Missoula Missoula

Abram frequently wakes up with this hair.

He enjoys his bumbo at dinner time...

...for a few minutes, and then tries to get out!

(His eyes are a little watery because he's getting over yet another cold.)

Greetings from beautiful Missoula, Montana, land of the fishing-hunting-wrangler-cowboy-bison-grizzly talk (it’s all over the newspapers). Out of all the Montana cities we drove through on the way here, we like Missoula the best. The mountains are really pretty and we live close to the Clark Fork River (Louis & Clark). Sometime we’ll hike up the “M” on the mountain. The view is supposed to be really pretty.

We’re having issues getting our internet set up, so as soon as Ben got home today, I dashed over to the library. It’s amazing how disconnected from the world you feel without internet, especially in a new city! The road trip out here went very smoothly the first day. The second day, however, Abram was ready to be done with his car seat, not that I can blame him. But we’re grateful our car got us out here safely (after a few-hundred-dollar repair two days before our trip, haha…actually I’m not laughing). The first couple days here I felt a little homesick for Minneapolis! It was kind of a last minute decision to move, so when we actually arrived, it hit me that we were starting at square one again…not knowing anyone or anything (including what corked boots are, except that you can’t wear them inside gas stations).

We live upstairs in a hundred-year-old house that’s on the national historic registry, owned by an eighty-one-year-old woman (Tomme Lu (“Tommy Lou”)) who “feels like she’s eighteen” and has a ninety-five-year-old significant other (who are both on a first-name basis with much of the staff at the hospital where Ben works). Some of her ancestry were the first to settle in Missoula and lived in this house. She lives on the main floor and rents out a few different parts of the house mainly to students and professors (we’re close to the University of Montana). The “oldness” of the house has been a little interesting…but after some major dusting & cleaning and turning on the heat I feel more okay about living here for a few months (as long as it gets warmer!). I’ll try to post some pictures of the house soon. The neighborhood is beautiful—lots and big trees and sidewalks and well-kept yards, which has made walks with Abram enjoyable.

Abram’s new trick is rolling over. He did it for the first time the day before we moved! He’s becoming ever more active and curious…I think the poor thing gets tired of just seeing me every day! He gets excited when Ben comes home. The other day, Ben had a baseball cap on, which Abram apparently didn’t like—he wouldn’t stop crying until Ben took it off, and then he was fine!

Ben just started his residency here at Community Medical Center and enjoys the setting and his coworkers. Maybe he’ll get a chance to post about it on here sometime. Although we’re not huge ice cream lovers, we’ve taken a couple walks to a nearby ice cream shack, “The Big Dipper,” and Ben really likes the huckleberry flavor (I thought you’d like that, Alan). We’re excited for the upcoming long weekend when Ben will have work off…we’ll let you know if we see any grizzlies or buy corked boots.