A Month in Montana

In late January, Tuff and I visited Minnesota for a few days. We also got the chance to hang out with my friend Rachel and little sister Cydney at her college, North Dakota State University. We took her and a friend to eat Thai food for their first time.


Tuff and I hit the road the next day from Fargo. It was on his birthday! We made it to Colstrip, Montana that night and spent the next week and a few days with his family. One of the Sundays there, we spoke at his parent's church for the opening of service.

While in Colstrip we also got a tour of the coal mine where a lot of Tuff's family work including Tuff's dad and cousin Dale, who took us on the tour.


Tuff got to blast some coal with the crew.



Below Tuff is with his niece Kaydee and in the second picture his niece Amara.


The braids from Mexico are out!


Since the first week of February we have been in Billings, MT staying with Tuff's cousin Donnie and wife Kassia. Below Tuff and Donnie are in their Sunday best.


Tuff's Griz teammate and roommate Kevin was in town on business with his wife, so we got to hang out with him. He came to a church service in Crow Agency with us and got to see some of Tuff's old stomping grounds.

Tuff spoke to several schools last week and will speak to more this week. His message is on self-discipline, hard work, and sacrifice to become successful in dreams and aspirations. He also tells the importance of having dreams and setting goals. We are enjoying the time on the road.

Huntley Project


Billings West Football


Bitter Root Elementary
(Tuff with his nieces Emma and Megan)



On a side note, Tuff and I purchased Five Finger Shoes. They are mainly for him but he thought it would be fun for me to use them too. We work out in them and they strengthen our feet and ankles. Tuff was inspired by his teammate Troy, who trained barefooted in the off-season but switched to the Five Fingers. I can vouch that they are working because after the first work-out with the Five Fingers shoes my foot cramped the instant I removed them, for two straight minutes.


We do not have internet all the time so my blogging is a little more difficult. Until next time.

On the Road Again

Tuff and I are on the road westward since the Steelers' season is over. Our trip started with a visit to Tuff's cousin Brad and family in Rochester, Michigan. We dined on really delicious pizza and enjoyed catching up. Then we traveled through a horrific winter snow storm January 7th from Michigan to just north of Milwaukee. Luckily we were in our pickup because a few times we had to take the ditch and the pickup had no problem getting back out. We ended up scratch free and visited Tuff's friend Jake and wife Liz. The next morning we drove to Hugo, Minnesota to see my friend Krista and her fiance Brad. Saturday morning, Brad took Tuff on his first ice fishing outing. It was 14 below zero and Tuff loved it.

Before the sun came up they chose the location. Below Brad is using an auger to cut a hole for fishing.


Tuff with his first ice fishing catch!

Neighboring ice homes.


Their ice tent.


Tuff inside the ice fishing tent.


The same day Tuff went ice fishing we left for a weeks vacation to Mazatlan Mexico. My friend Jake drove us to the airport. But before we left we needed our luggage from our truck bed only to find out our tailgate would not open. Tuff and Jake figured out how to open the truck bed after about an hour of tinkering and saved the day.

The weather was perfect and Tuff was happy to relax. Around the pool area, iguanas roamed about. The iguana in the picture below walked right underneath our lounge chairs.


We watched the sun set almost every evening.


Our Corona advertisement.


We took a city tour and they dropped us off at a few stores around town; many of them full of trinkets.


One of the first nights there we took the bus into town and ate at a fun restaurant called Margaritas.


The beach vendors sold all sorts of goods, including the island wood sculptures shown below.


Sometime midweek we took sailing adventure to an island. Once there Tuff went snorkeling and got stung by a small jelly fish. He is ok. The sting only lasted half a day.


The picture below is from the island we sailed to looking back toward Mazatlan.


While sailing we sailed by Sea Lion Rock. There were a lot of boats gathered around the rock to look at the barking seals.


We met some very nice Minnesotans while sailing and they invited us to go marlin fishing with them the following morning. The deep sea fishing was about 30 miles off the coast and I got sea sick but still was able to experience the fishing. On the journey to the fishing spot and back we saw whales, sea turtles, mahi mahi and other jumping fish. The boat ran five different baited lines out in the water and trolled around until something finally bit. Tuff took the pole first and was so lucky because it was a marlin. About 20 minutes later the crew hooked his fish and they posed for a picture.


After we got back to shore, they hung Tuff's catch for a photo shoot. They wrote with chalk on the side of the marlin the length, weight and date. 99 pounds and eight foot five inches long. I think that is about average size for a marlin but definitely Tuff's biggest catch to date.


The last day in Mexico Tuff got his hair braided.



Here Tuff is feeding a pigeon but its a nice shot of his braids.

We returned to Minneapolis late Saturday night and Jake picked us up. The next day we drove to Princeton to visit my brother and his family and watch the Vikings play versus the Cowboys. Then we drove a little further north to Staples to visit family and friends. So far so good on our road trip. Until next time...

New Year and New Contract

My older sister Dana came to visit us December 26th through 30th. The weather was snowy, but not as snowy as Minnesota was getting at the time. She had to travel through some seriously adverse conditions to get to the airport, but the flights were on time! One of Minnesota's cities, Duluth, accumulated 24 inches of snow over the weekend.

While Dana was here in Pittsburgh we went to the last Steelers home game versus the Ravens, ate many fine meals, including Pittsburgh's famous Primanti Bros., rode the Incline to the top of Mt. Washington, bowled, went to a comedy club, saw a movie, and much more.

We rode to the top of the incline at night so the pictures are a little blurry but below is Dana and Tuff standing at the top with Pittsburgh in the background.


Tuff wanted to pose with the Incline operator.


On our ride down. It was really cold and the Incline cars do not have heaters.


Dana just couldn't help herself with all the Steelers gear and had to try on the old helmet look.


Below we are seated at a booth at Hyde Park Steak House near the stadium. It was packed with Steelers fans right after the game.


Pictured below is the famous Primanti Bros. sandwich. They stuff the sandwich with coleslaw and french fries, and your choice of meat. There are now several shops around Pittsburgh and its suburbs but we visited its original shop located in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, founded in 1933.



Tuff posed next to a mural painting inside the shop of several famous Pittsburgh people, including his teammate Troy Polamalu.


Most of you know the Steeler's season ended yesterday. What a roller coaster season. Tuff had a team meeting today and afterward the GM talked with Tuff and asked him to sign a one year contract. They would like Tuff to come back and compete for a roster spot next season.

As usual, the one year contract does not mean that Tuff is guaranteed another year with the Steelers. It just means that the Steelers have his rights until they release him, which can be before the contract is up; it could be any day really. So for now we will plan on starting off-season training in Pittsburgh mid March.

Other exciting news is that my brother Derek and sister-in-law Marianne found out the genders of their twins due in May. They are both boys and identical twins. Derek says that Soren (their one-year-old son) needed brothers. Marianne disagrees! Derek also says that they have 3/5 a hoop team and half a golf team now with the news of two more boys. He coaches both these sports.