Over the past year, Mike has logged more miles than in any other 365-day period between trips to Japan, the UK, and trips back and forth between Utah, Montana, and California. Of course, four intrepid astronauts on the Artemis II mission did multiple times that distance in just 10 days, so we'll just admire their efforts.
We have
listed our house for sale. If you know someone who wants affordable living in lovely Springville, we might have just the house for them!
The fam in Springville had Spring Break from their schools this week. Eliza is effectively done with school, and Landon is acting as if he is essentially done. Hallie and Eliza looked after Kohar's kids, and the kids had fun finishing the destruction of a door Landon had damaged a couple of years back and that we replaced last month.
Eliza caught Ferg blepping, and Ferg caught Eliza by the hand.
Kohar's kids caught crazy pictures of themselves and Eliza in Hallie's camera.
And look at little smiley Brooklyn!
Among their adventures this week, they went to the movies, Parlor Doughnuts, and Coin Crazy.
Mike's last major trip of the school year was a flight down to Los Angeles to attend the American Educational Research Association's
annual meeting. On his flight to LA, he had a brief layover in Portland, Oregon. He was lucky to catch sight of Mt. Hood and (maybe?) Mt. Jefferson.
He had a bit of a harrowing final leg once he touched down at LAX. He missed two full airport shuttles and nearly missed his connecting train. This is a picture of a relieved Mike who caught the train with less than five minutes to spare.
Hallie has been thinking of creative ways to use the pantry storage. Here are egg and cheese waffles (aka chaffles)
And here are overnight oats.
For part of his trip to LA, Mike was able to make it up to Simi to check in and help his dad and sisters out with a few errands. He also got a meal at the
Junkyard Cafe.
Errands included some organizing.
He also found one of his old baby blankets. The '70s vintage is powerful with this one!
Simi was full of spring flowers in bloom, including these bee-decked bottlebrushes.
The townhouse officially has its own For Sale sign.
We have stuff in the garage that still needs sorting and donating. Hallie got a lot of that done with help from the neighbors and grandpa and grandma's truck.
It's starting to look a lot better!
On Friday, Jocie had a family night end-of-season musical performance at the high school. Fun! She tried out for and made Nebo Indoor Percussion (NIPS), and it has been fun watching her play so many different instruments.
On Saturday, Hallie and Eliza went to
Cravings Bistro up in Pleasant Grove to celebrate National Grilled Cheese Day after celebrating Swig's birthday with drinks and keychains.
E got a pizza grilled cheese, and the girls got a cup of soup to dip and share. As you can see, the cheese was amazingly stringy.
Hallie got a new tattoo at
Sideshow Productions Tattoo as part of a Humane Society fundraiser.
After attending AERA session, Mike took a walk from the meeting hotel up toward Union Station by way of Angel's Flight, the Grand Central Market, City Hall, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street, and Chinatown.
LA has several sister cities.
These furries made a day of being in Little Tokyo too.
He had yummy onigiri, matcha cookies, and lemon green tea for his meal. So yummy!
He found a gashapon store, but they didn't have anything Mofusand-themed.
He caught this evasive Volpix Pokemon at the galleria.
He ended the day with a French Dip before catching the Flyaway from Union Station.
Speaking of history, the Theme Building at LAX is pretty iconic too.
Mike's Saturday felt a lot like one of his travel days in the UK. These were his stats as of 7:00 p.m. He stayed over at the airport, and he added another 5,000 steps to his ending stats.
Good thing he had this book Hallie got him to keep him occupied.
We had our first house viewing on Saturday as well. Response was positive, and hopefully we'll have an offer soon! Landon couldn't find his PSP controller. Maybe Ferg took it. We think Fergus was playing the PS5.
Both Mike and Hallie woke up very early on Sunday. The cat slept like a baby near Hallie's side.
Springville had some crazy weather, which Hallie tried showing to Mike from the inside of Smiths.
Mike left LA in rainy conditions. Until next time! This time he had a layover in Denver.
He got back to Missoula in time for afternoon rain that more or less went away by end of day.
Landon said he fell out of a tree. Said tree may have been between him and whatever vehicle he fell from that gave him what looks suspiciously like road rash. Hmmm.
