bulldogs in the big city

As practice is quickly approaching I wanted to make sure I told all of our Riverside people that our team would be in Riverside soon, playing at a tournament at La Sierra University.

Our team will be playing at La Sierra on August 15th and 16th and is really excited about their first trip on a plane (and their first trip to California).

Below is our playing schedule:

August 15th
11:30am UMW vs. La Sierra University
4:30pm   UMW vs. San Diego Christian College

August 16th
12:30pm UMW vs. CSU San Marcos
3:00pm   UMW vs. Hope International University

It's going to be tough competition but it will be great to take the girls on a special trip!

And HERE is our complete schedule for anyone who is interested.

Digger/Dawg tournament

While I was at home, Mikel got the chance to play in the Digger/Dawg Golf Tournament. It's a competition between Montana Tech (their mascot is the Orediggers) and the University of Montana Western (Bulldogs).

Montana Tech are our biggest rivals and it's a joint fundraiser for the two athletic departments. The tournament was played at the golf course at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort in Anaconda. 

the longest hole Mikel had ever played

looking down the really long hole

the trophy for the tournament

the pools at the resort

We didn't win this year but Mikel had a lot of fun and was glad to get to play in a tournament instead of work!

fun in the sun

This past weekend, before Mikel had to go to work at the Member-Guest tournament at work, we went out to Sleepy Hollow (the par 3 golf course in Dillon).

We met our friends Ben and Melissa there and the three of them played while I drove the cart. I have never played before and being left-handed makes it challenging to just borrow clubs from someone and try it out. The left-handedness, combined with my competitiveness and resulting temper maybe just make it best for me to drive the cart and document the memories although I do have plans to try sometime soon.

It was a beautiful day to play ten holes. The course is technically a nine-hole course but they just recently added another to make ten!

Melissa, Mikel, and Ben on the green

Ben and Mikel

my view from the cart

A good course with good friends and good weather. I can't complain about my Saturday!

only in Dillon

I stopped in the middle of the street on my way back to my office (conveniently there was nobody coming) to take a picture of the beautiful sky.

Just one of the things I love about Dillon:

just another day in Big Sky Country

Jenny's wedding

Jenny's wedding (the real reason for my trip to California) was beautiful. It was perfectly Jenny down to every detail. Unfortunately, you'll have to trust me on this because I didn't manage to take a single picture. I was in the midst of wedding madness and didn't think to pull out a camera but the one thing I did take pictures of was the room we stayed in.

The wedding was in Idyllwild which is a little community in the San Jacinto Mountains outside of Riverside. The Creekstone Inn was the site of both the wedding and the reception and is also where the entire wedding party stayed.

All of the rooms are decorated in different themes and ours was Summer Camp. It had both a queen bed and a twin and had tons of detail in the decorations.

Here are some pictures of our room:

the queen bed with canoe nightstands

the twin bed 

on the nightstand by the twin bed

The whole place was really cute and a great place for the wedding!

CA trip

I am just settling back in to Dillon after a long visit in Riverside. It was great to be home and visit family and friends. The main reason for the trip was because Jenny got married. Jenny was the maid of honor in my wedding and I got to return the honor this time. She lives in Washington so we don't get to spend a lot of time together but it was wonderful to be there for her and her special day!

Because I was already going to be home, I extended the trip and got to spend some more time with my family and baby Blair.

Blair with her favorite aunt on the Bushman side

When I wasn't in Idyllwild for the wedding, I spent a lot of time in San Clemente at the beach. It was REALLY hot in Riverside which made for some really nice weather at the beach.

just beautiful

peace and quiet on the beach trail

watching surfers from the beach

it was a busy week at the beach

it doesn't get much better

It was a great trip to relax, visit with family and friends, be there as my best friend married an awesome guy, and soak up a little sun for what was pretty much the end of my summer.

From here, I have a couple more volleyball camps to work and then my team reports and starts practice August 1st!

only in Dillon

When I was growing up in California, there are some things about my life now that I could have never imagined. Moving to Pocatello was moving to a small town but I had NO IDEA what I was getting into. I went to Pocatello with the intention of going to ISU for 4 years and then moving back to California. What California girl thinks anything different?!

Obviously this didn't work out and everything that did was for the best. I love my life how it is now even though I never could have imagined it!

In this same thread, there are a lot of things that I couldn't have imagined:

• Living in a town with one stoplight
• Living in a town where, if you say "THE three way stop", everyone knows what you are talking about
• Working at a college that is about a quarter of the size of my high school
• Living next to the town mortician and his "shop" and that not being weird at all
• Seeing people wearing boots with spurs while eating a Dairy Queen
• Being at a dinner on campus and introducing myself to someone and having her say "oh, I know who you are, and I am quite familiar with your team".... I'm just hoping that was a good thing
• Living somewhere where your tan lines went away when it wasn't summertime 
• Living somewhere where a wave doesn't mean the person knows you- EVERYONE waves
• Living somewhere were anything above 90* weather is unheard of (this one isn't so bad actually)

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of for now. I am loving Dillon and think it was the perfect move for us at the time. Only in Dillon.