Category: Uncategorized

Kyra’s been living here this summer, and Zack is up visiting (to hang out with Emi), so the two of them went out and had an adventure in Kyra’s new car. When they returned home around 10pm, they closed and locked the doors, and then realized the keys were inside.

Oops.

“Don’t worry,” said Zack, “I know what to do.” He dug up a roll of duct tape from our garage, taped it to the passenger window, and started pulling with all his might. The window slowly moved down a fraction of an inch. “Get a credit card!” Pepper ran inside to get some old cards, and we shoved them in the tiny crack above the window. Sliding in a stack of four kept the window open maybe a quarter of an inch. Then, with the help of a metal coat hanger bent into a long straight rod, he fished for the keys. Unfortunately they were in the center console, visible but out of reach. Even if he could hook the keys, I pointed out, he couldn’t pull them through the window– it wouldn’t open any further. He and I spent some time poking at the power door lock with the hanger, but it was too flimsy to push the button hard enough to unlock the car.

By now it was 11pm but we kept at it.

Finally I had an idea: use a metal yardstick to pry open the inside door handle. It was tricky navigating it through the window, but I managed to slide it into place, pop the handle, and open the door. Hooray!

Victoriously, Zack posed with some of his tools.

All told, we probably spent close to two hours working on this. I’m convinced Zack would’ve spent all night. He was absolutely determined to make this happen (he fancies himself an amateur lockpick, although those skills didn’t really come in handy here).

And I’m pretty sure that tomorrow Kyra is going to get a duplicate key made.

It’s time for more family to visit! We last saw Tara and her clan about a month ago on our way north, but they wanted to enjoy a few summer days in Montana. A trip to Glacier? Of course.

The weather was cloudy, which made for some interesting views. In the shot above, you can see a fog bank rolling across the mountain ridge in the center and cascading down the rock face. It was really cool to see.

The weather improved within a day, and we were able to hike Holland Falls. As usual it was beautiful.

Notice Zack with us. He wasn’t working this week, and Emi (to his left) is his favorite cousin, so he came up to hang with her and the family. To his surprise, he was quickly adopted as a favorite uncle to little Millie and SJ. They loved climbing on him, tickling him, and showing him every little toy. He was a good sport about all of it.

Board games? Check. We played many rounds of Secret Hitler with all the predictable accusations and vehement denials. What a riot.

Hannah (at the left end of the table) fit in great with the family, although at times I think she wondered what kind of craziness she’d been pulled into. She’s practically family anyway.

The cherries in our orchard are a little short of fully ripe, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pick them and enjoy a bit of tart flavor. The kids loved the opportunity to grab fistfuls of them from the trees, which were heavily laden this season.

We’ve been having trouble with some gophers digging tunnels near the house, so Trent– the Mighty Hunter– grabbed our BB rifle and went on the prowl.

He turned out to be a crack shot with the rifle, and at least one gopher won’t be bothering us any more.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind with all our visitors, but we love each group and have a good time with all of them.

The day the Merrills left was the day the Roberts showed up. We felt a little like an Airbnb as we washed sheets and towels and cleaned up the Party House for a few hours between guests. It’s tough being popular, hah! Brandon and Kayla are our nephew and niece, and they’d made plans to visit us during our reunion back in February. This will be their first trip to Montana and we wanted it to be a good one.

Lily became my little buddy two years ago when we hung out in Wyoming. She was excited to see me and always wanted to play another game of hide-and-go-seek or whatever.

Mason was born the same day as Ollie, and he loves his Aunt Kyra.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that they wanted to visit Glacier. We headed north and had a great day. There wasn’t as much hiking as we normally do, because the kids are pretty young, but we spent hours on the beach at Lake McDonald. The water was quiet and still. I taught all of them how to skip rocks– it’s always surprising to me how many people don’t know how to skip rocks! Here’s Brandon working on his technique:

They’re such a cute family.

The next day was spent on Flathead Lake, and Lily loved riding on the jet skis. As most kids do, she asked if she could drive, and I gave her the controls and let her go for it. She started out slowly but before you knew it, we were roaring around at 30mph.

Mason didn’t like riding the jet ski nearly as much as he liked riding in the tube behind the jet ski. He spent a lot of time laughing and shouting as he bounced across the little waves.

Our time together was brief, but we enjoyed every minute of it. Brandon and Kayla had such a good time that– with the insistence of their kids– they’ve already booked next summer’s visit.

This may only be our fifth summer in Montana, but already we have multiple friends making repeat visits. The Merrills were last here in 2021 and we were excited to see them again. It’s the busiest weekend of the summer, and often it’s accompanied by great weather. We started with a few hikes in Glacier. Virginia Falls is always a hit.

On the trail up and back to the falls, there are several other waterfalls. I dared the kids to jump in the river, which is still glacially cold– I’d be surprised if the water temperature is much above 40 degrees. Naturally they did, which meant I had to as well. Jordyn required a bit of convincing from the group, but she finally took the plunge. It was so cold.

Once we’d done that, though, it was no big deal to jump off the bridge at St Mary Falls. Here are Nate and Matthew mid-jump:

I prefer a running jump off the cliff (not visible in the shot above). Regardless of how you get there, the water shocks you when you hit it. A few years ago I’d jump here with various friends (mostly their kids) and only saw a handful of other people ever do it. This time there was a crowd of at least twenty teenagers on the bridge, all taking turns. Apparently it’s become A Thing.

As the day wound down, we relaxed for a while on the shores of Lake McDonald.

July 4 was a big day, and we celebrated by going to the annual Bigfork parade. It’s always a bit comical because local businesses drive the parade route, advertising their services. A few politicians always make an appearance. We were just there for the candy everyone throws.

After the parade, I hatched a plan to be in the parade next summer. The kids agreed to join me, so we already have plans for their 2026 visit over the July 4 holiday.

The fireworks in Polson were fun, although the smell of distant gunpowder mixed with the smell of nearby marijuana. Hmm.

The weather turned a little wet, but that didn’t stop us from having a barbecue.

We had a blast playing board games and card games. This was a rousing game of Pit, which of course escalated into a lot of shouting.

We love the Merrills. I’ve known their three youngest kids since they were born, and we’ve shared a lot of adventures. In a year we’ll see them again in the parade. Happy Fourth!

We left El Centro a month ago, and said goodbye to many friends. Woody, my lunch buddy and photography companion, decided it had been too long, so he and his wife Marilyn arranged a trip to visit us. They traded the 110-degree weather in southern California for the beautiful budding summer days of northern Montana. It was awesome to see them again so soon, and we showed them all the sights. We started with Flathead Lake:

Naturally we headed to Glacier, where they oohed and ahhed as we climbed Going-to-the-Sun Road up to Logan Pass. I love this shot of me and Woody exercising our cameras:

We toured downtown Bigfork and saw– you guessed it– the Big Fork.

They asked about the Miracle of America Museum down in Polson. In six years living here, we’d never visited it, so we piled into the car and gave it a go. I feel like it should be called the Miracle of Some Guy’s Rusted-out Junk, but I’m a bit cynical. Woody (a historian) enjoyed the historic vehicles and displays.

Marilyn is a retired English teacher and plays Scrabble online every day. She and I had played a couple games back in California, so I brought out my board.

She looks like she’s struggling with a word here, but the truth is she absolutely crushed me. She has lots of practice (I haven’t played in years) and knows all those unusual words that are useful in the game but never used in actual spoken English.

All in all, it was a grand time and we’re looking forward to getting together again soon… likely in the winter, when we’ll trade twenty-below temperatures here for seventy and sunny there.

A few days after returning from our mission, both Pepper and I were called to new positions in our ward. I’m a clerk, which means I’m responsible for exciting things like finances and recordkeeping. I was given a key to the church office, and went in to scope it out. I found this shelf of ancient tomes:

Wow. A book about MS-DOS! That pre-dates Windows. And WordPerfect? My favorite word processor, dating back to the mid-1990s. These are the manuals we’re keeping in the office. It’s funny not only because these books are for software that’s thirty years old and long gone, but because other people in the church (previous clerks, ahem) are afraid to throw them away. “But we might need it!” they cry. You’d hate to get rid of something and then find that you need it, right?

Well, I think these will be safe to toss. I guess it’s time for the new clerk to do some cleaning…

We’ve only been home for a few weeks, and it’s already time to start entertaining guests. Our friends the Gundersons asked to stop in on their way to Canada. We saw them in 2022 and again in 2023, and apparently the kids were bummed they couldn’t visit in 2024 while we were gone. It’s nice to be missed! We even had bonus visitors: Cindy’s cousin, and a friend of Rhys.

So of course we were thrilled to see them. The jet skis are a perennial favorite.

As is tradition, we also had dinner at Burgertown.

Fortunately their family enjoys board games, and Skull King is always good for a laugh.

Plans are already in the works for their 2026 visit. We love having friends who love visiting us.

As we were in the final few weeks of our mission, we visited Camp Wildwood in north San Diego. The camp is for church and family events, and has a whole host of entertaining stuff: soccer fields, pool, archery range, zipline, mess hall, and so on. A handful of senior missionaries manage the camp, supervising the stations and keeping everything running smoothly. Unfortunately one couple had to return home early, so they’re short-handed and desperately looking for help.

Pepper’s brother Randy, and his wife Nancy, recently retired and have been talking about serving a mission “someday”. Well, after hearing about the camp’s plight, Pepper called Randy and explained the situation. Not only would they be a ton of fun hosting youth and families, but Randy is a mechanic and incredibly good at fixing and maintaining things like the camp (sprinkler systems, pool plumbing, buildings, ATVs, yada yada). They’re perfect for this assignment!

After a couple days considering it, Randy and Nancy compiled their mission papers and sent them in. Within just a few weeks they’d been accepted, trained, and were on their way to San Diego! Interestingly, we finished our mission and headed home the week before they arrived. We didn’t overlap at all, but today we received this photo of them at the camp:

Yep, they’re official with their nametags. And this is the first time in the thirty years I’ve known Randy that he doesn’t have facial hair (full-time missionaries are expected to be clean-shaven).

They’re having a grand time, and it’s cool to chat with them about the people we both know from the mission.

At tonight’s board game session, Kyle brought his massive “big box” version of Terraforming Mars and he, Sonya, and I played for a couple hours. This game is quite impressive, with 3D-printed board pieces, a big rubber playmat, real metal pieces, sleeved cards, and on and on.

It was a lot of fun, and I managed to eke out a victory. Our Thursday-night gaming is awesome.

Sidenote: a few weeks after this post, Kyle passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. I’ll miss him.

Ahh, our driveway. It’s what allows us to have a magnificent view of Flathead Lake. And it’s one of the most infuriating things about our house. There are many stories here in my blog about the problems it’s caused. Now that winter is definitely over, once again we have a layer of fine gravel on the entire driveway– the result of sanding it during the winter months to keep it passable for Kyra and Hannah while they lived here.

I’d resigned myself to sweeping it again, which is a tedious two-day chore. But Hannah suggested I get a leaf blower. Hmm. If it’s powerful enough, it’ll just blow the little rocks out of the way. Since raking the pine needles every fall is another tedious chore, I figured I’d see what a leaf blower would do. I picked up a Husky electric model and went to work.

Sure enough, the gravel wiggled and danced and then slid right off the asphalt! It was still a slow job, but I was finished in two hours instead of two days, and didn’t have to push a broom a thousand times. The end result looks pretty nice.

I’m interested to see how it does against the pine needles. But at least my spring driveway cleanup won’t be as bad any more…