Month: April 2024

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.