Sunday, September 6th, 2015

Yesterday we took Nolan to his first ever football game at Jack Trice Stadium.  Maybe he was a good luck charm, because the Cyclones defeated the UNI Panthers 31-7.  It was also the first game after the new south end-zone renovations were complete.  The stadium itself looked very nice, and it was a record crowd (61,500) attendance.  The game itself did not start until 7:00, and we were only able to stay until halftime because it was well past Nolan's bedtime.  We sat on the Northeast hillside which was not the most comfortable.  The two north hillsides are where all of the "Junior Cyclone Club" kids and parents sit.   Nolan wasn't so much interested with the actual game, but he did have fun watching the crowd of people.  Elizabeth also played a movie on her phone for a while just to keep him happy.  We bought him a corn dog, which he ended up eating about half of.  Oh, and Nolan used a port-a-potty for the first time as well (it was pretty gross, and I basically just had to hold him above the seat).  

The first half of the game was pretty close.  UNI scored the first points of the game in the second quarter via a 19 yard touchdown pass from Aaron Bailey to Savon Huggins.  That combined with ISU's two missed field goals early in the game had me frustrated.  However, the Panthers would not score for the rest of the game.  It seemed like Iowa State's defense really played well, and they finished with six sacks for the game.  The only scoring for the Cyclones that we witnessed in person was a 1-yard TD run by Joshua Thomas and a 24-yard field goal for Cole Netten which made the halftime score 10-7 in favor of the Cyclones.  

The view of Jack Trice Stadium from our tailgate lot, G7.

Here I am trying to explain the football game to Nolan.

...but he just wanted to play with my hat!

Thursday, August 27th, 2015

We now have a maple tree in our back yard!

Nolan looks so happy with the new tree in the back yard!

Today while we were at work, the people from Country Landscapes came and planted our Red Sunset maple tree for us!!  I'm looking forward to watching it grow and grow over the years to come, and to hopefully provide us with some nice shade in the back yard along with some nice fall color each year. 

Some information about the Red Sunset maple tree:

• At maturity, the tree should have a height of 40 to 50 feet and a spread of 35 to 40 feet!
• The tree grows at a "medium to fast" rate, about 13 inches to 24 inches per year.
• It's leaves will turn vibrant shades of red and orange in the fall
• It will have winged fruit in the summer that are reddish in color

Sunday, August 23rd, 2015

It seems like it has been quite a while since I've updated my blog.  We've been busy enjoying summer and potty-training Nolan, so I don't always have a lot of time on the computer.  Nolan has been good about going #1 for quite a while, but he's still having trouble with #2 you could say :)  What else have I been doing recently... well yesterday I made some homemade Swedish meatballs, and I ordered a maple tree from Country Landscapes.  I'll get to that in a bit...

The highlight of today though was attending the Cyclone Fan Fest at Hilton Coliseum!

Here I am with Nolan waiting in line to get into Hilton.  He was getting a little cranky having to wait around...

Elizabeth and Nolan pose with head volleyball coach, Christy Johnson-Lynch.

CY!!  Nolan was happy looking at Cy from a distance, but when he got up close it was a little scary!

I also stood in line to meet some of the basketball players.  They had a tent set up just to the north of Hilton, and it was a huge line of people.  There were five lines, each one leading to a separate table of players.  You had to pick which players you wanted to see, and it you wanted to meet all of them you would have to wait through each line.   I guess that the estimated crowd for today's event was 4,000 people.  Anyways, I was able to meet Nick Weiler-Babb, Jameel McKay, Abdel Nader, and Simeon Carter.  McKay and Nader autographed my 2015 Big 12 championship shirt that I was wearing, so that was pretty cool.  Shortly after that we had to head home because it was nap time for Nolan, but it was a lot of fun!

Another thing that I am excited about is finally purchasing a maple tree for our back yard.  Hopefully in the future it will provide us with some nice shade.  I picked a "Red Sunset" maple tree from Country Landscapes.  I wanted a good maple tree that will have colorful leaves in the fall.  Originally when I was searching for a maple tree, I wanted to buy an "October Glory" maple, but none of the stores around here sold that type of tree.  Anyways, I think that the Red Sunset maple should look very nice.

Tuesday, July 28th, 2015

Today was my first day back to work after a fun four-day weekend vacation to Estes Park, Colorado.  My family held a X-mas in July reunion out there, and it was a beautiful place for a family gathering.
Elizabeth, Nolan, and I left Ames last Thursday afternoon after I was done with work, and we met up with Amy & Brandon in North Platte, Nebraska for the night to break the long drive up some.  That was a good idea, because it was a heck of a drive for little Nolan to make... and driving through Nebraska is just awful anyways.

Some of the highlights of our trip while we were out there were hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park, eating breakfast on Saturday morning at the famous Stanley Hotel (where Stephen King wrote The Shining), and I stopped by the Estes Park Brewery Saturday night with Amy, Brandon, Lyndon, and Missy for a couple of drinks.

The scenery of the entire place was just beautiful.  I wish that I would have taken more pictures, but here are a few from my phone...

Here I am with Nolan by a waterfall outside of the Stanley Hotel.  

Here I am with Bear Lake in the background.  Elizabeth, Eben, Nolan, and myself went on a short, half-mile hike around the lake on Saturday.

Me again... with mountains and water and stuff...

Eben.  It's nice to see him smiling after suffering that dislocated shoulder recently.

Nolan passed out around the time we arrived at Bear Lake, and he slept through the whole hike.  Elizabeth had to haul him around the whole time!

Here is a panoramic photo I took of Bear Lake when we were about halfway done with our hike.

Bear Lake info

Wednesday, July 15th, 2015

It's hard to believe, but yesterday Nolan turned two years old!

Elizabeth and I took the day off from work, Amy and Brandon came over from Omaha, and grandpa Eben came down to help us celebrate.  Nolan opened presents all by his self in the morning (grandpa Eben gave him a neat little tractor piggy bank and a grain wagon that it can pull).  Then after Nolan's nap we all went over to Reiman Gardens to check out the butterflies and walk around.  We had Hickory Park for supper, and after that we had birthday cake back home.  The birthday cake had a picture of Elmo on it, and Nolan even blew the candle out himself!!

Maybe if I lay down nobody will see me open this present...

I grilled brats and hot dogs for lunch.

Nolan looks at an orange butterfly at Reiman Gardens

A butterfly at Reiman Gardens.

Another butterfly

This is an atlas moth.  It's huge!

Look at how big that moth is in the background.

Nolan points at a butterfly

Nolan and daddy on his birthday :)

Nolan with frosting from his birthday cake all over his cheeks.

Thursday, July 9th, 2015

Happy 4th anniversary to my wonderful wife Elizabeth!!  It doesn't seem like it's been four years since we threw the greatest wedding and reception the world has ever seen...

We hadn't really planned to do much for our anniversary this year, as most of our attention has been focused on Nolan's SECOND birthday which is coming up soon.  He is getting so big!  This Tuesday we took him around campus to have his two-year photo shoot.  Here are just a few of the many photos we have...

Family photo on central campus

As you can tell, Nolan loves to climb!

Mommy and Nolan on the steps of  Beardshear hall.  We had to hold him, otherwise he just wanted to crawl up and down the steps!

Nolan running along the sidewalk at Lagomarcino hall.

Another good way to keep him still was to give him rides in a wagon...

Nolan poses with the wagon

Nolan and daddy at Beardshear

He's just too stinking cute.

Ok, so back to our anniversary today.  I did manage to swing by Hy-Vee over my lunch break today and pick out a bouquet of  purple and white flowers for Elizabeth, and then I dropped them off at her work.  I chose purple and white because that was the flower colors that she had for her wedding bouquet when we were married.  Then, later on today I found out that the traditional wedding gift for a fourth anniversary was flowers or fruit.  It sounds like I picked the right gift!

We were planning to go out to the Cafe for supper tonight, but we had a last minute change of plans and went to West Street Deli instead.  That was a little easier place to take Nolan out for supper anyways.  After that, we swung by Orange Leaf for some frozen yogurt.

Sunday, June 28th, 2015

Today I took Nolan over to Reiman Gardens to let Elizabeth have a little peace and quiet at home.  We had fun looking at the butterfly exhibit, and then we spent a little time running around outside and exploring Reiman Gardens.

One of the butterflies we saw.  I was amazed by how clear this photo came out on my phone.

Nolan found a giant pumpkin "tree-house" at Reiman Garden's today.