Tyler and Emily in PNG

Winter has arrived in Montana. A few inches of snow fell over the past weekend then the temps dropped to 0 degrees…brrrrrrr for our standards of the South Pacific. As the man of the house, I thought it would be a great idea to shovel the small parking area in front of the garage. It did not take but a few shovel loads of snow to realize I really do not miss this. I would rather trade the four letter word of ‘snow’ for ‘sand’. Anyway else, agree?

Last Monday, I did not post a blog because Emily and I were finishing our 1935 mile drive from Indiana to Montana. We pretty much covered the mid-section of the continental USA plus Alaska and soon Hawaii during our time in the USA. (A nice photo illustration to help everyone who is a visual learner like myself.) Our last trip is about to commence tomorrow as we leave for eastern MT to visit Emily’s grandfather in Glendive then a short side trip to North Dakota for lunch with a ministry partner. Add another 900 miles to our yearly total.

One of our highlights from the past 30 days has been we have been able to visit with my 94 year old strong grandmother. She just rolled over into her 94th year last week. She was able to join us around the table at Thanksgiving and we will able to visit her at her home in Huntington, IN as well. We even jumped at the chance to sit with her at her favorite event, watching Huntington College men’s basketball. She is a great inspiration and testimony to both Emily and I. My grandparents were missionaries to west Africa for many years and my grandfather was the college president for 16 years. It is always special for me to enjoy the energy, excitement, and compassion my grandmother has.

My brother-in-law, Charles often likes to be coordinates, 0’ 0’ 0’ or home. Emily and I are both feeling closer to being ‘home.’ It is nice to know our travels and commitments on this side of the world are nearing the end. We are both eager to return to coordinates, 0’ 0’ 0’.

I will end with a funny photo that I captured while testing out my new webcam on my laptop. Emily and I were with Hannah and Logan (two of our favorite nieces and nephews) for a photo shoot with Uncle Tyler.