Saturday, October 25th, 2025

 Well, it's homecoming weekend at Iowa State, so of course I spent the day helping LaVonne with the alumni band.  Aaron also drove up from Oklahoma to help out.  Unfortunately, the Cyclones ended up losing to 11th-ranked BYU, 41-27.  

Iowa State started off the game with a bang, as they scored on the very first play, a 75-yard touchdown pass from Rocco Becht to Brett Eskildsen.  The Cyclones actually led at the end of the first quarter by a score of 17-7.  Sadly, it just went downhill from there, and the Cyclones made a number of costly mistakes.  

Today marks the first time that I have been in attendance for an ISU football game against BYU.  It also marks the 11th time that I have helped push LaVonne for a homecoming football game.  The other times were against Texas Tech in 2024, Kansas in 2023, West Virginia in 2022, Oklahoma State in 2021, Oklahoma State in 2019, Texas Tech in 2018, TCU in 2017, Kansas State in 2016, Texas in 2015, and Toledo in 2014.  

It was a pretty full day helping with the alumni band.  Aaron and LaVonne picked me up around 7:30 this morning.  We drove over to the Bergstrom practice facility, where the band had practice going over formations and rehearsing music for a couple of hours.  Then we went over to C.Y. Stephens Auditorium, where the alumni band had lunch and their annual meeting.  Around 1:25 the band marched into the stadium.  Finally I helped push LaVonne onto the field to perform the halftime show.  

Myself, LaVonne, and Aaron at the alumni band practice.

Thursday, October 16th, 2025

 Tonight Maxwell and I had some fun at Hilton Coliseum, where we watched the ISU volleyball team defeat West Virginia in four sets (14-25, 25-22, 25-20, and 25-21).  

I wasn't sure it was going to be Iowa State's day early on, as the Mountaineers dominated the first set.  Thankfully, the Cyclones were able to play well the rest of the way and came out on top.  It had been quite a while since I had taken Maxwell to a volleyball game, as the last time that I can remember taking him was back in 2019 against South Dakota.  This was the third time that I have seen a volleyball game against West Virginia (2017 and 2015 were the others).  

I do think Maxwell had fun tonight.  We enjoyed a Clone Cone before the game.  Then we were on the Jumbotron a number of times, as I submitted a couple of photos... and since not many other people did so they kept popping up over and over!  He was pretty happy each time. Then we were also on the live camera on the Jumbotron, and of course he was acting silly during that. At one point the score of the game was 6 to 7, and Maxwell started yelling 6-7!! The band heard him, and they even started doing the same thing!  Later we got to dance to Juicy Wiggle.  So yeah, it was a fun night.

Maxwell with a Clone cone!