Snow in the Mountains

Well, as the Twin Cities have been enjoying some very warm weather lately the weather here in Missoula has been cooling off. The culmination of that happened yesterday when it rained here in the valley but snowed heavily above 5000ft and dusted in other places. Here's a shot of what the hills around our duplex looked like this morning with their powdered sugar on them!

We hear on the news that the passes got some good snow. So we'll look forward to another Saturday of skiing. Maybe it wil be as warm as last weekend! Last Saturday I got so warm out there skiing that I skied half the day in a tank top:

We've also been exploring the running routes from our duplex. We've found a great 3 1/2 mile circular route that runs along a creek in the woods for a while. It's faily flat compared to most of the routes around here. I only run to try to stay in shape, I would not say that I like it. Erik's a natural born runner so he usually runs a few more feet than I do because he's sometimes running back and forth while I'm plodding up a hill. (the mantra " I think I can" is actually pretty good to run up hill to). I'll try to add a couple pictures of our running trail in the woods as soon as the weather clears up a bit.

That's all for now from Missoula.

Pictures of life in Missoula

Thought I would try to post some pictures of our first week here in Missoula.

1. Erik by our cars outside the Super 8 in Big Timber off I-90 on the way to Missoula. Our last day of driving.

2. Our new pink place! (at least for the time being)

3. Happy Day Cross Country Skiing at Lolo Pass! I skied in my baseball cap and light liner gloves. It was about 65 that day.

4. Our Sunday hike to the "M" . We are about 600-700 feet above Missoula. The river you see is the Clark Fork River. The stadium is the Grizzly Football Stadium. (U of Montana)

5. A slightly blurry shot of 5 of the 7 deer that frequent the salt lick in the yard next to ours. It's been fun watching them even if they are the all to common white tail deer.

6. One last picture: I have to brag so here goes... We had 16 feet of boxes and furniture in our truck. It came on Tuesday and Erik had to go to work. So what did I do? Of course, I unloaded everything that I could carry, lift or wheel out with a two-wheeler. I know just call me SuperWoman! This is a picture of the inside of the truck about halfway through the unloading.

So now you've seen a little bit of Missoula through our eyes. Check back for more later!

The First Week

Here we are, our first week in Missoula, Montana. It's been a good one. We arrived last Thursday and got the keys to our rental home. We're situated in the Rattlesnake Canyon area. Close to town and close to wilderness. Just what we came here for. Since our truck wasn't coming until the following Tuesday we had to find some things to do in the meantime. We got our library cards right away so we could check out some books and have access to email. Also that first day we got our first parking ticket! The meter wasn't working correctly so we didn't have to pay the fine (only $2 anyway). On Friday we check out town a bit, checked email and went to Erik's work. They had a little happy hour after work so we got to meet alot of the people in his office and it was a nice way to break some of the ice before he started work on Monday. On Saturday we took off to Lolo Pass to go cross country skiing. They groom for skate and it was a beautiful day out in the 60's. I could have worn shorts and a t-shirt! They still had 5 ft of snow while in Missoula it has all melted. On Sunday we found a church to attend. It's called South Hills Evangelical Church or SHEC (pronounced like Shrek without the R). It reminded me of Woodland Hills. We'll keep checking out other churchs but I liked that one. Then we went to hike the "M". It's a trail right in the campus (University of Montana, Grizzlies) that leads up to a big concrete M on the side of the hill/mountain. It's a good steep hike. Then we drove around town a bit and went to a movie. Monday morning Erik went to work. Work is good. He's doing all that stuff that you do when you first start at a new job. He'll start working on some projects soon. On Tuesday our truck with all our stuff in it arrived at 5:30AM!!! Ugh! When Erik left for work I went to the rental place to get a two-wheeler and started schlepping boxes! By 11am I was half way done. Then by 1 pm I was done with everything I could do by myself! Yes, just call my Superwoman! Erik came home early and we got the rest out of the truck. So now we're really here! Felt a little more permanent after all the stuff arrived. Now I'm trying to tackle the mountain of boxes. I'll post some pictures soon! Check back often for updates. Hope you enjoyed my very first post!