Hello dear family and friends! This is our 35^th Messina family Christmas letter! So, let’s get to it!

We LOVE living in NW Montana!  We are about 25 minutes from Glacier National Park, Whitefish Ski Resort, Flathead Lake, and the nearest hockey rink. What more could you ask for? We love to travel but love coming home to this special place. We were able to share our beautiful home with several visitors this summer: Rich’s sister, Tammie; my brother, Craig and his family; the Methe family from Nebraska; some of our Joe’s former coworkers from the Olathe Fire Dept and their wives; and some dear friends from our Air Force days, the Masins and the Bakers. We had such a great time sharing our home with these folks. If you want to come visit, we’d love to have you! Give us a call and we’ll put you on our calendar.

Rich has had another stellar year. He continues to play hockey a couple of times a week and even joined the Colorado Warriors hockey team to play in a Disabled Veterans Hockey Tournament in Tampa last month. Rich plays poker a couple of nights a week and has participated in a few poker tournaments here and there as well. In the winter, he is snowboarding and skiing, and in the summer, hiking, floating, and kayaking are on the docket. Rich continues to work as a travel advisor with Cruise Planners, and I support him how I can in this business and a few other home businesses he runs. We’ve enclosed a business card for you or someone you know who would like to go on a trip somewhere fun. We both continue to volunteer at Bad Rock Volunteer Fire Department and Quick Response Unit. Rich went through Fire 1 Academy this spring and now plays a leadership role with our firefighters as a lieutenant.

Our Joe would have been 31 last month and married 5 years the month before that. It is hard to believe he has been gone for over 3 ½ years now. He is missed every single day. His trusty dog, Moose, joined him in heaven this year after an illness. If you saw the video of those two being reunited after Joe’s Middle East deployment in 2017, you can just imagine what it must have been like to have their souls together again. Michelle continues her government job, and I am sure she is thankful to start being paid again. She continues to crush it on the mats in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and showers love on her remaining dog, Jenna. Michelle seems to have caught the travel bug as well and has been to some wonderful spots. We are so proud of her and love her very much.

Tim has moved! This boy doesn’t do it halfway. He left his job with women’s basketball in San Diego and moved across THE ENTIRE COUNTRY to North Carolina to work with men’s basketball at Campbell University. He lives halfway between his job and Raleigh and seems to really enjoy working with this brand-new coaching staff. Tim is living alone for the first time ever and is taking advantage of the solitude after a long workday. We went to visit him during the week of Thanksgiving and loved getting to know his new area. We caught a game while we were there and will catch another one at Gonzaga later in the month. Tim is working hard, as usual, and we couldn’t be prouder of the professional coach and man he has become. He is further away from where we are but in a much better place professionally and personally. It is still surreal to see your kid on TV during basketball games. We are so proud of him and love him so much.

Lily is going to be 21 early next month!  I cannot wait to see the faces of the waitstaff in restaurants who still try to give her children’s menus when she is old enough to order a beer. She is halfway through her junior year in college at the Kansas City Art Institute where she is majoring in illustration and minoring in entrepreneurship. She and two classmates live in a duplex near the school. Lily seems to enjoy school but has been coming back to Montana between semesters. Over the summer, she worked at a zipline place nearby.  She and her friends continue to go to anime conventions across the Midwest and absolutely blow us away with their costumes. We enjoyed seeing her in NC over Thanksgiving and are looking forward to her arriving for Christmas break. We are so proud of how brave she has been to follow her dream of being an artist and we love her more than words can say.

I am busy mostly with my job as QRU (quick response unit) Captain at our volunteer fire department. I not only am an EMT who is on call 24/7 but am an instructor for First Aid, Stop the Bleed, and CPR at our fire department. I teach EMS classes to our emergency medical providers every month and coordinate at the county and state level each month as well. I help with behind-the-scenes business stuff for Rich and enjoy sharing our travel experiences with others. My health remains stable for now and I am running with that as we have some big international trips planned in 2026 – Australia/New Zealand, and Africa are calling my name. Until then, I spend my down time trying out new recipes, walking the area with Tallinn, reading, and participating in webinars online.

Speaking of travel…we were mostly homebodies this year as many people came to us!  We did some traveling for work…. a work cruise out of San Diego in January. I know, work cruise…. sounds rough. Well, try being in a classroom all day learning travel advisor stuff rather than sitting by the pool or enjoying fun activities on board. We did another work cruise to the Bahamas in October. Honestly, the jury is out on these work cruises for me. We did get released to enjoy the ports when we stopped, which was wonderful. We snorkeled with sea lions in the ocean and that was pretty darn cool. I really enjoy learning about other places, cultures and foods and we try to accomplish that wherever we go. We also took trips to Houston and Florida twice last year to visit our parents. Rich’s mom and my dad are in the end stages of dementia, so we try to visit when we can…and support our parents who are their caretakers. Rich’s brother had his retirement ceremony in late October in D.C., and we attended the festivities. We are sure proud of his military career. We look forward to seeing what is next for him.

Shameless plug – if you or someone you know want help planning a trip, contact us!  We are paid by the vendors, not the people we help, so there is no cost to them. We don’t just work with cruise lines but also with lots of land tours and all-inclusive resorts all over the world. Our parent company is very well known in the travel business and can help us get pretty good deals. Let us take over the minutia of travel planning so you can worry about what to pack. We can even advise you on that! We are not in the travel advisor business for the money. We literally just want to help people make their bucket list vacations come true. We have been blessed to have traveled the world, and we take notes as we go to help others.

Shameless plug #2…come visit us in Montana! We would love to have you come and spend time with us. Every time of year has its own beauty and things to do. Give us a call and we’ll pencil you into Rich and Cyndi’s free bed and breakfast!  The nearest airport to us is 15 minutes away – Glacier Park International Airport (FCA)…so it is very doable!

Our thoughts and prayers are with each one of you during this Christmas season and into 2026.  We would love to hear from you! Give us a call sometime so we can catch up!

Much love,

Rich & Cyndi Messina

Rich 402-659-2012  

Cyndi 402-686-0975   http://www.messinamusings.com

Crown Jewel Cruise Planners 406-215-2115    http://www.crownjewelcruiseplanners.com

Oh my word, it has been a long time since I posted anything on this site. Sorry about that. Life sometimes just takes a good hold on you and shakes you…and even in the moments of quiet, you want to just relish in the quiet and not do much. Christmas is just days away and it has really snuck up on me. I haven’t done any holiday baking, which I typically love to do. I have all the things and just can’t get myself to do it. I think part of it is that it is such a favorite thing of mine to do every year….to give my love through sweet treats to my family. But I have a husband who is not a huge fan of Christmas (every year it is a struggle over me spending too much and making too many sweets) and only one kiddo home this year. Something I have done every year…make treats to munch on during basketball games, football playoff games, and family board and card games, seems to be unwanted this year. Maybe it has been unwanted every year and I never noticed because I had blinders on. It just feels like another piece of my identity which I hold dear stripped away. Who would have made sure I made those treats? Joe. He loved them and would ask if something I made normally was missing. Tim is a health nut. Rich is trying to avoid sugar for his joint health. Lily is not a sweets girl. So I guess that leaves me, who loves sweets and making food for others. It is one of my love languages – cooking and baking for others. That is a hard role for me to give up, as it is who I am for decades. I guess I will just plod through this year without the kitchen smelling amazing, the Christmas music blaring. Tallinn and I will miss it.

The weather has been crazy here in Montana over the last month. We went away for a week to North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving week with Tim and Lily in Tim’s new area. We came home to almost 10 inches of snow. We worked hard to clear it all and then it started to rain. It rained for nearly 2 weeks and all the snow melted….including a lot of the snow measured in feet on the mountains. That results in avalanches and a snow run off that is usually reserved for the late spring. The Flathead River and many of the other rivers around us swelled and in places like Libby, Montana (not far from us) the rivers ripped away bridges and roads and started flooding towns. To add insult to injury, the winds came. When I say wind, I am talking about the strength of winds that uproot trees that are in ground saturated from melted snow and 2 weeks of rain. Trees snapped but many were just simply ripped from the ground, roots and all. Did this happen during the day? Oh no! We had three significant wind events in 4 days and two of the three were in the middle of the night. (of course it gets dark by around 4:30 p.m. here) Power outages were rampant and the number of 911 calls for downed lines and trees were great. The first night was the worst, but even though Rich and I were out with the fire department until the wee hours of the morning, it was a warmer wind and not too bad. The next winds that came through brought in a cold front, making being outside bone-chilling. We FINALLY got a dusting of snow last night. We are supposed to have a chance of snow every day this week. We may end up with a white Christmas after all. So all this crazy weather has made it NOT feel like Christmas. It just snuck up on me.

I do have my Christmas letters out and packages of gifts were mailed and delivered. All of the Christmas presents are wrapped and ready to put under the tree. Maybe I will put them under the tree today. The Christmas toy and grocery give away our fire department does for families who need a bit of help at Christmas time is done and dusted. That is a big job that takes up a lot of my waking time for about a week straight. Lily comes home right in the middle of that crazy time and has helped me for the last 3 years. Her willingness to be a part of this big project makes me so happy. Normally this event is a bit closer to Christmas, but this year we were a whole week prior, which was discombobulating for my internal event calendar. So everything snuck up on me.

Along the same theme, I belong to a VERY conservative Catholic Church. They do not put up any Christmas decorations until after the fourth Sunday of Advent Masses are over. They typically sing one hymn per Sunday Mass and none of them have been anything I know (they only sing very traditional old hymns). That has not helped the process of getting ready for Christmas. Yes, Advent is the season of waiting. And I have been! We have an Advent wreath at our home that we light with dinner. But going into an empty, non-decorated sanctuary has been odd for me this year. The first time we will all see it decorated with a wreath and trees will be on Christmas Eve. Another reason why Christmas has snuck up on me.

So if Christmas has snuck up on you as it did me, I hear ya, my peeps. I don’t know how it can sneak up on us when Christmas commercials start at the end of October and stores are filled with Christmas stuff in September. (oh yeah, I don’t typically watch TV and I don’t go shopping in brick and mortar shops for the most part). Whatever it is – whether your mind is just avoiding the whole holiday vibe because you know you are missing someone close to you, like I am – or because you have family who can’t be with you this year do to distance, work schedules, or just life in general (like I also do), give yourself some grace. Grab a hot cocoa and sit down and enjoy a moment by your tree, thinking about those who you are missing (in the realm or the next). Go for a walk in the cold, crisp air just get outside. That is my big thing that helps me. I think I am going to take my trusty sidekick for a walk right now. He and I both need it. Here’s to hoping you are able to have a Silent Night…a Holy Night…some time with people you love and who love you back. Christmas is a season, not a day. We have time, friends, if it snuck up on you as well. Love to you all!

Today I lost one of my dearest and closest friends. Her name was Emily Ryan and she lived in Omaha. I first met Emily at our church at St. Gerald in Ralston, Nebraska. She was a sign language interpreter and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She started teaching classes in sign language after Mass and Lily and I would go. It allowed me to brush up on my own sign language skills I started learning in high school and then later took in college. I remembered her excitement in meeting Lily, who was in maybe the 5th grade at that point. She was such a vivacious, happy, in-your-face person that at first I felt she was a bit much. But as I got to know her, I learned how incredibly genuine she was about what she said and felt. I remember laughing right out loud when I found out she sold candles for a living. Of course she did! She was a bright, shining light who just about blinded you!

When Lily went through her second year of confirmation class, she needed to pick a sponsor. She was still pretty painfully shy at that point and didn’t know who to choose. I suggested Emily and I remember Emily crying tears of joy when Lily asked her. Emily has three awesome adult kids but does not have any grandchildren. She said Lily was a bit old to be her grandchild, but she felt it was a solemn vow she made to help her through her confirmation tasks. She and Lily meal prepped at her house and brought food to serve Rich and me one night. It was a marvel to watch Lily with Emily. They complemented each other so well. Lily even went to go see her over her spring break her freshman year in college when she was in Omaha visiting friends.

I was diagnosed with stage IV cancer in October of 2019 and I was devastated. She was right there by my side allowing me to cry and grieve the future I thought I would never have. She took Lily out and about and away from our house while I was so sick and not feeling good. She made banana bread and soups and brought them over. Emily was the banana bread queen! I think she brought over a couple of mini loaves a week. I will never again eat banana bread without thinking of Emily Ryan. The picture below was when I was completely bald and Emily was trying to keep my spirits up after Mass one day with Lily.

Emily was diagnosed with cancer about 18 months after I was. We talked often and she was so very brave in her fight. We talked all the time about treatments and doctors and hospitals and surgeries. Before we knew it, she was done with treatment and having her port removed and going back to a somewhat normal life again.

Then I lost my Joe…and things got really dark in my life. Emily spent almost that whole day he died with me at our house in Omaha along with other friends of Joe’s. She rallied the troops of mutual friends at St. Gerald and soon everyone came bearing food and toilet paper. (yes, evidently that is a thing). Once again she allowed me to cry, and she cried along with me. She never waivered as a support system or a friend.

Then Emily’s cancer came back….right around the time I was moving to Montana. She knew it was going to be a tougher battle this time but never gave up hope that her God would save her. She and I would talk on the phone about a lot of the tough stuff….planning our own funerals, leaving our kids behind….all those things cancer patients think about but usually can’t even talk about with their spouses as they don’t want to upset them. When she started thinking about hospice, we put our heads together to get some questions for her to ask of the two agencies she was interested in. These topics are all so morbid sounding….but it was a gift of the living, to prepare for her death. We talked a lot about that this year. I told her once that I thought of her as one of my best friends and then I realized just how many “good friends” she had. She told me that she thought of me as her little sister, and called me Little Sis when we would text. It was the nicest compliment.

This morning, surrounded by her three kids she adored so much and prayed for daily, she stepped away from this earthly world and into her Savior’s loving arms. I have no doubt she is living it up with some of our mutual friends we have lost over the last couple of years: Becky, Duffy, and Lori, to name just a few. I can’t imagine my life without her in it…that goofy laugh as she handed me banana bread and a sunflower. I have a metal sunflower that greets me at my house in Montana every day that she gave me as we were leaving Omaha. Her faith amazed me. I will forever be changed for the better for knowing her….and I know many others feel the same. The world is a bit duller without her now, but wow, heaven gained a spitfire in Emily Ryan. Love you, my friend. I now have Joe to be by my side at fire calls to help guide me and Emily to be by my side to pray for me. She was a real gem at saying the rosary. Rest in peace, my Big Sis.

I can’t believe Lily has been a part of our family for 19 years legally as of today. She was so scared and skinny and yet brave as a 20 month old being handed over to an American family in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, PRC. We looked different, sounded different, and smelled different. Anything she was used to at her foster mom’s house was ripped away from her as she was thrust into a new environment. We were so very happy to adopt her….she was so very scared at all that was happening in her little life. We knew if we could get her through the first few days and weeks, it would work out. It did. Not to say there hasn’t been bumps along the way….but aren’t there with your biological kiddos as well?

Lily has grown into a wonderful young lady and I so enjoy spending time with her. My favorite thing is to go shopping with her….could even be just for groceries. We find something to talk about and I have her undivided attention. I also love being in the kitchen with her. She is a great cook and I always learn something new from her. I genuinely enjoy spending time with her and talking with her. The teen years were rough…because they were teen years and so much upheaval happened in her life. Her mom was diagnosed with stage IV cancer and COVID hit and she lost her oldest brother. That is A LOT to happen in a 3 year time span. Yet, she has come out of that time seasoned and wiser, with a sense of humor that amazes me. To say she completed our family like we didn’t know we needed it 19 years ago is a huge understatement. Love you, Lily! We are so glad you are a Messina!

One last tidbit of information : Lily collects bread clips! It seems like an odd thing to do, but she researches them all and has people who will save them for her. There is evidently an online group of people who do this and although I don’t see the fascination, I am intrigued that she does. She was thrilled when I asked for bread ties at our favorite brunch spot in Hungry Horse before she left. All of these photos are from this summer in Montana.

Summer has been glorious in Montana. We have not spent a whole summer here since we moved here, so we have enjoyed spending our days filled with many visitors and lots of fun outdoor activities.

We had Rich’s sister, Tammie, here from Florida for a few days. Then we had my brother and his family here from Houston for a week. We did a quick turn around and had some Air Force friends of Rich’s and their four kids here from Nebraska for several days. A few days after they left, we had two former coworkers of Joe’s from the Olathe Fire Department in Kansas and their wives here for a few days. That was very special for us. It was great to be able to talk about Joe freely and openly with people who knew and loved him. We then had two couples from our Air Force days from 20+ years ago who came to visit – we had a great time and it was like we were able to just pick up where we left off over 20 years ago without having to chase after little kids. We did some kayaking and hiking and touring of the Hungry Horse Dam. Then Tim came to visit. It was great to show him around the area during the warm summer months. He is usually here during skiing season, so it was great to show him around Glacier National Park and take him kayaking through the valley. He and Lily don’t often get to see other for more than a couple of days around Christmas at most, so they got to spend 5 days together, which was awesome. They are both now back in their respective states. School has started up for Lily for her junior year at Kansas City Art Institute, and Tim’s school year with the athletes has gotten underway at Campbell University. We also had the pleasure of having Michelle’s brother and sister-in-law over for dinner while they were visiting Glacier National Park. It was great to spend some time with them. They were very special to our Joe, and he was so happy to call them family. I think we single handedly got multiple people hooked on huckleberry ice cream or shakes.

We have enjoyed spending time at home this summer. Lots of time on the water…in the park…on the front porch and in the backyard. There are two flocks of about 2-3 dozen wild turkeys that meander through our yard and several deer families who stop to wait out the heat of the day in the shade of our trees. There were only 2 fawns this year and they are twins. I jokingly call them Thing 1 and Thing 2. They are almost inseparable and seem to get into mischief together. There have been three young bucks roaming the neighborhood together the last few weeks so there may be more fawns next year. Thing 1 and Thing 2 are just about to lose their spots. They are adorable but their mom just looks tired of chasing them around in the heat. LOL.

On top of this, we have been very busy at the fire department. Our call load has increased quite a bit this year for unknown reasons. There have been a lot of motor vehicle accidents this tourist season. Hopefully we’ll have a bit of a respite this fall before the snow flies and we have accidents for totally different reasons. We have 3 firefighters going to EMT school this fall and I am hoping in January, they will be licensed in the state and available to take some of the call load.

As for my health, I started taking a longer acting form of medication I have been taking in shot for about 4.5 years. I have never had an issue. I got injections every 4 weeks. Now it was lengthened to every 12 weeks. This was a huge boon for me. I would only have to be seen 4 times a year! The freedom! I got the shot for the first time on July 31st and in 48 hours had a rash on my forearms. 48 hours after that, hives on my legs. No itching, no pain…no other symptoms. Hoping that we can keep doing this. If this is the only reaction…I can handle it no problem. My throat starts closing up, that is another matter. So we shall see.

Now that I have caught you up with our summer…here’s some photos to go along with it. I almost forgot! We found a sunflower field! A few photos of sunflowers in the Flathead Valley as well.

I flew home on a Monday to already have my brother and his family at our house in Montana for over 24 hours. It has been a long time since I have lived with a 2 1/2 year old! I was oddly familiar with the almost 15 year old though! They were here for a week and hopefully enjoyed some of our Montana stomping grounds. We are about as far from Houston as can be. My brother said to me, “I take it you do enjoy living here….” Yes, I do! Craig had his birthday while he was here so we celebrated with him. He has been a volunteer firefighter for 30 years, so I made the cake to match that. We spent some time in Glacier National Park….they went white water rafting, and ziplining at the place Lily works. Craig said Lily is like a spider monkey on the zip line course. They left this past weekend to head home to Houston. The next visitors are a family of 6 arriving Saturday! We have a different family each week during the month of July staying with us. Here are those photos of time with Craig and his family….

My middle child always does it big. “Go big or go home” seems to be his life motto. For the most part, this is a fabulous way to go through life. However, when he moves….he MOVES. He moved from Lincoln, NE to Fort Collins, CO….then to Morgantown, WV…..then to Palo Alto, CA….then 7 hours south to San Diego…..now he is moving to a job in Buies Creek, NC. Yes, from San Diego, CA to about an hour south of Raleigh, NC. That is a long drive! I flew into San Diego on a Monday night late and then helped Tim load up a 5×8 ft U-Haul trailer with a couch, desk, chair, TV, and TV stand, clothes and a TON of professional books…throw in a few kitchen items and we were ready to take off around 3 p.m. that afternoon. Here is Tim leaving the house in San Diego….he didn’t know a majority of his roommates, he had no control over the A/C, which was normally not on. He was happy to have this state in his rear-view mirror!

So we started driving and immediately hit traffic. It is California, after all. When we stopped that first night, we were in Arizona…..Driving the next day in Arizona, we managed to find a 90 minute traffic jam in the middle of the desert. Sigh. It was hot….and painful.

The next day we drove through New Mexico….

We went through New Mexico and into Texas, which gave me a small heart attack because we ended up going through a border patrol area (we had been hugging the Mexican border for awhile and I thought we took a wrong turn.) I didn’t have a passport with me, so I was a bit nervous….but we flew right through and made it to a Texas iconic locale….Buccees.

We stayed the night in mid Texas and then the next day went through Lousiana….

Made it to Mississippi and stayed the night in Jackson. Tim was actually born in Columbus, MS and hadn’t been back since he was about 6 months old.

The next day we were on to Alabama….(which also had a Buccees)

Georgia…..

South Carolina…..

And then to North Carolina. We had really been pushing it with long days, and the time changes were not in our favor. We lost 3 hours driving across the country and two of them were in the same day. We stopped in Fayetteville, NC for our final night on the road….only about an hour from where Tim would be moving in the next day.

On Saturday morning, June 28th, we made it to the Retreat in Fuquay-Varina, NC. I know, crazy name for a city, right? It used to be two towns and in 1963, they combined to become one bigger town with a hyphenated name. There are actually still two downtowns and the place is amazing. It couldn’t be any different than California! Here are some photos from around town and Tim’s new place. He is actually living on his own for the first time ever. (I think he was pretty stoked about that.) The club house has a pool and a game room, and a really awesome gym. The folks there were really nice and even left a gift for Tim in the apartment. They knew he would be working at Campbell University and left him a koozy along with a welcome letter and knife set. The apartments around him are filled by little old ladies, and we never heard a peep from any of his neighbors. He did have several frogs hopping around outside his door when we left for dinner late one night. He has a small pond next to his building.

We got all of Tim’s stuff moved in by noon. We took the U-Haul and went and picked up a bed frame and mattress, and then to get a dresser. The dresser was identical to the one he left in CA. We did a BIG Walmart (1/2 mile away) run for all sorts of things for his kitchen and bathroom. He got some barstools for his island and a couple of tall shelving units for his books and some cubes for his notebooks in his room. He decided to separate his work and sleep area and put his desk outside his bedroom, which I thought was a great choice. Tim mentioned he had always had issues with internet connectivity at UCSD and at home in San Diego. He was pleasantly surprised at the high-speed internet in this little town in NC! He is living halfway between his work and Raleigh. His work – head sports performance coach for the men’s basketball team at a D1 private university called Campbell University in Buies Creek, NC, is 25 minutes south of Fuquay-Varina, and Raleigh is 25 minutes north. Perfect spot! I fell in love with Fuquay-Varina. They have a lot of taverns with good food nearby and all the other shops he might want.

Here are some photos of the university….Campbell University Fighting Camels. Colors: orange and black. The campus itself isn’t very big but there are a lot of big brick buildings and magnolia trees around the campus. Tim was treated to two special suprises: 95% of all his training facilities are in the same building! That is HUGE! With UCSD and Stanford, and even UNL and UWV, he had to travel often between buildings, racing to get there before the athletes did. This was a very nice change of pace. Also, he gets a parking pass…for free! He was shelling out upwards to $1500 a year to park at work in California. (another great rearview mirror thing, in my humble opinion). We went to visit and get a tour of the athletic facilities from the Assistant Athletic Director. He was super nice and so happy to have Tim on board. Tim introduced himself to the director of basketball and as soon as he said his name, the head men’s basketball coach came bounding out of his office to meet Tim in person. The whole interview process lasted for almost 4 weeks, so it has been an arduous process for everyone involved. The entire coaching staff is new, with the head coach being a former assistant coach to the reigning NCAA champions out of Florida. I got all the good vibes. He ended up doing HR meetings and observing the players practicing and lifting for the first few days. Over the holiday weekend, he contacted all the players via facetime to introduce himself and learn more about them and their goals on and off the courts. He started in earnest this past Monday and is loving it so far. He called tonight to say the whole team and coaching staff went out bowling tonight. He said he hadn’t bowled in about 15 years and was proud he didn’t need bumpers to break 100. Sounds like he is settling in and I am happy for him. Go humps!

We went into the park several times before the tourists invaded our area. Once tourist season begins, even the locals can’t go into the park without a timed entry permit. You are able to go into the park after 3 pm (but EVERYONE heads in around that time) or prior to 6 am. I was wanting to see the fields of wildflowers a friend who is a park ranger told us about. Here are some of the photos from late spring/early summer in Glacier National Park. The white flowers are bear grass.

This has been a Montana bucket list visit for me since I knew we were moving here. After we were done in Libby at the Montana Volunteer Firefighter’s Convention, we took a side trip on the way home to visit Kootenai Falls and the swinging bridge. It was really wonderful. The Libby Dam had been holding the water high due to sturgeon spawning in the area, which is precious to the Kootenai Tribe. The water was higher and raging over the falls. We had a lot of fun hiking around the area and crossing the bridge a few times. It didn’t bother me but there were some people who refused to even try it and stayed on the sidelines with their feet on terra firma.

Rich and I got the chance to accompany our assistant fire chief to the Montana Volunteer Firefighters Convention in Libby, MT in June. Libby was pretty convenient for us because it is a little less than 2 hours drive for us (and it is a beautiful drive). Libby is up in the very Northwest corner of the state, a stone’s throw from both Idaho and Canada. Libby is a firefighter’s town. There are spots all over town that honor their firefighters and their department. I was really impressed. It is not a big town – less than 5,000 people – and yet the entire town came together to host this event. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and did a quick tour of the Libby Dam. That was pretty interesting. There was a kickoff BBQ on Thursday night and we were in classes either in a classroom or out on the cars or trains for hands on training all day Friday and Saturday. Friday night was another BBQ in a different location where we were down by the Kootenai River where there were scenes from the mountains, to the river, to the fields for corn hole games. (Rich and Ricky did quite well.) We met some really great firefighters from all over the state, although most of them were from our side of the state. Montana is a huge state and it takes a full day to drive across it. We had over 130 firefighters there and they were all good people. I will never forget talking with these two guys who were talking about a fire on the highway they fought near them. A refrigerated truck caught fire….it was filled with mozzarella cheese! He said it was an odd and very messy call. Can you imagine walking through melted cheese in your bunker gear? At least it smelled good….at first. We ended out convention with a big banquet on Saturday night and it was really nice. There was a keynote speaker that had flown in by the name of Jason Redman, who had been a Navy Seal and basically been blown to bits on an overseas tour and what it took for him to recover from all of that. It was very inspirational. They also had a bell ceremony to honor the fallen VFF in MT over the last year. There was a bagpiper…which was pretty hard for me because of the memories of Joe’s celebration of life. All in all, we had a great time and met some really awesome people. I am so glad we got the opportunity to attend.

By the way, the bowling pin on the side of the old fire truck….I was on a quest to find out what it was used for. I had a lot of people guess, but finally found out the truth behind the bowling pin from one of the Libby firefighters. They would pull it off the stand that went through it and before the time of using hose spanner wrenches, would use it to smack against the hose fittings to either tighten or loosen the hose connections. Huh. Go figure.

There was a vendor there with a wall hanging I wanted to take a photo of. I told him how it was so much like my Joe’s army infantry sign, along with his firefighter side, and then his birthday being the 13th of Nov….it just spoke to me. He gave it to me! Rich came home and used it as a centerpiece for a firefighter shadow box for Joe.

Here are a few photos from fires around this time that Rich and I were tasked to. We have been keeping busy this summer, that’s for sure.