2026, October 12-18

Eliza won a riding competition on Saturday. She and Hallie had a couple of days off from school late in the week. Mike continues to be a man on the go, spending time in-state in Billings and Browning this week. 

Monday dawned with a dusting of snow on the local mountains. 

This is Eliza's normal school day with her study buddy. Mike had Indigenous Peoples' Day off from classes, but he was on campus nonetheless. Both Eliza and Hallie had Thursday and Friday off for MCPS professional development. Most states call it Fall Break.

Once the snow melted, full fall colors really began to show themselves on campus and around town. 

Speaking of professional development, Mike and his department chair John drove out to Billings on Wednesday to participate in the annual Montana Conference of Educational Leadership (MCEL). Here's the view from his hotel window. 

While Mike's away, the girls will abuse the cat, er, play. Yeah, that's it. 

Poor kitty. Poor, poor kitty. 

Hallie asked Mike for a pic. Mike obliged. Hallie thinks Mike looked handsome for his dinner.

Hallie really appreciates the kind people at Starbucks.

Fergus really appreciates a warm lap, even if that means trapping the person owning it. 

Hallie and Eliza went for a bra fitting at the local Dillard's on Friday. Wacoal sponsored the event, and the girls had a good time.

Mike and John drove back from Billings and got back in time for Mike and Eliza to take a walk up around the UM Oval. Look at those brightly colored maples and oaks!

Saturday morning dawned chilly and foggy. That didn't stop the gang from heading out to Big Sky Horse Park for a jumping derby. Eliza and Squirt faced off against 24 competitors, and Eliza won first place! 

Squirt had a roll in the dirt to finish out his day. Somehow, Drue kept asking Hallie to hold the horses. Drue is either trying to get Hallie in the horse business, or she really doesn't know how scared Hallie is of horses.

Later, Eliza and Mike went to participate in the Missoula No Kings rally. Unfortunately, they were late to the party. However, they did see some updated art under the Madison Street bridge. 

We did manage to see a couple of leftover signs from the rally at Caras Park. 

That's the place where Mike and Eliza parted ways. On his return home, he saw some Halloween art. 

"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the . . . ."

Happiness is a sleeping kitty. 

Eliza is working off some of the cost of her riding lessons by helping out around Drue's. Hallie helped out on Saturday afternoon. Drue uses old fire hoses as part of her irrigation system. Watering is done for the year, so it was time to roll up the hoses. The girls have respect for Uncle Shad. It took a lot of muscle to get these rolled up. 

On Sunday, Mike and a group of faculty and staff from UM went up to Browning to participate in a tour of tribal colleges. Montana has a few colleges on the different reservations around the state, including Blackfeet Community College up past Glacier National Park on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The group was able to stop off in Polson to eat at Richwine's Burgerville before continuing on along the eastern shore of Flathead Lake and skirting Glacier National Park on their way to Browning.  

Katara is sleeping pretty regularly and outgrowing her clothes. Landon is not sleeping regularly and may be outgrowing his clothes. We know about his sleep because of the messages we receive at odd hours; we don't know about his clothes because he hasn't sent pictures in said messages. We miss being able to see Katara and her parents. They will be coming for Christmas, and we are so excited! Hopefully we can get Landon to join us as well.

2026, October 5-11

We transitioned into fall rather abruptly. That said, we adapted and welcomed the joys of the season. 

Hallie walked down the Hello Walk on her way to Starbucks, taking photos of some of the messages painted on the walkway. 

Mike's Chile trip colleagues wanted pictures from our group wearing the T-shirt we got from the trip. Mike decided to show off UM's fall flair. 

Early in the week, Missoula's fall colors were still coming into their own. 

Some trees have gotten the memo. 

Eliza had some riding time a couple of times this week. 

When Mike let Ferg out later in the week, he startled a deer munching the front lawn. Mike caught her as she turned tail to stumble run into the street. Not pictured is the green sports car that had to come to a sudden stop when the deer crossed its path. 

Fergus seemed intensely interested in interfering with Eliza helping Mom put on a bracelet. Eliza made Hallie a fall colored bracelet.

Eliza seemed intensely interested in eating large quantities of ramen while doing schoolwork. How many packets of ramen? We will never know.

Mike seemed intensely interested in capturing the changing colors on campus. 

Ferg seemed intensely interested in keeping Hallie as a heated bed. Fergus has decided that she is his person now, but being Ferg's person can sometimes be annoying. 

On Saturday Eliza was supposed to do a Halloween o-mok-see (meaning "big riding dance" in the Blackfeet Indian language). The weather turned bad Saturday, and the event was canceled. Drue had an alternate activity. Chanel Shaffer from Onwards Equine was the clinician. Eliza and the horse Payday she rode had a great time! Drue had nothing but great things to say about Eliza and her riding.

We had a change of weather later in the week from late summer to early winter. We had snow in the upper elevations and a fair amount of rain in the valley on Saturday and Sunday. Mike caught Old Main lit up like a Jack O'Lantern (also, note the pumpkin on top of the spire) as he went walking Saturday night.  

On our Sunday morning walk, Fergus joined us. He wouldn't go all the way to Starbucks and started meowing loudly as we got nearer. Mike stayed with him while Hallie got her drink. They then all three made their way back home, Ferg leading the way. Maybe what he really needed was the chance to relieve himself closer to the house. 

Hallie liked the look of the water droplets that had formed on the back of this fallen maple leaf. 

Mike noticed right before we took El;iza out to help at Drue's that the car has nearly reached 90,000 miles.  

Before going to Drue's, we stopped at the Turner Farms pumpkin patch for cider, donuts, and a burger. 

Somewhere before getting to Drue's, we passed 90K. 

Eliza is no friend of the chilly weather. Oh, well! There's a lot more cold before we get back to those long warm summer days.

We ended the day with a visit to SHEELS for its annual Ladies' Night charity activity. 

While we can't burn the candles we made, Hallie can use the candle melter, so indoors will smell like the weather looks outside. Here's to fall! 

Landon continues looking for a job. If you know of someone who's hiring, drop us a line. He sent some photos of him with a bloody nose after waking up from his night's sleep. This is a new development, and it's happened more than once recently. The weather hasn't been particularly dry.

Katara is only waking up once a night. Yay for her!