David Crowder Concert

Saturday evening David Crowder Band put on a concert at our church. There were 3 other couples who got tickets with us, the Pines, the Siskows and the Vocelkas. We met the Pines and the Vocelkas early in the parking lot for tailgating! In true tailgate fashion, Joni and Derek chill on our tailgate.
Complete with brats, hot dogs, fruit salad and string cheese! Jon, Kim and Heather are super excited about the concert and the string cheese.

We fired up the portable camping grill and the brats and hot dogs cooked right up.

After a fun diner, we headed inside to stand in line and wait for the doors to open. Kim and Heather show off our "artist circle" tickets...meaning close seats!

The whole group...Heather, myself, Joni, Derek, Jon, Kim, Aaron and Dawn. Ready for the show.

As always...Aaron is counting his money.

Elizabeth Hunnicut warmed up the crowd and then the David Crowder Band took the stage. These guys really know how to put on a show. If you get the chance I would highly recommend seeing them live. About the 3rd song in, David Crowder picked up his keytar (keyboard + guitar) and played the whole song using it.

Close up of the keytar in action.I noticed this little guy hanging out on stage and I had to take a picture, like my dad says "Every home needs a gnome!"

After a few more songs, he picked up this Guitar Hero guitar. His drummer re-wired this guitar to make real guitar sounds as you play it. He rocked out the whole song using this little gem.

The band in action!

It was a great show and great worship. We had a ton of fun and can't wait till they come back to town!

Wedding in Winterset

Saturday afternoon Heather and I headed to Winterset for a wedding. Heather's friend Emily got married. The wedding was at 3:30 then we were going to head right to our church from the wedding for the David Crowder concert at 7:30. The wedding finished around 4:30 and we had some time before we were to be at the concert, so since we were in Madison county we thought we would stop and see a covered bridge.
Even though we both grew up in central Iowa, neither one of us remember visiting the covered bridges.

So here we are in front of the Hogback Bridge, not to be confused with a holla' back bridge!

After the scenery, we headed off for the concert!

Aaron Paul

Yesterday, Tuesday, July 14th, Aaron Paul was born at 4:13 in the morning. So after work, Heather and I headed to Pella to meet our new nephew! We picked up a few gifts and made it to Pella in time to help Chad pick up Nathan from day care, then it was off to the hospital to see how Shay and Aaron were doing. I think Nathan was more excited that he got a present!
The whole car ride to the hospital Nathan kept asking if he could open his present. Finally, once we got to the hospital we let him open it up...a book "I'm a Big Brother"Auntie Heather wasted no time, she wanted to meet this new bundle of joy!

A big yawn, it's been a big day!

Nathan wanted to hold his new brother, so with Heather's help he did a great job!

Nathan sure is excited to be a big brother.

Nathan was talking to Aaron, telling him that he used to be this small once and one day he will be bigger and they can play together.

Nathan and Heather checking out the new guy.

We brought a gift for Aaron too...Rockstar blanket, it has different guitars on it, got to start early!

...and a burp cloth that seemed to be a big hit!

Aaron, Heather and Shay, a proud aunt and proud mom!

I got to hold the little guy too!

...and what a peanut he is! I was thinking "My hand is bigger than your face!"

Aaron started to cry a little bit and Nathan was to the rescue, giving his brother a kiss on the forehead.

Grandma Great was there too, she got some time in the Aaron.

Grandma Great and her boys.

Chad shows Nathan a new book.

We didn't stay too long, Shay was pretty tired, but we got one more picture before we left.

He is definitely a sweet baby and we can't wait to hang out with him more...and teach him cool stuff!

Chalkboard Paint

Last night, I took on the adventure of painting with chalkboard paint. We got some old lockers from my parents, I was so excited to get this project started that I forgot to take before pictures but I did find this one that shows what the original lockers looked like.

I mixed up my own chalkboard paint and it is easy to do. 1 cup paint (any color) and 2 tablespoons of non-sanded white grout.

Mix together really well and you are ready to go. I used a sponge brush to apply.
It took two coats but I am very pleased with the results.
Here is a close up view, I wrote and erased on locker number 7, so it looks a little more broken in.

Big thanks to my parents for the lockers...we love them!

Midnight Madness

Saturday evening, Heather and I headed to Ames so I could run in the Midnight Madness road race. A few of the guys that I run with at work over the lunch hour got together and formed a team for the team competition. Heather snapped a pre-race photo on our way to the race.
Once we got warmed up, I pulled on my SCRC jersey. Anthony and I are ready to race!

The rivals...Los Animales, and if you look closely one is dressed as a red pepper and another guy is dressed up as a bird.

Joe, myself and TC head to the starting line.

All lined up at the starting line.

...and the race begins!

...here we go.

...and coming to the finish line.

TC racing to the finish.

It was a lot of fun to race and to race with guys that I run with. I ended up in 11th place and as a team we got second! For full results, click here.

Belated Happy Father's Day

Last Tuesday, we had my family up to our house to celebrate father's day. This was the first chance that we have all been around to get together. I was busy on the grill, cooking hamburgers, brats and corn on the cob, so unfortunately we didn't snap a ton of pictures. Here is my dad, my sister, Christa and her husband Wade as we are finishing up dinner.
Heather and Morgan had a ton of fun swinging on the hammock together!

We had a great time hanging out with my family, apparently Morgan goes to bed early so they did stay late, but we had a great time while they were here. Happy Father's Day dad!

4th of July

The evening of the 4th of July Heather and I got to hang out with our good friends Derek and Joni. Derek's parents live over in Urbandale, mere blocks from where they shoot off the fire works, so we could see them from the front yard. There was lots of food and lots of laughs!
Heather and Joni show off their hoodies, it was unusually cool for the 4th of July.
Derek and Miya, they were up at the carnival earlier in the day and Miya got her face painted.

It was a night full of fireworks, but we started off small with sparklers!

Heather shows Miya how to start a sparkler from another sparkler.

All good things come to an end and Joni's sparkler did just that; losing life it went limp and fell over.

Heather shows her sparkler skills handling 4 at once!

Miya really like the sparklers until some hot ash fell on her foot...that put an end to the sparklers for the night.

In an effort to help Miya's hurt foot, her "Boo" bear was brought to the rescue, only to be left in Derek's arms later.

Nothing says summer like watermelon and a bottle of coke!

Heather and I get cozy as the firework show gets under way.

First up was the neighborhood fireworks. Derek's aunt, uncle and cousins from Colorado came into town and they stopped in Wyoming and filled up with fireworks! Grants shows us the Black Cat......and the Black Cat in action!

As we were sitting there watching the fireworks, we noticed something flying through the air...BATS! Heather, fearing that they would get tangled in her hair, went for cover under some blankets.

Mitch shows us the next special feature...Snake Eyes
...and Snake Eyes in action.

Then the big fireworks began.

With a loud boom the night sky lit up.

...and again

...and again

...and again. It was a pretty firework display!

And then the finale for the street show, Mitch and Mike show us the Grand Finale!

...and the Grand Finale in action.

...4 minutes of fun!

We had a great time watching the fireworks and hanging out with the Pine's. Big thanks to the Pine's and all their family for letting us hang out for the night, it was a ton of fun!