Saturday, October 19th, 2024

 Oh wow.  I am feeling a mixture of excitement and exhaustion right now after a long day of tailgating and a stressful football game.  The #9 Iowa State Cyclones came from 14 points down in the second half to defeat the UCF Knights, 38-35.  

It really did not seem to be Iowa State's day, but somehow the team found a way to win.  Iowa State gave up over 350 rushing yards, and Rocco Becht threw two interceptions which each resulted in a touchdown for UCF.  Still, the Cyclones kept fighting and were able to finally go ahead on a Rocco Becht 1 yard TD run with only 30 seconds left to play.  It was SO STRESSFUL.  With the win, ISU improves to 7-0, which is tied for their best start to a season ever!  

I took Nolan with me to the game, and this was his 11th ISU football game.  He has now seen the Cyclones defeat 3 conference foes, including UCF today, Kansas State in 2021, and Texas Tech in 2020.

Of course this was also my first football game against UCF, as they are in only their second season in the Big 12.  

During the halftime show today there was a fun drone show, which kept displaying different ISU logos.  

Nolan with the drone show in the background

Saturday, October 5th, 2024

 I'm pretty worn out right now, but I'm also pretty excited.  I took Maxwell over to Jack Trice Stadium today, where we watched an exciting win for Iowa State, 43-21 over the Baylor Bears.  

Baylor got out to an early 14-3 lead in the game, thanks to a pair of touchdown passes from Sawyer Robertson.  The Cyclones would bounce back to take a 19-14 halftime lead, after Caden Matson recovered a blocked punt and took it in for the score.  Iowa State pretty much dominated the second half, as Jaylon Jackson had a pair of rushing touchdowns.  With the win, Iowa State improves to 5-0 on the season, and it is their first 5-0 start since 1980!

Today's game was a "white out", where the fans were encouraged to wear white.  It was also a sellout crowd and a night game, so it was a very fun atmosphere.  One fun thing that happened during the game was I caught a shirt from the t-shirt cannon!  We were seated in the 11th row of section Y, so they really had to launch the shirt quite a ways to get it that far into the upper deck!

Today's game was the 9th football game that Maxwell has been to, and it was the second time that he has seen a game vs Baylor (2022 was the other).  This was the fifth time that I have seen Iowa State play Baylor.  That includes wins today, 2018, and in 2012.  Baylor came out on top in 2022 and 2005.  

Maxwell enjoying the game.

Here I have the shirt that I caught!

Saturday, September 21st, 2024

 Today I took Maxwell over to Jack Trice Stadium, where we watched the #20 Iowa State Cyclones absolutely destroy the Arkansas State Red Wolves, 52-7.  

Today was the eighth time that Maxwell has been to an ISU football game, and the 52 points was the highest point total that he has seen for Iowa State.  The previous game that Maxwell attended was last year vs. Kansas.  

Today's game was a blowout from the start.  Carson Hansen and Rocco Becht each ran for a touchdown in the first quarter, and the Cyclones led at halftime by a score of 31-0.  Maxwell and I ended up leaving in the third quarter, after Iowa State had scored again to go up 38-0.  He was getting a little board of the blowout game.  I am happy that the Cyclones were able to finish off the nonconference portion of their schedule a perfect 3-0 this year!

Thursday, September 5th, 2024

 Today after work I took Nolan over to Hilton Coliseum, where we watched the Iowa State volleyball home opening game.  The Cyclones would go on to defeat the Toledo Rockets in straight sets,  25-20, 28-26, and 25-17.  The second set was particularly entertaining, as both teams had chances at a couple of set points.

Nolan really enjoyed himself at the game.  He was on the jumbotron early in the match during a "dance cam", which he was quite proud about.  He got his picture taken with Cy.  I bought him a Clone Cone.  Then he also ended up grabbing one of the little souvenir volleyballs that they throw out to the crowd.  

It had been quite a while since I've taken one of the boys to a volleyball game.  As best as I can remember, the previous time was way back in 2019, when Iowa State defeated TCU.  I can't believe that we haven't been to a volleyball game since before Covid!

Nolan with his Clone Cone before the game.

Nolan posing with Cy... while holding the little volleyball that he got at the game.

Saturday, August 31st, 2024

 After the long wait of the offseason, I can finally say that it is Cyclone football season again!

Today our family all enjoyed a nice tailgate, just north of the Scheman building.  It was a nice but fairly warm day,  so we tried to stay in the shade for most of the tailgate.  

I took Nolan with me to the game, where we watched Iowa State defeat the North Dakota Fighting Hawks, 21-3.  The first two plays of the game were quite exciting.  On Iowa State's first offensive play of the day, Rocco Becht connected with Jaylin Noel on a 54 yard bomb into double coverage.  Then on the next play Becht found Jayden Higgins for a 21 yard TD.  The Iowa State defense did have some troubles getting off of the field on 3rd downs today, and it seems like they have a lot that they need to work on.  Our linebacker Caleb Bacon did get injured early in the game, which did not help.

Today was the 10th football game that I have taken Nolan to.  He seemed to enjoy the game, and he was continuously asking how many yards each team needed to gain for a first down, so it seems like he is understanding the game better.  The previous game that I took Nolan to was last year's UNI game.  

Here Nolan is climbing inside the Jack Trice "Breaking Barriers" sculpture. 

Sunday, July 28th, 2024

 Today I took Eben, Nolan, and Maxwell down to Des Moines for an Iowa Cubs baseball game.  I'm sure that I have been to an I-Cubs game before, but it's been so long that I have no idea when exactly.

I think that the boys had fun at the game.  Nolan got to meet the mascot, "Cubbie".  I got the boys some "Dippin' Dots ice cream, which they were pretty excited about.  I also picked up a souvenir baseball for Maxwell.  As for the game, the Cubs ended up losing to the Indianapolis Indians, 9-8.  The Indians scored all 9 of their runs in a terrible 6th inning for the Cubs.  We ended up leaving in the 8th inning when the score was 9-3... but the Cubs would rally with 5 runs in the 9th that we missed!  That included a grand slam!  Oh well.  

It's become a bit of a tradition to take grandpa Eben to baseball games.  Last year we went to a Twins / Red Sox game, and in 2019 we went to a Royals / Twins game.  I'm thinking that next year I would like to take dad down to a St. Louis Cardinals game!  

Sunday, July 14th, 2024

 HAPPY 11TH BIRTHDAY NOLAN!!

Nolan is now old enough to be considered a "wizard", at least in the world of Harry Potter.  Right after breakfast (I made a We Will breakfast pizza), Nolan took the online sorting hat quiz to see which magical house he belongs to.  It turns out he is a Gryffindor, just like me!  

Yesterday while Elizabeth and Nolan were at Adventureland, it was up to me to bake him a cake.  I stayed with the Harry Potter theme and made a cake in the same fashion as Hagrid gave Harry in the movie.  "I baked it myself, words and all."  I had never tried to write with frosting on a cake before, so I'm afraid mine did not look quite as nice as Hagrid's!  

For his birthday lunch Nolan requested that we go to Blaze Pizza.  He had his regular order of pepperoni and mozzarella with a spicy red sauce.  

After lunch we took the kids down to Urban Air in Ankeny.  They probably played around there for a good two and a half hours.  Today was the first time that Maxwell actually tried the zip-line thing there.  He was nervous at first, but once he tried it he really enjoyed it!  He must have gone on it 8 to 10 times in a row.  

Then this evening a took the boys out for a movie.  Nolan chose to see Despicable Me 4.  The kids both got a kick out of the movie.  

Finally, one we got home from the movie, Nolan opened his presents.  He got a little nerf target practice thing, some sandals, some water balloons, and a "Kids Against Maturity" card game.  I think that he had a pretty good 11th birthday overall.

HAPPE BIRTHDAE NOLAN!