Sunday, July 21st, 2019

Today we just got back from our annual "Christmas in July" family reunion.  This year it was held at Rick & Marilyn's log cabin outside of Mount Ayr, IA.  To name everyone that attended... there was our family of 4 (Elizabeth, Brian, Nolan, Maxwell), Amy & Brandon Shostak plus their kids Emma and Logan, grandpa Eben, great-grandma Natalie, Chris & Marcia Langner, David Langner, Chris & Susan Irwin, Kent & Andrea (as well as Andrea's sister, who's name I didn't catch), Rick & Marilyn, Gary & LaVonne, and Aaron Salton. 

We headed down to the log cabin on Friday after work.  Even though it was a rather hot day, we camped in the backyard.  We had a pizza party for supper on Friday, and then spent most of the evening visiting with family.  By the time we brought the kids to the tent to sleep, it was about 10:30 (way past their bed time).  Still, Maxwell had lots of energy, and he would't stop talking for about an hour.  Eventually I had enough, so I told Maxwell to be quiet or the werewolves would hear him and come eat us.  That did the trick, and we were able to get some peace and quiet after that.

First thing after getting up on Saturday, Maxwell was still concerned that the werewolves might be around.  Haha... he really was quite worried about them, but we needed some sleep, so I didn't feel too bad.  On Saturday Amy & Elizabeth helped the kids tie-dye t-shirts.  We brought deli meat and cheese for people to make sandwiches for lunch on Saturday.  In the afternoon, Brandon and I paddled Rick's canoe around his farm pond, and we took Nolan and Logan for canoe rides.  Around supper time a thunderstorm rolled through and really dumped rain for a while, so we all hung out in the garage.  After that cleared, we made a camp fire and roasted marshmallows to make smores.  I played a few games of cribbage with David, Chris, and Rick.  Nolan ended up passing out in the living room, so I slept in the living room with him while Maxwell and Elizabeth went to the tent.  Around midnight another thunderstorm rolled in, so Elizabeth brought Maxwell inside just to be safe. 

Overall, this was our 25th Christmas in July... the first year was 1994. 

Sunday, July 14th, 2019

Happy 6th birthday to Nolan!!

This weekend was a fun-filled birthday weekend for Nolan.  Yesterday we held his birthday party at Surefire Fitness.  We had the place reserved from 10:00 until 11:30.  They had set up all kinds of obstacles, kind of like a kid's version of America Ninja Warrior.  There were PVC pipes low to the ground that the kids had to crawl under, a big net that they had to climb, an actual rock climbing wall, a big rope that they had to crawl across upside down, an obstacle called "the earthquake" that had tennis balls balancing on the top of narrow PVC pipes sticking up (so if you shook it too much the balls would fall off)... you get the idea.  To start with there was just a free play time where all the kids could practice each obstacle as they pleased.  Then all of the kids took turns running through the whole course, and at the end there was a button they hit that would sound a siren and have smoke shoot out from above.  All in all, it was a lot of fun for the kids, and it got them worn out which was nice.

There were probably close to a dozen kids that attended.  Nolan and Maxwell of course.  Also Maddie and Drew, Sebastian (Bash) and Lara, Nico (from Nolan's school), Luka and Mia, and some others from school that I was not as familiar with.  We had Pizza Hut deliver some pizzas for the kids, along with ice cream treats, chips, juice boxes, and fruit.  Grandma Becky, Grandpa Eben, and Great-grandma Natalie all came to the party as well. 

Nolan enjoying some pizza at his birthday party.

This morning Nolan opened some presents.  He was lucky enough to get to remote controlled cars!  Luka's family gave him a Toy Story RC car, and we had bought him a blue Mustang RC car.  Nolan ended up wanting both of them... we were worried that we may need to return one of them.  Then later this morning we took the whole family to Perfect Games.  Tonight for supper Nolan wanted ice cream at Orange Leaf... followed by supper at Burger King (so that he could play in the play area).  We did have the ice cream first, as per the birthday boy's wishes. 

Nolan and his birthday ice cream at Orange Leaf.

Saturday, June 22nd, 2019

I just got back from a fun but quick trip to Kansas City with Nolan and Eben.  We headed down there yesterday after I was done with work, and we stayed at the American Inn in North Kansas City.  It wasn't the fanciest hotel, but it worked.  After we checked into the hotel, we went out for some yummy BBQ at Smokin' Guns.  Eben had a 1/2 rack of spare ribs with fries and corn, I had a 1/2 chicken with BBQ beans and onion rings, and Nolan had a hot dog with fries and a cookie.  It was all very good, and I liked their sweet BBQ sauce the best.  After dinner, we found a nice playground for Nolan to burn off some energy.

Today, after checking out of the hotel, we headed over to the Kaleidoscope near Crown Center in KC.  It's an interactive children's center where kids can make their own arts and crafts.  They can paint, make their own puzzles, there is a dark room with black lights, and just lots of crazy weird things for kids to explore.  Nolan had a lot of fun, and he made his own "dragonfly" out of some construction paper, markers, and tape.  After that, we headed over for an early lunch to Fritz's.   The best thing about Fritz's it that your meal is delivered to you via a miniature train!  Honestly, that's the only reason we go there, because kids love trains.  The food is "meh" at best.  Although I did enjoy the Oreo shake that I had there.

Once we were finished with lunch, we headed over to Kauffman Stadium for the Twins-Royals game.  The starting pitchers for today were Jose Berrios for the Twins and Danny Duffy for the Royals.  I thought that Berrios pitched very well, and he held the Royals scoreless through the first 7  innings.  However, he was pulled in the 8th after a walk and a single... and both of those inherited runners ended up scoring, as the Twins blew a 3-run lead in the 8th.  Three Twins hit solo HRs to build that lead (Miguel Sano, Jake Cave, and C.J. Cron).  My favorite moment in the game was the home run by Cron.  We were sitting in left field (section 105, row B, seats 9-11 to be exact), and his homer ended up landing like 20 feet from us.  I saw the ball make contact with Cron's bat, and I could see the ball coming towards us the whole way.  For a moment I thought maybe we could catch it.  I guess that we were on TV then, and if you look closely at ESPN's highlights of the home run, we are in the stands close to where it lands.  Anyways, the game ended up going 10 innings, where Cron and Eddie Rosario provided RBIs to break the tie and help secure the Twins' 5-3 victory. 

I believe that this was the 8th MLB game that I have been to (if you don't count the three spring training games that I saw in 2008).  Those games would be:

• 8/7/05 - Red Sox @ Twins (Red Sox won 11-7). Manny Ramirez hit a HR
• 7/25/06 - Twins @ White Sox (Twins won 4-3). Johan Santana was the Twin's pitcher.
• 7/4/10 - Reds @ Cubs (Reds won 14-3).  Drew Stubbs hit 3 HRs that game!  
• 5/29/11 - Pirates @ Cubs (Cubs won 3-2).  There was a rain delay, and we drank a lot.
• 6/9/12 - Cubs @ Twins (Twins won 11-3).  
• 7/7/14 - Twins @ Mariners (Mariners won 2-0).  Hisashi Iwakuma struck out 10 Twins.
• 6/21/15 - Cubs @ Twins (Cubs won 8-0).  Jake Arrieta pitched a complete game shutout.
• Then of course, today's game.  Twins @ Royals (Twins win 5-3 in 10 innings). 

The view from our seats in section 105.  We were two rows up from the bullpen.

Monday, May 27th, 2019

Happy Memorial Day!

This weekend we drove out to Omaha to meet the newest addition to the family.  It was cute having the boys meet Emma and see how little she is!

Emma was a little cranky when I first held her, but she calmed down soon.  She was a very good cuddler :)

Nolan holding his cousin Emma!

Nolan just had to hold up a dinosaur mask...

Saturday, May 11th, 2019

I just wanted to make a quick post tonight to recognize the newest member to our family.  Earlier this afternoon Amy & Brandon welcomed Emma Lynn Shostak into the world!!  I believe that Brandon said that baby Emma arrived at 1:15 this afternoon, weighing 8 pounds and 9 ounces.  I can't wait to go out and see her sometime!

Monday, May 6th, 2019

This past weekend I took Nolan with me for my annual trout fishing trip up to Yellow River in Northeast Iowa. On Friday I picked Nolan up an hour early from school, and we made the drive up there in about 3 hours and 45 minutes.  We set up camp... I believe at campsite #120.  The Seagos were there (Jon and Matt anyways), and Tyler was there.  Jeremy would not get to the campsite until early Saturday morning.  Anyways, on Friday we enjoyed a nice campfire, and I made some s'mores and roasted marshmallows.  Nolan did not want a s'more... only a roasted marshmallow.

Nolan at the Harpers Ferry sign.

Here we are at our tent!

On Saturday, I got up with Nolan early, had a quick breakfast, and we set out to go fishing by 7:00.  First we tried the big fishing hole by camp which is my favorite spot, but after 30 minutes with no luck we decided to move on.  We walked down the trail to the first fork and took a left and followed it all the way to the rock wall.  Again, not even a nibble at that spot.  Finally, we went further upstream to the next hole (it would be straight at the first fork and then immediately left at the second fork).  There we caught a nice rainbow trout using Nolan's spiderman fishing pole, and Nolan used the net at the water's edge to bring it in.  At that point Nolan wanted to head back to camp and show off our fish to everyone.

Nolan carried the trout all the way back to camp with his net.

After hanging around camp for a while and having lunch, I would head out again with Nolan to go fishing.  Nolan, Jon, and myself went back to the hole where we caught the first fish.  Jon caught a small brown trout there (and Nolan helped to net the fish), and he released it back to the water since it was small.  Shortly thereafter Nolan's spiderman fishing pole broke, so we headed back to camp to grab our backup pole (Maxwell's Paw Patrol pole).  Since we were at camp, we just started fishing at the hole close by camp.  There I managed to catch 3 more fish (two rainbow and one brown trout), and Jon caught one nice rainbow trout.  During that time, Nolan was half bored and would wander back and forth from camp and the fishing hole.  He was excited to see 4 fish on the stringer!

Nolan holding our stringer of 4 fish.

My favorite fishing hole by camp.

By the time I had cleaned our fish, Nolan had passed out back in our tent.  He took a 3 hour nap!  That's something since he usually doesn't nap at all.  Once he woke up we made a little supper for him and hung out around the campfire.  Matthew made some roasted duck for the adults, which was quite good.  I cooked one of the trout we had caught in some aluminum foil with butter and lemon, and it was very tasty. Nolan enjoyed throwing pieces of cardboard into the fire. 

On Sunday, I packed up camp and headed home around 8:30.  So the only fishing we did was on Saturday, and between Nolan and myself we caught 4 fish.  All in all, it was a very fun weekend, but I was happy to sleep in my own bed last night!  Here are links to previous fishing trips to yellow river: 2018, 2017, 2014, 2013, and 2012. 

Saturday, April 13th, 2019

Well to start with I would like to say that today is a sad day in general for me as it marks the 4th anniversary of Lynn's passing  :(

However, on a happier note, today was also the 13th annual Cy's House of Trivia contest at Hilton Coliseum.  Our table name for this evening was "Best Kempt Secret", in honor of Kyle Kempt, who led Iowa State to an upset win over the Oklahoma Sooners a couple of years ago.  In fact, we had the honor of having Kyle sit at our table for one of the trivia rounds tonight!  He came across as very polite... and he didn't really help with any of the trivia questions, but it was fun having him at our table.  One funny story about him... during one of the intermissions, I was in line for the bathroom, and Kyle came in line a couple of places behind me.  I talked with the rest of the people in line for the bathroom, and we were in agreement that Kyle should cut in line to the front... but he was too modest and insisted that he did not want to cut in line.  So, he really did seem like the humble or modest type.

Our table consisted of myself, Elizabeth, Tim Nevins & George (from WRNL and tailgating), Dan & Anne Becker, and Mike & Jaime O'Donnell.  Besides Kyle Kempt, we did have John Walters (the voice of the Cyclones) sit at our table.  I believe that we finished in 36th place, out of 100.  One of the rounds was all about beer, which we did well in.  There was also a round about identifying which American war it was referring to, based on a few small clues.  Another fun note, but I did win a raffle prize of two tickets to the ISU vs Texas football game for the upcoming football season!

Previous blog posts for Cy's House of trivia include:

• 2017
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012