New Adventure

For Christmas this year, Heather and I gave my parents the gift of adventures. We planned a different adventure for all of us to go on every other month. This month we started with dinner at Jethro's BBQ and then on to a Drake basketball game.
Dinner was really good. The restaurant was full, but we got right in and the food was very tasty. After dinner we headed down to the Knapp Center for the basketball game. As we get out of the car, another Drake fan rolls down his window and explains that the game is postponed until tomorrow. I walk up to the stadium to find out more details while everyone else stays warm in the car. The opposing team, Evansville was coming from Indiana. There was a large ice storm in Indiana, so the teams charter couldn't take off. So instead of a basketball game, we played some bowling on Wii. My parents had played before, so they were ready to go!
My mom showing us her great form.

Each time she bowled she somehow also took a knee, she managed to bowl a 172 so something was working right.

Heather demonstrates her skills in the bowling alley.

My dad tries his arm at knocking down the pins.

I take my turn at bowling.

After bowling, my parents tried out Wii Play, they got to ride cows and knock down scarecrows.

We all really enjoyed playing the Wii, since we couldn't go to the game, it was a pretty good 2nd option. As for the Drake game, we will shoot for February, hopefully the weather will cooperate!

Alumni Indoor Track Meet

Friday evening, Heather and I headed back to our old stomping ground of Central College. The track team holds a yearly indoor alumni track meet. Basically, it is an inter-squad meet with a few alumni that come and run. It serves as a good tune up for the athletes and a chance for the alumni to show their support.

This year, Central just finished putting in a new surface on the indoor track and it is nice. Their website says it is the same surface as used in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Three of my former teammates and I decided it would be fun to run a 4x800. We thought it would be better to do a relay, that way we if we got embarrassed, we would be embarrassed with friends and not by ourselves! Kind of a strength in number concept. The meet started at 6 and there were only 10 events, so i assumed that it would go fast. Even though the 4x800 was the last event, I told Heather and Chad and Shay that I would probably be running around 6:45 or 7:00. I would like to apologize to the three of you because the 4x800 didn't start until 8:30. Sorry, but a big thanks for sticking around and cheering me on!

I led our team off (2.17) and handed the baton to Morgan. He ran an awesome leg (2.14) and handed it off to Jon Rathje (Smokey, pictured below, 2.19), Smokey ran very well and handed it off to Chris Lauman (Nosty, 2.17) and Nosty was our strong anchor. We were competing against 3 other teams from Central and out of the 4 teams, we finished 3rd! Not bad for a bunch of old guys!

My favorite memory of the night was when Heather and I were driving home. I was recalling the race and said "Wow, Morgan ran awesome, he ran 3 seconds faster than me!" To which Heather replied, "Yeah, he looked like he was running a lot faster than you." Ouch, I thought to myself, although she didn't mean too, it was like salt in the wound, but looking back now it was very funny! All in all, it was a lot of fun to run around the track again and I am looking forward to doing it again next year.

28 goals for 28 years

So each year I set goals. I set as many goals as I am years old, so since I just turned 28, I have set 28 goals for this next year of my life. Chances are I won't attain all 28 goals, but it is something to strive for. With all of that said, here is the list.

28 Goals
1 - Run a marathon
2 - Write a song
3 - Read 9 books
4 - Go snowboarding
5 - Read through the Bible
6 - Go camping
7 - Road Trip
8 - Refinish a bathroom
9 - 10,000 push-ups
10 - 10,000 sit-ups
11 - 5,000 pull-ups
12 - Run 1,500 miles
13 - Ride 1,500 miles
14 - Go ice skating
15 - Go sledding
16 - Pay off my student loan
17 - Strengthen my core
18 - Cut down dead tree in backyard
19 - Go to a concert
20 - Fast for 4 days
21 - Give up soda
22 - Build the RFF Team Trophy
23 - Fast for 1 day per month
24 - Complete a triathlon
25 - Plan at least one "date night" with Heather per month
26 - Become more flexible
27 - Bench-press 225lbs
28 - Make our home more energy efficient

My Birthday

Tuesday, January 20th was my birthday. I had a great birthday. I have made it a tradition that I don't work on my birthday, so I had the whole day off and the country threw me a birthday parade! You may have seen it, the parade was on most of the TV channels. To make it even better, Heather got both our parents and our brothers and sisters to all go in on getting me a Wii for my birthday! Big THANK YOU!

As you can imagine, most of the long weekend was spent playing Wii, maybe too much Wii because Monday morning I had a sore arm and shoulder.
Heather and I really enjoy Wii sports. We like playing tennis and bowling.

In fact, I have played so much bowling that I have entered into the Pro status.

First, high speed internet and now a Wii, 2009 has already been a big year for us, I can't wait to see what is next!

About Time...I know

This past weekend, Heather and I got connected to high speed internet. I know, I know, "welcome to the 90's", "about time", "blah blah blah". Anyway, we are now hooked up to the world wide web.
Qwest got us all hooked up and we are now surfing at high speeds!

Welcome to the information super highway!

Welcome 2009!

It is 2009 and to ring in the new year, Heather and I went up to Ankeny to party at Derek and Joni's. We had a great time hanging out, playing Wii and laughing a lot. There were 8 of us, Mindy and Graham were there, as well as, Kim and Jon and they brought their daughter, Camille.
Jon and Camille are ready to party and welcome 2009!
As I took the first picture with my camera, it was like the flash was a beacon to Isaiah, he came crawling over wanting a closer look at what made such a bright light.Camille and Isaiah got a closer look at each other, friends right from the start.

Gizmo wanted a closer look at Camille while Isaiah was still captured by the camera.
Isaiah was getting sleep and went to bed, while the party animal Camille was dancing with Heather.

Derek and Joni have a Wii and they also have Wii Fit. Kim got to test her skills at hula hoop, while the fairy princess Miya gave her pointers.

An action shot of Kim leaning to catch the hula hoop as it is thrown.

After everyone got a chance to warm up to the Wii Fit, the competition began. 3 rounds, winner takes all. Hula Hoop, Ski Jump, Soccer Ball Headers. Graham shows us his form with the ski jump.

Mindy keeping her balance to stick the landing

Kim going for the maximum distance.

Joni trying to hold her balance.
Derek, to cool for school, was able to ski jump with his hands in his pockets.

Jon really got into the ski jump, he is practically bubbling over.
We had a great time playing Wii and laughing at and with each other. Around 11:45, we switched on the TV to find the count down to midnight. We all noticed that Derek was really quiet over in his chair. Upon further investigation, he had fallen asleep before the ball could drop. You can see the clock in the background, 11:55 and Derek is fast asleep.
A big thank you to the Pine's for having us over. We had a great time and maybe next year Derek will see the ball drop!