Field of Greens

Monday evening we got together with Heather's family to celebrate her birthday. We started off with a round of mini-golf. We played at Field of Greens, which is connected to Toad Valley golf course in Pleasant Hill. The course was really nice and fun to play. Heather, the birthday girl, starts us out on hole 1.
Also playing, Heather's mom, Doreen

...and Grandma, Gloria

...and brother Chad. Brent, Nathan, Shay and myself were also playing, but I didn't get pics of them teeing off at hole 1.

Nathan and Heather find a good place to watch us hit...watch your toes!

Nathan gets ready to hit. About this time Brent, being the competitive golfer, announces that he is sponsoring the "Hole in 1 Challenge" anyone that gets a hole in one will win a dollar!

Heather steps up to hit her ball.

Grandma gives it a good whack...and if you look close, her ball is in the air!

Even with one broken arm, Nathan can still hit the ball!

Nathan watches his dad hit the ball.

Nathan and I practice our Tiger Woods "Fist Pump".

Nathan surveys the course to get a feel for the breaks...

...and it paid off! Nathan had the first Hole in One! Brent pays the man for a job well done.

Not to be out done on her birthday, Heather sinks a Hole in One! and gets her dollar!

Double fist pump for a double Hole in One...nice job you two!
Oh how the tables turn...now Chad and Brent watch as Nathan puts to see how it is done!

...and Chad follows up with a Hole in One too, complete with a dollar!

This was definitely an Iowa mini-golf course with the corn growing in the background.

Nathan, Shay and Heather finish up the round.

After golf, we headed to dinner. Nathan and I work on coloring his kids menu.

Aaron wishes his Auntie Heather a happy birthday! We had a ton of fun celebrating Heather's birthday with Grandma Gloria, Brent, Doreen, Chad, Shay, Nathan and Aaron and some of us even made money with some Hole in One's! Happy Birthday Heather!

Happy Birthday Heather!

Sunday, August 23rd was Heather's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER! For her birthday, she wanted to spend the day out on the water, so we headed up to Big Creek State Park and rented a pontoon boat for the day. We got to the lake around 11:30 and took the boat out for a spin.

Our friends the Pine's and the Vocelka's got to the lake around 12:30, so we picked them up for some fun in the sun. Jon quickly struck a pose as he soaked in the sun!

Kim, Joni and Heather are all smiles as we head out on the lake!

Jon and Derek give their best "tough" guy look.
The Siskow's joined us around 3, Aaron counting his money while the rest of the crew enjoys the water!

Group shot in the water with fun noodles!

The pontoon boat came with a grill mounted to the front, we brought dinner to grill! Jon enjoys his burgers while I am checking on the food.

Joni, Heather, Kim and Dawn give big smiles for Heather's birthday.

Heather and I pose for a picture together.

It wouldn't be a birthday if there wasn't birthday cookie!

We had a ton of fun spending the day out on the water. We had plenty of laughs and got plenty of sun! Happy Birthday Heather!

Iowa State Fair - 2009

Heather loves the Iowa State Fair. She loves it so much we now have a house rule that says "We must attend at least one day of the Iowa State Fair" I have amended the rule to say "We must attend at least one day of the Iowa State Fair, during the week." So we took Thursday off of work and headed to the fair for a day of fun! We got to the fair around 8:30am and I was able to squeeze into a rock star parking spot...for free! As you can see in the picture, there isn't a lot of room between us and the telephone poll, good thing we have a smaller (feminine) SUV!
Chad, Shay, Nathan and Aaron were also coming to the fair that day. They were about 30 minutes behind us, so we parked it on a bench and did some people watching to pass the time. Generally you expect to see all types of people at the fair...and we did! This year though I saw more motorized scooters than I have ever seen. I thought there must have been a motorized scooter convention going on at the fair...there were that many! I took a picture of one such scooter as he was motoring around.

We saw a horse drawn wagon going down the street so Heather and I headed over to the horse barn to watch them closer. Those horses are huge!

As the Pella V.L.'s got to the fair so did the award winning Summit Farms horse team. These guys roll in style. This huge semi-truck pulling an air-conditioned trailer rolls in, this ramp/draw bridge goes down and out marches these horses...impressive!

...and all the horses were wearing their leg warmers.

We quickly found the Pella crew and then we found some breakfast...jr. donuts!

Nathan was super excited to be at the fair and even more excited to be at his grill!

We made our way through several different buildings, at the varied industries building we found the IPTV booth and we made it just in time for "story time"!

Since Shay needed to feed Aaron, it was a perfect break for Nathan and Chad.

Nathan even got to meet Clifford, the big red dog!

...then Chad got to meet "Super Dog", his foot long corn dog!
After lunch, we found some huge pumpkins!

Then we climbed up the hill to see what we could see. All hands on deck, as we all try and push the stroller up the big hill!

In the cattle barn, Nathan checks out a calf with Auntie Heather.

...you have to be careful in the cow barn or you might get "Mooo-ned" as Heather found out.

...and here is what I would look like as a cow.

As we were heading home, we saw these big clydesdale's out for a walk.

2009 was another great year at the fair. We had a lot of fun with Chad, Shay, Nathan and Aaron, thanks for joining us and letting us tag along with you! We saw a ton and got plenty of S.W.A.G.!

Friday in Ankeny

Heather and I both took Friday off of work to spend some time with Heather's family. Heather's folks, grandparents and both of her brothers were all in town, so we planned to snap a few family photos, nothing professional but since we were all together we would try and capture the moment. Getting ready for the photos, Karys, Heather and Gracie decided to play "Beauty Shop" and the girls wanted style Heather's hair!
Karys got a little involved in her work and ended up pulling a little harder than needed, but Heather's hair looked great!
After that, Heather found some "nail polish"in the form of hair bows and painted the girls finger nails.

...don't forget the toes too!

Rob and Erin weren't able to make it to Nathan's birthday party so they brought his present along...he was super excited to open it.

A Lighting McQueen sleeping bag! Nathan wanted to test it out, so he crawled right in.

Gracie, Heather and Karys work on their silly faces for the pictures.

After pictures, we headed out to the front yard to play...golf anyone?

We had a great Friday hanging out with Heather's family. It is always great to see them all and fun to spend time together.