Saturday, August 31st, 2019

Today I was able to take Maxwell to his first ever football game, where the 21st-ranked Iowa State Cyclones survived a triple OT game against the UNI Panthers, 29-26.

Kickoff for today's game was at 11:00, so we got up nice and early for the tailgate.  Maxwell and I arrived at the tailgate a little before 7:00.  Others that were there included Ryan Butler, Dan Becker, George, Kyle Perkins, Chris Schroeder, and eventually Dan's wife Anne.  One funny thing about the tailgate was how hungry Maxwell seemed.  Before we left the house, I made his a two egg cheese omelet, but clearly that wasn't enough.  While we were there, he ate two pieces of bacon, at least 3 breakfast sausage links, a cheese stick, a small bowl of strawberries, and a couple of pumpkin spice donut holes.

As for the game, I'm glad that Iowa State won, but at this point we really don't look like a top-25 team.  The Cyclone defense looked solid, but the offense needs to figure a few things out during their bye week coming up.  Maxwell and I only made it to halftime before we had to leave.  He actually slept for most of the second quarter, and was pretty cranky when he woke up just before halftime.  I guess all of that food made him sleepy.  The only scoring that we witnessed in the first half was a 42-yard field goal by Connor Assalley. 

I believe that this was the 6th time that I have seen Iowa State play the Panthers in football, the others being ISU victories in 2017, 2015, and 2011), and Panther wins in 2016 and 2013. 

Like I mentioned, this was Maxwell's first football game.  For reference, Nolan has only been to 3 games (Oklahoma 2018, UNI 2017, and UNI 2015). 

Maxwell posing at our seats in row 10 of section V.

He was a happy finally getting to see a football game in person!

Friday, August 23rd, 2019

Today was Nolan's first day of FIRST GRADE!!  It's crazy that he's getting so big now.  On Wednesday of this week he got to meet his new teacher, Mrs. Bruck.  Nolan was actually given some "homework" to complete before his first day... which was just a student survey.  As you can see in the picture below, according to Nolan his favorite food is apples, his favorite color is gold, his favorite book is Captain Underpants, he would like to get better at climbing, two activities that he likes to do outside of school are swimming and playing at a park, and he helps his family by "cleaning" and "putting away dishes".  What a stinker. 

Here Nolan is posing with the Edward's Elementary sign before being dropped off.

Nolan with his "homework" before his first day.

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!