Butte

Sunday afternoon we went to Butte to run some errands and spent a little time driving around and seeing the town. Nobody in Montana seems very impressed with Butte (except for the one person we know from Butte). It used to be a booming mining town but now it's best known around here for a wild, out of control St. Patrick's day celebration.

Here are some pictures of Butte...

A mine overlooking the town...

 Raised sidewalk...

 Two old houses REALLY close together...

 Old buildings...

 Downtown...

 I love all the advertisements on the sides of buildings...

Butte is also the home of Montana Tech who is our biggest rivals at Montana Western.

be concerned

Concerned of what you ask??

That our neighbors are doing a DIY tree removal. You see that rope? There is a guy at one end with a chainsaw yelling to the two people holding the other end of the rope (one of whom I'm pretty sure was still in pajamas). 

Our only consolation? That no matter how badly this went wrong it was too far away to hit our house or car. We decided to stay outside just in case their insurance needed a statement from a neutral party but everything turned out ok.

Welcome to Sunday morning in Dillon!

filling in the blanks

So much going on and so little time. Here are the highlights of the past couple weeks:

• Camps, camps, camps! 12 days in Tahoe, 8 days in Georgia, 3 days in Boise, 3 days here at Western all with just 2 days of rest at home. 
• The day after our camp here at Western ended, team practice started for the fall
• We had about 35 campers at our camp here which was a GREAT turnout for our first year!
• 6 days of practice down and 3 more to go before our first tournament
• Game #1: August 18 vs. Rio Grande and Viterbo at Carroll College (and they let me be in charge?!)
• Practice is going really well although all the other stuff is exhausting without an assistant
• The summer school class that I'm teaching for MSU ends August 18 (yes, the day of our first match) and I CAN'T WAIT for it to be over (although I still have a lot of grading to do before then)
• The staff here at UMW is awesome and supportive and Mikel and I are very thankful to be here
• I had my first radio and tv interviews last week
• Mikel is golfing a TON and working even more at the golf course
• Weather in Dillon- highs in the 70s, lows in the 40s, slight breeze, scattered thunderstorms=HEAVEN (aka perfect golfing weather)
• One of my players is constantly saying "Wow, you think of everything!!"and it makes me laugh every time because really it's just a mix of logic and survival

Well, those are the highlights for now!

the team

Long overdue for an update but this is all I have tonight-- the team at practice this morning!

 And they insisted on taking a goofy one...

Things are going really well but are ridiculously busy!

camps camps camps

Cell phone documentation of the past couple weeks...

I have been working volleyball camps in Rome, GA and the Boise area for the past couple weeks so there hasn't been much to report (or more appropriately, much time to report anything) but here are a couple pictures from Georgia.

I was in town to work camp at Berry College where Mika works now (the other assistant from ISU). Mikel and I went down there together last year and had a blast.

The campus is absolutely gorgeous and top of the line. This is called Kilpatrick Commons. The brick building is kind of like a student union building with the dining hall, bookstore, ballrooms, common areas...

Also Kilpatrick Commons...

This is the lobby of the dorm where our campers were staying. Looks more like a fancy hotel than any dorms I lived in!

 And this is a picture of me beating Mika's 6 year old son at Candy Land. We played MULTIPLE games of both Candy Land and Sorry! while I was there...

Bryce (Mika's daughter) was taking the picture and insisted I make a face. I should really take some normal pictures every once in awhile.

Thankfully, I will be headed back to Dillon tonight and camp on our campus starts tomorrow! After that, my team reports and preseason gets started. I can't wait!