Month: July 2025

I missed last year’s annual board game soiree with the Magnificent Seven, so I was excited for this year’s get-together. Dirk was hosting in Carthage, so in the spirit of these sorts of things it became known as Carthage-Con. It’s a long drive from Montana to Missouri, but I enjoy a good road trip so I loaded a stack of games into Nebula and headed east.

Aron couldn’t join us this year because his wife Deb is continuing her fight with cancer, but Omaha is right on my route so I dropped in for an evening. It was good to see them and chat for hours about her struggles, their family, and the perspective they’ve gained through this experience. Deb is in constant pain but always has a brilliant smile.

To my surprise and delight, Aron’s mom Nancy happened to be visiting on the very night I was there. I haven’t seen her since my late teens, and it was awesome to catch up a bit. The Magnificent Seven spent a lot of weekends at her house.

Once everyone arrived at Dirk’s house, we went to work. The games came out and we plowed through one after another. We delved into caverns and fed our dragons in a game of Wyrmspan:

We planned an overthrow of the Cuban government in the 1960s in Cuba Libre:

We collapsed quantum wavefunctions in the brilliant trick-taking game Cat in the Box:

We took submarines into the ocean depths in Endeavor Deep Sea:

We even explored the South Pacific as Polynesian tribes in Utu:

There were plenty more– these are just some of my photos. Between all of the planning and strategy, we joked and laughed, told stories and remembered good times. It’s always a treat to spend a long weekend with my best of friends.

What better way to end a nice summer day by lighting a fire in the courtyard and making s’mores?

It’s also the last day the kids will be visiting, so Ollie was allowed to stay up extra extra late. It was after 10pm when this picture was taken, and the sky still has a hint of sunset in it. What a great finish to an awesome week with the fam.

Apparently it’s a tradition when Kyra and Ollie get together that Ollie has his fingernails painted. Sure enough, he asked Auntie Kyra if she’d paint them, and after selecting a nice purple color, she went to work.

For a boy who’s normally full of energy and running or jumping everywhere, he’s surprisingly quiet and calm for this. After the first coat, I guess you have to put your hands in the magic box to cure the polish (or something).

He’s very happy with the finished result!

Everyone who visits in the summer wants to head out on the lake, and since that’s one of the reasons we moved here in the first place, we love the opportunity for time on the water. Ollie is older now and enjoys riding the jet skis. Here he is zipping across the water with Grandma:

We also pulled out the tube and he rode for a while with Alex (he wasn’t interested in riding alone). I’m not sure he’s having as much fun here.

Late July is probably the perfect time on the lake. Long hot sunny days, nice refreshingly cool water… what’s not to like?

With all the kids here for a week, I’m looking forward to a lot of good times. Today we didn’t have anything big planned, so we were sitting around chatting about what to do. Suddenly Zack said “let’s design a board game.” It’s been about a year and a half since I last worked on designing a new board game, so I was excited to come up with something new.

Alex joined in, and the three of us talked about what the game might be. It was fun to riff on themes and ideas. Would it be a card game? Would it have resource management? Would it be serious or light-hearted, modern or historic, cooperative or competitive?

Eventually we landed on the idea of a game set in the 1700s where everyone controls a port and a fleet of trading ships. With little more than an outline, we set to work on creating player mats and pieces, decks of cards, and figuring out the resources and economy. I brought out index cards, colored pens, and my trusty game development kit.

It ended up taking a good portion of the day as we played a few turns, talked about what worked and what didn’t, updated the cards and pieces, and played more turns. Almost all of my game development has been a solo effort (with the help of friends and family after the initial game has been designed), so it was a nice change to have Alex and Zack help with the initial ideas.

We agreed to call the game Harbormaster, and after they head home I’l spend some time putting together a more formal printed design. Off we go!

We continue to have problems with gophers tunnelling through our yard and digging up plants. Although I hate to do it, we have to kill them or at least drive them off. A couple weeks ago Trent showed us that a BB gun is an effective deterrent, and today Alex decided to try his hand at it. Here he is on the prowl.

He bagged a trophy (is that correct hunting terminology?) and now we have one fewer gopher to worry about.

We threw a little surprise birthday party for Kyra today. She was at work all day (kind of a bummer on your birthday) so we spent some time making a big banner, picking up some party hats and confetti, and preparing a special steak dinner. When she came home we jumped out, yelled surprise, and blew up the confetti. Kaitlyn is actually throwing hers, because the canister didn’t work…

It was a good time. Happy 27th to my girl!

Last year, while we were away on our mission and Kyra and Hannah were housesitting, they had big plans to pick and sell our cherry crop. They’d come up with a name and logo for their little business, and were excited for the harvest and all the fun they’d have (and money they’d make). Sadly, a late frost killed all the blossoms, and the orchard didn’t produce any fruit. It was a huge problem for the entire Flathead Valley– many people have massive cherry orchards and rely on the income. Kyra and Hannah were disappointed.

Fast forward to this summer, when the harvest was incredible. Throughout the Valley, every cherry tree was weighed down by fruit. I’ve never seen such a bumper crop.

Every branch had huge clumps of cherries. Picking them was so easy: you’d just wrap your hand around the clump (if your hand was big enough!) and pull.

As is tradition, I wanted to deliver our delicious fruit to friends. I spent about an hour picking a single tree, and ended up with at least fifty pounds of cherries! I cleaned and bagged them, threw everything into a cooler, and headed out.

As usual, it was a blast to surprise people on their doorsteps with a bag of fresh-picked cherries. Nearly everyone invited me in for a chat. My twenty-some deliveries took me almost ten hours! Worth it.

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.