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A few days ago it felt like winter was behind us, and the flowers were beginning to blossom. But today we woke up to this:

The snow had come down overnight, and although it doesn’t look like much on the ground (where it had already melted a bit), there was probably two inches on other cold surfaces. We took a walk down the driveway and enjoyed the crisp wintry (?) day.

I suspect it’ll be gone by the evening. For now, we’ll get a brief reminder of what April is like in Montana…

One of the things I’ll probably be doing a lot on the mission is wearing a suit.

I’m not really a fan of dressing up, and much prefer being barefoot (or wearing sandals, if I’m out in public) with shorts or jeans and a t-shirt. But missionaries are a bit more formal, and since Pepper and I will be teaching church classes almost every day, we decided it was probably time to update our wardrobe a bit. My suit dates back about fifteen years, and I have a “backup” suit that Mom and Dad bought me in high school (yes, it still fits).

She went out with the hijas, and they spent something like four hours in thrift shops and various clothing stores around town. I had my weekly game with the Mahjongg Mafia, followed by board games and pizza at Rosa’s, and then hit a few stores myself. Since I’m not really very knowledgeable about what looks good, I texted a few photos to the ladies to get their opinion.

Despite my facial expressions and bare feet, they said they loved the suit. So now I have a third one. Hopefully I’ll be as stylish as my wife as we serve!

Although most of the yard is still brown, and the trees don’t yet have leaves, there are a few bold flowers who’ve decided to brave the cool spring days.

The bees are happy to see them as well.

For some reason, daffodils are scattered around the area, including off in the forest. I’m not sure what these little pink ladies are, but they’re pretty.

Maybe the snow is finally behind us…?

Kyra’s best friend Hannah has been a part of our lives for over two decades. She’s pretty much our second daughter. Now, as Pepper and I are preparing to head out on a mission, we worked out a plan for the two of them to house-sit for us. It’ll be a year in Montana for them to have adventures together. Hannah showed up a few days ago, and we’ve been having fun together. We stopped to see the sunset over Flathead Lake on our way back from some pizza at Rosa’s, and the girls simply had to pose.

Pepper and I didn’t want to miss out, although the sunset isn’t really visible behind us…

We’re excited to hang out with our two daughters for the next few weeks!

Our nephew Julian (aka Julio, although I’m pretty sure I’m the only person on the planet who calls him that) is moving from Seattle to Austin. He asked if he could swing by our house “on his way”, even though we’re very much not on his way. Still, we enjoy having him visit, so we set it up.

On the drive here, he hit a decent bump at highway speed and messed up his shocks and steering. His little Toyota Matrix was heavily laden with everything he was moving– including not only clothes, bikes, computers, and kitchenware, but his entire couch. All told, it was probably hundreds of pounds more than the car was really made to handle, and smashing into a bump didn’t end well. He was able to limp to Polson, driving slowly, and drop off the car at an auto shop. Since it was the weekend, we’d have to wait to hear what was wrong and how it could be fixed. In the meantime, we might as well have some fun, right?

Julian was great about cooking and working alongside us. I thought it was funny to see him and Kyra with their matching evergreen shirts.

For a few days, the weather was superb. We sat in the courtyard in shorts and caught some sun.

We even played some board games outside, basking in the warm spring day. Here Julian carefully considers how to get his little people to the island, avoiding the sea monsters chasing him:

The games continued after dark, when we fought for control of Tokyo…

… and also played Dicee and Skull King. Julian taught us Caravan, which is a cool two-player card game in which he trounced me every time (Kyra had better luck against him). We played Deuces Wild, which he introduced to us years ago, but apparently we misunderstood some of the rules, and we’ve changed a few rules to make the game more balanced and interesting… so we renamed “our” version to Twos Are Special.

After a few days of goofing off, we heard about the car. Apparently the shocks had been messed up pretty badly and needed to be replaced. Everything else appeared to be in order. To Julian, that was good news because he figured he could replace the shocks himself. We retrieved his car, he ordered the parts and scheduled them for overnight delivery, and again we waited.

When the parts showed up, we drove to Polson to pick them up. I borrowed a jack from a friend and Julian went to work.

It was good that his car had been loaded with everything he owned, because that included his impressive toolset. Before long there were car parts strewn throughout our garage.

It took two full days of work, but he succeeded in replacing the shocks. A test drive along the highway went well, so it was time to stuff his stuff back into the car. Again I was impressed by how much he was able to fit into such a small car. There wasn’t much room for anything else…

Although his visit turned out to be more work than anyone had expected, we still had a good time. We wish him well as he starts a new life in Austin.

Now that Kyra is living here (and will be for the next year), she’s settling in. Today I saw her relaxing on the couch… the grey couch. Wearing her grey snuggie. Wrapped in a grey blanket.

I suppose if you’re going to lounge around, you might as well be color-coordinated about it.

For a few years now, Pepper and I have been planning to serve a mission for the church. These so-called “senior” missions are quite different than the ones the younger people serve. We’re so proud of all three of our kids for spending 18 to 24 months of their young lives sacrificing their time in the service of God, and I wanted to do something similar.

Well, we finally got organized and submitted our application in mid-February. Typically it takes a couple of weeks to receive an assignment, and then typically you head out “into the field” a month or so after that. The weeks went by, and we didn’t receive anything. Granted, our church has something like seventy thousand missionaries serving worldwide, which means every week there are around 1,400 either leaving or coming home. I’m sure it’s a complicated process. Still, I was impatient to go… or at least to know our assignment so we could plan.

The weeks continued with no word, but today we finally received our call. We coordinated a video chat with the kids so they could all watch us read it. In the olden days, mission calls were sent by mail, so you’d have this big envelope to open and a physical letter to read. Alex read his in 2015, and Kyra got hers in 2017. By the time Zack went on his mission in 2019, calls were sent electronically. It’s a little less exciting, but the end result is the same.

So I set up a camera to record a video of us opening our call, and it apparently only recorded a couple minutes before stopping– and that was well before we actually read the juicy parts. Here we are getting ready, looking at my computer monitor as we opened the web page:

Sadly we don’t have video of it, but when we got to the assignment we both smiled pretty wide. We’re going to serve in the San Diego Mission for a year, beginning in mid-May. To be more specific, we’ve been asked to work in the city of El Centro, California, which is about 120 miles due east of San Diego. It’s in the middle of the Imperial Valley, and less than ten miles from the Mexican border. We looked up the climate and were dismayed to learn that on average, it’s hotter than Phoenix… when we arrive in late May, temperatures will likely be above 100 degrees already!

But we’re going to be teaching and working with youth and young adults as part of the church’s religious education program, and we’ll also be serving in the community in whatever capacity we’re needed. We’re excited about the opportunity to dedicate a year of our not-so-young lives to a worthy cause.

Kyra moved to Montana today!

In preparation for our mission, we coordinated with her to house-sit while we’re gone for a year. Her best friend Hannah is going to move here as well, and the two of them will live rent-free (whee!) and take care of our home. So last night Kyra loaded all her stuff into her car, and this morning at about 3:30 she headed north.

Unfortunately she didn’t get very far. She hit a slick spot on the freeway, spun out, and backed into the concrete median at a pretty good speed. She called us– much to our surprise at 3:30– and we spent a few hours working out what to do. A tow truck moved her car to a body shop barely two miles away (benefits of a big city) and she waited at a nearby 24-hour McDonald’s (thanks again, big city) for the shop to open so she could figure out what they could do.

She told us the car didn’t look too bad, and maybe they could adjust the bumper a bit and she’d be on her way. Admittedly, it was dark and she was pretty flummoxed. Later, when it was light, she sent some photos of the carnage.

Hmm. I’m not sure they can simply “adjust” the bumper.

She ended up securing a rental car through State Farm– who was really fast and helpful– and with the incredible help of some of our friends in the area, transferred all her stuff to the rental car and drove north.

In the end, I’m pretty sure the car is toast, but she wasn’t hurt, and now she’s safely here and ready to spend a year in Big Sky Country.

Today I was at Rosa’s Pizza (as usual) and when I walked up to the counter to order my lunch, I noticed this.

After some head-scratching, I figured out my friend Kricket (with help from Pepper) had pulled this little prank. Well done, ladies, well done.

It’s been a while since Dirk (aka Nooch) and I have been together. We met up with the rest of the high-school gang last July, and we often chat via phone or video call, but hanging out together is always better. On a whim, he grabbed some airline tickets using his points, and we spent four days partying in the party house.

Of course there were a lot of board games. I taught him Utu, and after getting trounced in his first game, he figured out the strategy and did much better in subsequent games. Here he ponders a particularly epic map layout:

I also taught him Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, which he absolutely loved. Again, I trounced him in his first game, but he’s a quick learner and in the final two of our four games, he absolutely thrashed me.

We played a bunch of pool (he tended to win), ping pong (he almost always won), and a few other “filler” games. And between it all we chatted, watched movies, went to Rosa’s twice, and generally had a grand time reminiscing about the Good Old Days (of high school) and all the years in between. We’d break into song, or quote a movie, or scream “Acting!” in the spirit of Jon Lovitz’s classic SNL skit from sometime in the 80’s. Pepper wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but afterward she told me she can see why we’re still friends after almost forty years. We’re peas in a pod.

It was a great few days hanging out with my oldest and bestest friend. Here’s hoping it’s not too long before we do it again.