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.  

Sunday, March 21st, 2021

This weekend I took Nolan and Maxwell over to Omaha to visit Amy, Brandon, Logan, and Emma.

Yesterday we took the kids over to the Henry Doorly Zoo for a little fun.  It was surprisingly busy, but I suppose since it was a weekend, the weather has started too get warm, and most people have been cooped up for over a year now from Covid, it makes sense.  Some of the exhibits were closed due to construction (like the gorillas).  Still, I think the kids had a fun time.  We were able to see the lions, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants, sea lions, and go through the aquarium.  It was pretty cool walking through the tunnel in the aquarium where fish can swim all around you.  Nolan said that his favorite part was the cheetahs because they are the fastest.

Afterwards, we went back to Amy & Brandon's house.  We had the kids play in the back yard for quite a while, and we played a game with plastic throwing axes that would stick to a target.  Then we went inside and watched Iron Man.  After the kids went to bed, Amy, Brandon, and myself had some drinks while we played Oregon Trail, the board game.

It was fun just to get to see the cousins playing together.  Emma is getting so big... she will be 2 on May 11th.  

Wednesday, January 20th, 2021

 HAPPY INAUGURATION DAY!!

Today marks an important day in this nation's history, where the worst president in our lifetime has stepped aside and has been replaced by our new president... Joe Biden!!  I've been looking forward to this day for a long time, and I really just want to stop hearing about Trump.  

Of course two weeks ago on January 6th, Trump's supporters raided the capitol building, which ended up killing 5 people (including one police officer).  Trump was clearly responsible for stirring up this mob of terrorists.  

There has also been the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which was horribly respoded to by Trump's administration.  As of now, there has been about 406 THOUSAND Americans that have died from this disease.  It was such a disappointment to watch Trump and his followers downplay and deny the danger of this pandemic for months, until it was too late.  

There are so many other reasons why Trump has been a terrible, terrible leader for our country.  I'm just glad now that Joe Biden will give us a chance to try and heal and build back to being a great nation once again.  

To celebrate, Elizabeth and I shared some champagne after work today :)

Friday, December 25th, 2020

 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!  This year we were planning on it just being the four of us at home for Christmas, mainly to limit contact with others due to Covid-19.  However, yesterday grandpa Eben dropped by, and as long as he was already here we decided to have him stay for Christmas.  

Santa was very generous to the boys this year.  They got a remote control car, a drone, Nolan got a big Hot Wheels garage, Maxwell got a Paw Patroller and a Ryan's World safe, both the kids got some Legos, along with lots of other little toys and blind bags.  Elizabeth and I signed up for a "beer of the month" club, so we will be getting some fun gifts for ourselves throughout the year.  I should have gotten a picture of the boys with all of their presents, but it was hard to delay them from ripping open their presents this morning.

For lunch we had a very nice Christmas meal.  I roasted a duck in the oven, and I used the drippings from the duck to make gravy.  Elizabeth made mashed potatoes and cornbread stuffing.  We had pumpkin pie for dessert.  My favorite part was the duck gravy over mashed potatoes.  The reason I cooked a duck this year was in honor of the Iowa State Cyclones who will play the Oregon Ducks in the Fiesta bowl here in just over a week.   

Anyways, today was a good day filled with the kids playing with toys, enjoying a nice meal with family, and relaxing.  Tonight Elizabeth went to bed early, and I watched Frozen II with the boys before putting them to bed.

Here is the duck that I roasted.  I rubbed salt, pepper, and paprika all over it, stuffed a sliced lemon in the body cavity, and roasted it at 375 degrees for about 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Sunday, November 29th, 2020

 Well, quite a bit has happened since my last blog post.  Earlier this month, Joe Biden was elected to be the next president of the United States, as he defeated Donald Trump 306-232 in electoral college votes.  Thank you to Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona for seeing the light.  

A few days ago we had Thanksgiving.  Because of Covid-19, we did not get together with any other family members.  Still, we cooked a big meal for the 4 of us.  I ordered a couple of pounds of smoked turkey from Hickory Park, so that we didn't have to cook a whole bird.  Then at home we made mashed potatoes with gravy, butternut squash, cornbread stuffing, and pumpkin pie.  The boys basically just ate the turkey, some bread, and the pumpkin pie.  Well, Nolan ate the pie, and Maxwell just ate whipped cream.

I'm happy to say that the Iowa State football team has been having an excellent season thus far.  This weekend the Cyclones defeated the Texas Longhorns down in Austin, which basically clinched a spot for Iowa State in the Big 12 title game.  The Cyclones have a 7-1 conference record and sit alone in first place.  It will be exciting to see how they finish the season, and to see what bowl game they get selected to.

The main reason that I am blogging today is because we had a family photo shoot.  We drove over to a tree farm outside of Cambridge to have our photos taken.  Maybe it was because it was a little cold out today, or maybe he was just in a bad mood, but Nolan was NOT very happy about having his picture taken.  Here are a few of the photos we ended up with...