Sunday, November 17th, 2013

WOW!  I just got back from seeing an amazing basketball game at Hilton Coliseum.  I would say that was definitely my favorite basketball game that I have seen in person to date!  It was quite the upset as un-ranked (for now) Iowa State defeated #7 Michigan, 77-70!

Melvin Ejim returned from a knee injury that has kept him out of our first two games of the season to lead five Cyclones in double figures.  Ejim ended up with 22 points and 9 rebounds.  Naz Long also had a nice game for Iowa State, scoring 16 points including 4 of 6 for three-point range.

After the game it was fun to watch the student section storm the court to celebrate!

 

Tuesday, November 12th, 2013

I just got back from another fun men's basketball game at Hilton Coliseum where I saw the Cyclones defeat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 80-50.  What made this game especially enjoyable for me was the fact that I was able to move up to the second row from the court in section 134!  My friend Jeremy Seago messaged me after the game started that he had an extra ticket, so I moved on down to sit with him.  They were his boss's seated, and boy were they good ones!

I took a few videos just to show off how awesome our seats were:

As for the game, the Cyclones were in control the entire way, and five players scored in double figures: DeAndre Kane (15), Matt Thomas (13), Dustin Hogue (13), Georges Niang (12), and Monte Morris (11). 

Here is the view from my regular seats at tip-off...

...and here is the view from the upgraded seats!!

The band was right next to us.

Cyclones win big!

Sunday, November 10th, 2013

Happy 17 weeks to Nolan!

This was a busy and fun homecoming weekend for us.  Brandon & Amy stopped by to share in the fun... We played quite a bit of Settlers of Catan, Cards Against Humanity, and we went to a volleyball game.  During the volleyball game on Saturday, Iowa State played very well and was able to sweep the Oklahoma Sooners in three sets: 25-14, 25-22, 26-24.  Then today I met up with Jeremy Seago for the first Cyclone basketball game of the season!  I have really been looking forward to basketball season quite a bit, especially with football season being a disaster.

Sophomore Naz Long was very impressive in Iowa State's season opening win over the University of North Carolina Wilmington Seahawks.  Long led the Cyclones with 26 points, including 8 for 11 from three point range.  He was one of five Cyclones in double figures along with Georges Niang (16), DeAndre Kane (13), Matt Thomas (10), and Dustin Hogue (10).  With all of the offensive firepower that we lost from last year's team, I was afraid that this year Iowa State would not be able to keep up the pace from long-range.  Hopefully I am wrong about that, especially since the Cyclones combined for 15 threes in the game today.

Nolan was enjoying pulling mommy's hair a little too much...

Sunday, October 27th, 2013

Happy 15 week birthday to Nolan!  Our little guys is getting so big now!  105 days old :)

This weekend his Grandma Becky came down to watch him.  She was nice enough to take care of him for most of the day yesterday while Elizabeth and I went tailgating for the football gave vs Oklahoma State.  Sara and Mike were in town visiting from Chicago, and Erick Ude also came up to tailgate and stay with us.  I was the only one of our group that ended up going into the game (which was close for the first half but ended up being a blowout loss for Iowa State).  After the game we went out to OddFellow's for some burgers.  I ordered the grilled cheese burger (a double bacon cheese burger with grilled cheese sandwiches in place of buns) again. 

I did manage to catch a couple of highlight plays for Iowa State during the game.  The first was a 22 yard touchdown reception for Quenton Bundrage in the first quarter, and the next was a 11 yard touchdown run on an option play for DeVondrick Nealy. 

Monday, October 14th, 2013

Happy 3-month birthday (a quarter of a year) to our little boy!  I can't believe how fast it has gone!  You make mommy & daddy very proud Nolan :)

Yesterday we took him to d&orfs photography to have his 3-month pictures taken.  Check out how photogenic he is!!

Wednesday, October 9th, 2013

As of Monday this week Nolan has started going to day care while mommy & daddy go to work.  Since he's been such a good boy at day care, we decided to take him to Hilton Coliseum today for his first official Cyclone sporting event.  Nolan turned out to be a good luck charm, because the Iowa State volleyball team won in straight sets over Kansas State, 26-24, 25-19, and 25-18!  Not only that, but I ended up winning a small prize package at the game.  It was "80's night", and at one point in the game they announced that the first person to show Cy a driver's license of a person born in the 80s would win.  Just before then we had noticed that Cy was walking by our section, and we had gotten up to take a picture with him... and since we happened to be right beside him it was easy to show my I.D. and win.  I ended up winning a t-shirt, water bottle, and a small toy volleyball :)

Here we are posing with Cy after I won the prize package.

Nolan with the toy volleyball that we won :)

It looks like he's enjoying himself at the game!

A shot of the action...

Go State!

We also ran into Cy before the game started and got a picture... Nolan's first picture with Cy!

Aww, and this picture was on Monday right when Elizabeth had to drop Nolan off for his first day of daycare.  Mommy is looking sad :(

Saturday, October 5th, 2013

Right now I'm watching Nolan while Elizabeth gets a well deserved nap, and since I managed to get our little guy to fall asleep too I thought it would be a good time to blog...

From talking to some family earlier today it sounds like some strong winds and a tornado did quite a bit of damage from back home yesterday.  It sounds like people were pretty lucky in the fact that nobody was hurt, and everyone's houses were sparred.  Still there was some property damage throughout the area.  Chris & Marcia had the roof torn off of their barn, an old windmill was destroyed, and a silo fell down.  A cattle barn of Paul Salton's about a mile and a half west from my parent's place was totaled.  It sounds like there was only minor damage done on my parent's farm... large tree branches, fencing, and a small shed in a horse lot was destroyed. 

Here you can see the roof which was torn from Chris & Marcia's barn.

The Iowa State football team "lost" a heartbreaking game to Texas this past Thursday.  I will remember the game for what should have been called a fumble at the goal line when Jeremiah George stripped the ball away from the Texas running back and took off for what would have been an ISU touchdown.  Instead the refs got it wrong, a couple plays later Texas scored, and that was the game.  So frustrating...

Today for lunch we went to a local restaurant, Wallaby's. I had actually never been there before, but it was a pretty comfortable sports bar and grill.  I enjoyed a breaded pork tenderloin while Elizabeth had a Turkey melt and sweet potato fries. 

Nolan has the strength to stand if you hold him to keep him balanced.