Sunday, October 17th, 2021

This weekend I took Elizabeth and the boys down to Manhattan, Kansas, for a little adventure.  I'm glad to say that we were able to watch a very well played game by the Cyclones, as they defeated Kansas State on the road for the first time since 2004!  

We actually headed over to Omaha on Friday (we took the day off from work / school), and we grabbed lunch with Amy at Benson Brewery.  The cousins were able to hang out and play with each other that afternoon.  After spending the night in Omaha, we drove down early to Manhattan.  Our plan was to grab lunch at the So Long Saloon, which opened at 11:00.  We arrived around 11:05, and the place was completely full and had an hour wait for a table!  We ended up grabbing what seemed like the last table at Tanner's Bar & Grill, just across the street.  Aggieville was sure a busy place.  After lunch we had the boys play at a local park, we swam at the hotel pool, and then we headed over for some tailgaiting.  

As for the game, Breece Hall took the opening play for the Cyclones 75 yards for a touchdown, and Iowa State seemed to be in control from there on out.  Andrew Mevis connected on 4 field goals, and the Cyclones went on to win by a score of 33-20.  Kickoff for the game was 6:30, so it was a pretty late night for the boys.

This was Nolan's 6th football game that he has attended.  The last game that I took him to was earlier this year against UNI.

This was only the second game that Maxwell has attended.  His first was in 2019 vs UNI.  

As for myself, this marks the fourth time that I have seen Iowa State play Kansas State in football.  The previous times were a win in 2018, and losses in 2016 and 2014.  This was also the first conference road game that I have attended.

Here we are having lunch at Tanner's

I'm not sure it I approve of the glassware

Myself and the boys at Bill Snyder Family Stadium

The view from our seats (section 430, row 10, seats 7-10).

Sunday, October 10th, 2021

 This weekend I took the boys up to grandpa Eben's place so that they could ride around in the combine.  We spent most of yesterday helping him with the corn harvest at "Brinkley's" farm, which is about 3/4 of a mile north on N14 from Eben's place, on the East side of the road.  I drove the grain cart while Eben combined, and the boys took turns riding with each of us.  I think that the boys enjoyed helping out on the farm.  We also stopped by his hired man's farm (Bryan Sundall's place), and the boys especially enjoyed playing with his little black kitten.  

Tuesday, October 5th, 2021

 This past Satuday I took my cousin David with me to watch Iowa State's dominant victory over the Kansas Jayhawks, 59-7.  I believe that the 59 points scored by Iowa State are the most that I have seen them score in person at a football game.  

Before the game we enjoyed an "Oktoberfest" themed tailgate in the G7 lot.  I brought some bratwurst that I had simmered in Old Milwaukee the night prior.  People also brought homemade pretzles, homemade mustard, and a variety of other German foods.  I also brought some tasty German Oktoberfest beers from Weihenstephaner, Paulaner, and Ayinger.  

The game itself was a complete blowout from the start.  Brock Purdy threw for 4 touchdowns... in the first quarter!  Xavier Hutchinson, Charlie Kolar, Joe Scates, and Jirehl Brock were the recipients of those TD passes.  Anyways, this marked the seventh time that I have watched ISU play (and defeat) Kansas in football.  The previous years were in 2019, 2017, 2015, 2013, 2011, and back in 2002.  

David and I sat way up in Section A for the game.  

I am looking forward to the weekend of October 16th, when I will take Elizabeth and both of the boys down to the game at Kansas State.  Go Cyclones!

Saturday, September 4th, 2021

 Today I took Nolan with me to watch Iowa State's season opening victory over the UNI Panthers, 16-10.

I arrived at the G7 tailgate lot around 7 this morning, and we tailgated with the usual people, including Ryan Butler, Dan & Anne Becker (they also brought their two kids), Tim & Lydia Nevins, Kyle Perkins, and others.  Elizabeth brought both of our boys over to the tailgate after lunch.  I enjoyed some fancy trappist beers for today's tailgate.  I figured that since ISU is a top-10 ranked team (they came in to today ranked #7), we should have a "five-star tailgate".  So I enjoyed some Rochefort, Achel, Orval, and Chimay beers.  

The game itself left a little to be desired, but at least Iowa State played well enough to win.  Breece Hall had a 2-yard TD run in the second quarter, which was the only Cyclone touchdown today.  Today marks the fifth time that Nolan has been able to see a Cyclone football game.  The previous games that he saw include Texas Tech in 2020, Oklahoma in 2018, UNI in 2017, and UNI in 2015.  The Cyclones are 3-0 against UNI when Nolan has attended the game!

Here I am with Elizabeth at today's tailgate.  

Nolan was excited to be at the game!

Saturday, August 28th, 2021

Well, it is officially "back to school" season now.  Classes for the fall semester began at Iowa State this past Monday.  More importantly though, is that Nolan had his first day of THIRD GRADE on Wednesday, and Maxwell started KINDERGARTEN yesterday.  It seems odd to me that they start on a Friday, but whatever.  My boys are getting to be so big it's crazy!

Nolan posing on his first day of third grade.  

Nolan picked out his own outfit for the first day of school.

Maxwell on his first day of Kindergarten.

As for today, we had a fairly relaxing day at home.  I took Nolan to the Iowa State creamery on campus for a treat (Maxwell insisted that he wanted to stay home with mommy).  Anyways, Nolan enjoyed a vanilla ice cream cone, and I had a "Legacy" cone.  This is peanut butter and butterscotch ice cream with chocolate covered rice crisps.  I was very happy with my choice.  

Friday, July 2nd, 2021

 Today Elizabeth, the boys, and myself returned home after a week-long stay at in Estes Park, at YMCA of the Rockies.  We took the Amtrak from Osceola to Denver last Wednesday night (arriving Thursday morning).  We then met up with the whole GLEKS gang (Gleasons, Lacinas, Easleys, Kyhl, and Saltons).  We did quite a few activities during that time, including taking the boys trout fishing (Trout Haven), going on a mountain coaster (Mustang Mountain Coaster), going on rides at Fun City, taking the whole GLEKS crew for a hike around Bear Lake, playing kickball, BINGO, trivia, making tie dye shirts, and lots more.  

Hiking the 0.8 miles around Bear Lake turned out to be enough of a hike for our boys, but I was also able to go on a longer hike to Ouzel Falls and the Calypso Cascades with just Christian, Emily, and myself one morning, which was a lot of fun.  During our trip, we were able to see quite a bit of wildlife, including a moose that walked past our cabin, multiple elk (once there was a group of 6 that walked by our cabin), deer, and other smaller critters.  

After checking out of Estes Park yesterday, we took the boys to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.  It was fun checking out dinosaur fossils, the kids enjoyed playing in a water table at a discovery center, and we watched a IMAX movie about the Austrailian Great Coral Reef.  

Nolan holding up one of the trout that he caught.  For bait we used red worms or pieced of shrimp.

Nolan, Maxwell, and Oscar being all cute and what-not.

Getting ready to hike around Bear Lake.

Family pic at Bear Lake.

Here I am at Ouzel Falls.

Nolan holding a female Lesser Goldfinch.

Christian at Calypso Cascades.

Here are the elk that wandered past our cabin.

Sunday, May 23rd, 2021

 Today we drove home from Yellow River, where Elizabeth, the boys, and myself had a fun family weekend camping, fishing, and exploring Harpers Ferry.  

Elizabeth and the boys sitting around the campfire at Little Paint Campground.

This was the rainbow trout that Nolan reeled in all by himself.  

Elizabeth and the boys at the Harper's Ferry boat sign.

The weekend was a lot of fun, and it included a couple of odd events.  First, during our drive up there, we saw a really fancy car... a Lotus.  It was a yellow sports car, and according to our quick google search they start around $96,000.  The guy driving had his top down, and the funny thing about it was that while we were driving with it a heavy rain started to come down, and this poor guy was getting soaked in his fancy car.

The other odd thing that happened was on Saturday night after Elizabeth put the kids to bed.  We were looking up at the stars, and when we saw this strange line of lights moving across the sky.  I thought maybe they were a bunch of military planes flying, but it was strange that they were all in a perfect line.  The strange thing was how many there were... probably 60 or more.  We were concerned enough that we walked over to a neighbor's campsite and asked them what they thought.  It turns out that they knew about them... it is a group of satelites owned by Elon Musk called Starlink.  So we were relieved that we were not under attack by aliens or something!

As for our camping trip, we stayed at campsite #123.  Friday night we built camp, had a fire, and roasted hot dogs & marshmallows.  I brought some Nutella along instead of Hershey's chocolate bars for the smoores, and that was a hit.  I did try a little fishing at the hole close to camp, but no luck.

Saturday morning I got up early (around 6:15) and went fishing by myself while Elizabeth and the boy slept in.  I headed down the trail at Little Paint, and I took a left at the first fork and tried my luck down by the rock wall.  I had a couple of nibbles but nothing to show for it, so then I headed a little further down the trail (straight at the first fork, and then immediately to the left).  I had a couple of nibbles on my first two casts, had about 10 minutes of nothing, and then caught 2 nice rainbow trout on back to back casts.  I headed home after about 1 hour and 20 minutes total of fishing, and I had a nice trout breakfast.  

Saturday afternoon, after Elizabeth had taken the boys into Harpers Ferry to explore a little, I took everyone on what turned out to be a quick fishing trip.  We walked to the same spot that I had caught the two trout that morning.  I rigged up Nolan's fishing pole, casted it out, and handed him the pole.  Before I could even get a work on Maxwell's pole, Nolan says "I think I've got a nibble".  I turn around and saw that his bobber was a couple of feet underwater.  Lol.  So I told him to reel it in!  He reeled in a really nice rainbow trout, and I helped net it for him.  His was probably a couple of inches bigger than the ones I had caught earlier that day.  After that both boys just wanted to play with the trout, and we were basically done fishing.  That turned out to be all of the fishing Nolan even tried for the trip, so he caught one fish on a single cast, in probably 30 seconds of total time.  Pretty efficient!

I did try my luck again Saturday night at my three usual spots (by the campsite, first left by the rock wall, straight at the fork then immediately left).  Alas, I had no luck after about an hour of trying.  In total I probably spent two and a half hours fishing to get two trout, while Nolan caught one in less than a minute!  

This was Nolan's second time at Yellow River, and it was Maxwell's first trip.  I'm not sure how many times I have been there, but here are some previous trips: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2014, 2013, and 2012.  This was the first time I have been up there without one of the Seagos.  Matthew and his wife are expecting twins this month, so that is why they did not come up.