Saturday, October 31st, 2015

Happy Halloween, and HAPPY VICTORY VS TEXAS!! 

Tonight I witnessed a huge homecoming victory for the Iowa State football team as they shutout the Longhorns, 24-0.  This was the first time ever that the Cyclones have beaten Texas in Ames, and it was also the first career start for Iowa State's quarterback, Joel Lanning.  

I watched the game from the sideline since I was part of the ISU alumni band that played on the field at halftime.  I pushed my aunt, Lavonne, in a wheelchair as she played her clarinet.  It was actually quite a bit of work pushing her up and down the hills around the stadium and then onto the field.  We also spent quite a bit of time before the game practicing our formations that we would go through for the halftime show.  It was all worth it though to be able to see this great game from the Cyclones tonight!  Maybe I am a good luck charm as part of the alumni band.  I also pushed Lavonne for the homecoming game last year when ISU defeated Toledo.  

This was the first time that Texas has been shutout by an unranked team since 1961.  

Friday, October 30th, 2015

Today was beggar's night in Ames, so it was also the first time that Nolan has actually gone trick or treating!  Elizabeth took him to do daytime trick or treating on main street, and then tonight they went around to a few of the neighborhood houses to collect candy.  I stayed at the house and handed out candy (M&Ms, Reese's peanut butter cups, and Hershey's cookies & cream bars) to about 34 kids.

Here is Nolan trick or treating in his Buzz costume on main street.

Elizabeth and Nolan getting ready to head out to the houses on our street.

Buzz Lightyear!!

Wednesday, October 21st, 2015

Happy back to the future day!  Yeah, it's kind of funny that in the 1989 film, Back to the Future Part II, Marty McFly and the Doc travel in their time machine to October 21st, 2015... today.  When I was a kid growing up, I always wanted one of the hover boards from that film.  Alas, they are not something that people use today :(

What I really wanted to blog about tonight was the volleyball game that we went to see.  The Iowa State women defeated West Virginia in straight sets, (25-20, 25-11, 25-16).  Elizabeth and I took Nolan to the game, and we stayed for the first two sets before it was time to come home and put the little guy to bed.  He still has a hard time sitting still to watch a game.  He mainly wants to run around the concourse of the stadium or climb over seats.  The best part of the game for us tonight was having Nolan meet Cy before the game.  Nolan gave Cy a big high five and posed for a picture.

It's CY!!!

Nolan was so happy getting to meet Cy, and he wasn't super shy or scared like some other times when he has met him.

We watched the match from the end of the stadium where there was plenty of empty seating for Nolan to run around and not get in people's way.  It's not as good of a view, but it's better to have some free space with Nolan.

Saturday, October 3rd, 2015

This morning I got up bright and early (at 4:00) to get ready and be at the tailgate lots by 5:00 so that I could have a full day of fun with our tailgating group before the football game kicked off vs Kansas at 11:00.  I met up with Dan Becker, Tim Nevins, Kyle Perkins, and everyone at the WRNL tailgate.  Dan made everyone omelettes which was pretty cool of him.  Elizabeth and Nolan stayed home today and got some extra sleep.

Today was the fourth time that I have seen Iowa State play Kansas in football, and I'm happy to say that all four of the games have been Cyclone victories (today, 2013, 2011, and 2002).  Today's final score was 38-13.  Iowa State looked alright, and our freshman running back, Mike Warren, ran for whopping 175 yards and two touchdowns.  On one play in the third quarter, he ran up the middle for a 62-yard touchdown.  However, it seemed that Kansas was just a bad football team in every phase of the game.  Hopefully this game can give the team a little confidence heading into the rest of the conference schedule.

The view of the game from our seats

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.