Nine Wonderful Years

Well, I know we haven't blogged for quite some time. I hope to get out a Halloween blog this weekend with lots of pictures of the kids in their costumes and our cool carved pumpkins of course. With that being said, I would like to sneak in one other blog first in honor of Amy and my 9 year anniversary yesterday!

I have been greatly blessed by The Lord to have found my soul mate and true companion about 12 or 13 years ago, and then be lucky enough to have married her 9 years ago. Wow, how 9 years quickly fly by! Those 9 years have been absolutely wonderful and full of many laughs, some tears, 3 kids, 4 dogs, one cat, many fish, two houses, and countless Hawkeye sporting events. My life would not be complete without my wonderful wife as she truly has been the best partner I could ask for as well as a fabulous mother to our 3 children. I look forward to the many years ahead together and sharing them with all of you as our friends and family.

How did we celebrate our anniversary you may ask? Well, that is a good question with an interesting answer. In fact, the answer may probably seem sad to most of you, but to us it was just fine. :-)

Due to our busy schedules and the three kiddos at home, we did not want to have another babysitter come over last night so we decided to get together for lunch instead. Yes, we took this opportunity to dine in style at the University IMU River Room. Of all places in the Iowa City area, why there? Well, this is where we spent many hours as students enjoying lunch together and studying or hanging out with friends, so why not revisit those moments. It was a lot of fun as we embraced some old memories and pondered all the different choices of food.

For the evening events we enjoyed a nice meal together as a family as always, and it seemed that the kids were more behaved then ever for this dinner (which doesn't take much) which was a wonderful anniversary gift in itself. We then played a crazy game of Candyland and Bingo with the kids, and concluded by watching Just Married (one of our all time favorite movies) together once the kids were in bed. May seem lame to some, but to us it was just perfect as it was time together enjoying some of our passions in life.

Amy, thank you for being married to me for these 9 wonderful years. I love the fact that I married my best friend and soul mate, and wonder what great things lie ahead for us in the future.................

Maybe watching a Rose Bowl together!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Goal Accomplished!

We did it! Amy and I completed our first triathlon's this past Sunday in the Tri-Hawk's triathlon at the Coralville Reservoir.

The Tri-Hawk triathlon is a sprint triathlon consisting of a 500 yard swim


15 mile bike


and 3.1 (5k) run.



Our first goal was to complete the triathlon and that we did! In fact, we ended up doing really well for our first triathlon, and from what we hear the toughest one in the state.

I finished in 1 hr, 33 minutes and Amy finished in 1 hr, 55 minutes.

I owe special thanks to my awesome wife, as I would not have completed this without her organizing our workout schedules, pushing me through the eight week training we completed, and providing wonderful support. It has always been a goal of mine to complete a triathlon and I have trained several times before either suffering an injury or just backing out prior to the event.

So here's a totally amazing story. There was a guy who blew out a tire about 2 miles into the 15 mile bike. He had those type of pedals where the pedal is the shoe. So you just hop on your bike and slip your feet in the shoes and go. Amy and I both passed him on our way back in from the bike and we saw him walking his bike. After we were all finished with the run part and the race as a whole and loading up our bikes, we heard all of this cheering. Turns out it was this guy just coming in from the bike. He had pushed his bike while running the remaining 13 miles of the bike course. And if that wasn't amazing enough, he did it all barefoot! He ran into the transition area, threw his shoes on and sprinted out to do the 3.1 mile run. Turns out he ran the 3.1 miles just under 20 minutes. Completely, completely amazing! What determination to not just quit!

Can It Really Be???

Yes, the boys turned 5! In a blink of an eye, our once 10 week premature twin babies have become young boys. Where does the time go????


This year we were able to celebrate both the boys birthday and an Iowa victory over ISU which made it that much more special. This celebration included numerous kids, family, and friends. We had a house and yard full as the boys enjoyed their special day with friends from school, neighborhood friends, and cousins.

I love this picture below, and the look on Kinnick's face. Apparently, he really enjoyed the rescue trucks as a present!

As always, our children had the opportunity to pick the theme for their party. And this year, they chose Rescue Vehicles. With high priority placed on Firemen and Firetrucks.

And as always, Mom did not disappoint again with a wonderful homemade cake. Of course, there is no way Amy was going to let their be any Cyclone colors in our house on that day. Thus, she decided to make the fireturck Hawkeye colors rather than the standard red. Just another reason why I married her! Look for more pictures and a description of the cake on her blog www.amystreats.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday Carver and Kinnick. We love you both so much and have enjoyed watching you grow. Thanks to all those who joined us on their special day. We had a wonderful time.

Go Hawks!

And a Small Fry

A couple of weeks ago we enjoyed a great first Hawkeye weekend by going to Fry Fest with kids on Friday and ending with tailgating and the football game on Saturday.

We all enjoyed the many festivities at Fry Fest including.......

The Hawkeye Viper


The Hawkeye Marching Band


The Skydivers

The Harleys

And a very close and exciting win against a very good UNI team.

Totally Tubular

I know, I know.....it has been about two months since our vacation to Minnesota. However, in my ever so slow continuance of our Minnesota vacation summary, one of the highlights this year was getting the chance to go tubing with the kids. We were lucky enough to have a friend (from Coralville) at the lake who brought up his new speedboat, tube, etc.

We started by taking the kids tubing behind the pontoon boat, which worked really well for the kids. The only malfunciton that occurred was when my dad tried making a sharp turn with teh pontoon which doesn't work so well. Kinnick and I came to a stop in the tube, started to sink, and then began taking in water. I eventually had to pull Kinnick and I off the tube and into the lake so he wouldn't drown from the water over taking his head.

Later in the week we were even more blessed as our friend Luke took us out on his speedboat. What a trip. My nephew, brother-in-law, and I all rode solo and had a blast. Our brave and crazy little boy Carver also went with me behind the speedboat which was really cool.

While The Girls Are Away.......

The boys will play.

Amy and Taylor took a trip to Washington D.C. a week or so ago, in which they were gone for five days. While away, the boyz did some hangin' out and enjoyed our time together. We ate like men (brats, sloppy joe's, meatloaf) and did so at the bar/counter rather than dinner table. We also went to Meet the Bears night, which was where West Branch High School introduced the football team, cheerleaders, coaches, etc.

The highlight of the five days was probably Saturday, in which we did several fun activities. We took a trip to Wilson's Apple Orchard, where the boys main concern was riding the on the trailer which is pulled by a big John Deere tractor. They remembered this from last year and would not let me forget about the trailer on the way to the orchard.

Since we had some time to spare while waiting for the rides to start, I decided to head the Coralville Dam and Reservoir area. First, we went searching for fossils at the gorge below the spillway.

Then we went down toward the dam where I gave the boys a lesson in hydraulics.

Following the dam, we headed to McBride and the Raptor Center. Though the boys were skeptical at first they ended up loving the huge, beautiful birds on display.

After visiting the raptors we travelled back to the orchard for our tractor ride. We enjoyed eating numerous apples along our picking journey and the trailer ride through the creek was a hit. We then bought some YUMMY turnovers, caramel, and our apples and headed home.

Of course, boys can't always be boys, right????????

When Bike Meets Pavement

I began my walk with the dogs tonight, as Kinnick and Carver decided they would ride their bikes along with. They come flying out of the driveway and head down a substantial size hill with full speed. As they were flying down the hill, I knew in the back of my mind they were going to try to ride through the pothole at the bottom of the hill as they discovered yesterday while splashing through it slowly on their bikes.

This time, they weren't going so slowly. Kinnick flew thru but kept control of his bike somehow. Carver was not so lucky. He hit the pothole, wobbled side to side, and then proceeded to flip off his bike and roll three times. I sprinted down the hill (with the dogs) as Carver lied there crying hysterically. Once I got down there I saw blood all over his hand and arm but no major cuts, then I realized the blood was coming from his mouth.


Though it's hard to see on the phone pic, he has a nice fat lip but the bleeding has stopped. He's having a bit of trouble talking but that's not necessarily a bad thing. (just kidding)


His chest and back are all bruised and scratched.

Both of his knees have several cuts, forearms and elbows are cut up, and he has a cut on the very top of his forehead where the helmet didn't quite cover. Thank God he was wearing his helmet.