligence period ends April 29. Hopefully everything goes smoothly. 

Hello, Landon! Hello, Kai! Landon was tricking Kai that someone was at the door, Hallie's least favorite game. With less furniture in the house, the dog's bark is very loud.

Landon and Jocie had prom this week, complete with prom-posals. 

Administrative Assistants' Day happened this week at Hallie's school. She joined in a show of appreciation for the school secretary.  

Mike made real-life stickers of the kawaii sticker images he had made of Fergus and Kai at Makerspace. 

Now that he got new glasses from the eye doctor, Landon has decided to start wearing glasses full-time now. That's all four of us. 

Hallie also tried on glasses too. She's getting hers from an online provider. Landon was willing to give a bit of feedback.

We had some interesting weather in both Springville and Missoula. Mike got snow on Thursday and Friday, and it was chilly on Saturday and Sunday. 

On his morning walk on Saturday, he made friends with this mountain chickadee as he walked up the five-story outside stairs. 

Here's a view facing his office and the mountains (and weather) to the north. 

Lilacs are starting to bloom on the bushes on Arthur Street. Hopefully they'll remain until May 25 as we commemorate the Glorious Revolution. 

Hallie is winding down her days left working at Starbucks. As of this writing, Hallie only has one more shift at Starbucks.

Amanda saw the stickers of Fergus and Kai, and we made one of her Frankie too. 

Prom day happened on Saturday. Here's Jocie's corsage and Landon and Zeke posing before picking up their dates.

Landon said the pre-prom activities were the best part of the day. The ate dinner at Black Sheep Cafe which was kind to accommodate a party of 8.

Little Brooklyn is learning how to stand! 

Mike participated in a few activities on campus and near his apartment over the weekend. He enjoyed watching the surfers and kayakers on the Clark Fork, which is running high with runoff. He thinks the rest of the family will really appreciate walking and riding the trails down in the area once they get here. 

Eliza has been earning money working at the Double Down Ranch. We appreciate the opportunities she has to develop her skills and hope she will continue to do so once we're all up in Missoula. 

2026, April 13-19

Quite the eventful week! 

Monday morning, Hallie got Mike a birthday drink from the local Starbucks. They also took pictures to send each other from their respective spots. The baristas at Mike's store might have thought him a little weird. Hallie takes selfies at her store all the time.  

Kenyon was also there, and Hallie and he sat in a basketball-themed snack promotional chair her Smiths had. 

That's either a really big chair or a really small human. Or both.

Mike's weather was gorgeous, if a little brisk. 

Hallie had a couple of gifts sent to Mike's apartment too: a birthday cake and a smart scale. Since last fall, Mike has lost a significant amount of weight, but without a scale, he didn't know how much that was. Now he does! And birthday cake in a jar? Yum!!  

Mike received an amazing birthday present: someone made an offer on the house!!!! We're under contract, and (pending inspection) will be out of our house sooner than expected. It's a bittersweet feeling, but it's a relief too.

Brooklyn found Kai's toy and didn't want to come home. Hallie loves that girl.

Hallie got new spring-themed nails from Shelby. Shelby, is a relative and has graduated from nail school recently. Hallie enjoys helping her learn new technique. 

Speaking of skills practice, in the evenings, Mike has hopped back on to doing some graphic design work for the department. He drew this image and then went to the Makerspace on campus and used the Cricut and sticker machines they have there to turn the digital creations into real-life ones. 

His department now has an "official" emblem, hand-crafted by him (Just don't tell the people who do branding for the university). 

He also got to order pins and stickers to give to graduates from the department's programs. 

(Of course he had to add some department swagger his office.)

Both Springville and Missoula got snow later in the week. It didn't stick in the valleys, but hopefully some will stay in the higher elevations. 

This dramatic view over university buildings comes from the top of a building-exterior staircase near Mike's office. 

The snow falling off to the west came over Mike's office not long after. 

Eliza spent a significant amount of time helping Leslie on Friday. Among her activities, she found a mouse trapped in a bucket. That little thing was still alive in Eliza's hand. Leslie's dog Dooley made sure to let Eliza know that he was not fond of her holding the mouse.

On Friday and Saturday, Mike attended the 57th Annual Kyiyo Pow Wow Celebration at the Adams Center. He caught Grand Entries on two days and the Adult Dancing on Saturday. 

Hallie's Saturday consisted in part of going to the Bigtooth Maple Festival in Woodland Hills with Amanda. Hallie finds it fun when a good day shapes up unexpectedly. After they went to the festival, the ladies planned a trip to Walt Disney World (where Hallie has never been).

Hey! Syrup from Montana MapleWorks in Missoula!

She bought a turquoise ring to go with the wavy ring she has (Look how it matches her nails). Hallie has purchased other jewelry from Little Wildflower before and is a fan.

Some more photos from the pow wow. Mike moved from the west to the east side of the Adams Center to get different views. Below is the Blackfeet drum circle. 

Fancy dancing. 

Google is always doing something different with the photos we save in the cloud. Here are some mixups Mike made of the cat, the dog, and himself.  Hallie wants to get a tattoo of cartoon Kai. Make can go over to the Makerspace and get some real-life stickers of the pets now. 

(Mike's not as big a fan of the original upon which the sticker is based. Oh, well.) 

Hallie had to work on Sunday. There was a bit of a ruckus, but she got through it. Needless to say, the bumbling job she did today made her decide that May 3rd is her last day at Starbucks.

Then she and Cristy went out for lunch at Via 313. Hallie wants to go to places they won't have in Montana. After lunch, Hallie picked up Eliza to run an errand, and now they are spiffing the house up before the inspection on Tuesday afternoon.

Mike spent the day doing chores and watching the Argentinian dark comedy TV show El Encargado ("The Boss" or "The Building Superintendent") on Hulu. He remembers Guillermo Francella from all the way back when Francella was on TV back when Mike lived in Buenos Aires in the '90s. He always gets a kick from viewing media from Argentina. As it turns out, this show was filmed just a few blocks from where he and Hallie stayed with Elvira in Belgrano in 2002. Mike even found the building where the story is set (a character in its own right) on Google Maps. 

In other local news, the periwinkles are in bloom in Missoula. Sunday gave family members in Utah and Montana some phenomenal spring weather.