Climb Team

 Trigg joined the competitive climbing team at Climb Iowa this year and has loved it! In the fall, they compete in bouldering competitions and then switch to top rope/lead climbing competitions in the spring. Bouldering is a type of free climbing without the use of ropes, smaller walls with challenging boulder problems. Climb Iowa has a gym in the East Village that is just a bouldering gym and that is where this competition was held!

There were 5 routes for Trigg's age group and they have 10 tries to complete the route. There are check points along the way that they can score partial points. They set the routes with color coded holds, so the black route uses all black holds, blue uses blue, etc

Trigg had a cheering section!

This pink route was tricky!

Trigg was one hold away from the first check point...

This pink route looked hard too...

but Trigg worked his way up...

and made it to the top!

Trigg did great for his first competition, learned a ton and had lots of fun! He ended up in 4th place!

He and his friend Clara both took home ribbons for their hard work!

Climb team has been awesome, Trigg is getting stronger and pushing himself more each practice! It is fun to watch him figure out these "problems" on the wall and push through hard things! I'm proud of you buddy, keep climbing!

Fall Fishing Trip

 In 2020, with Covid and online learning, the boys and I met my dad back up in Minnesota to do some fall fishing. They were able to do school online and we caught some fish!

This year, my dad went up for the week and we headed up there Wednesday after school and let the boys miss school on Thursday and Friday...we will call them mental health days!

As tradition, we stopped at Cabela's on the way up to pick up a few new lures. The boys picked out some top water frogs!

The weather was great, a little cooler but the fish didn't seem to mind! We quickly found some nice bluegill!

Catching some keepers!

We also got into the bass! That is my favorite fish to fish for and the boys enjoy it as well. Most of the docks had be winterized for the season, canopy's removed and lifts up. We love fishing by docks and as we approached this one, Garrett made a big cast...right over the top frame of the canopy. His weedless tube jig fell down into the water and wouldn't you know it...fish on! So G reeled the fish up and popped it over the top! We all laughed about it...if you look closely at this picture, you can see the bass in mid-air!

Here he is with his "flying" fish!

While we were up there, Trigg turned 10!!!!!

And caught a birthday bass! Well done buddy!

He was pretty excited about it!

We had some cinnamon rolls to celebrate

G caught some big fish...and a couple little ones too!

I tied my personal best record for a large mouth, weighing in at 4lbs 9oz!

As always, Grandpa lets the boys drive the boat!

Catchin' more!

A few more big bass!

Trigg's turn at the motor!

Garrett working a jig that matched his jacket and shirt! A stylish fisherman!

Grandpa bringing in the big bass!

One more!

It was a great trip, we caught plenty and made some fun memories!

Let's swim - installing a pool

We have tackled nearly every home project you could think of, kitchen remodel, adding a deck, swapping out windows, finishing a basement...you get the point, this project moved us to the backyard. Heather has always wanted a swimming pool in her backyard and with moving into a new house we had a blank slate in the backyard. So, we did some research and found PoolWarehouse.com

You can order do-it yourself swimming pool kits! So that's what we did!

The pool arrives in a big 18-wheeler, I rented a skid loader with forks to unload it and get it on the ground, big thanks to the framing crew working on the house across the street for the help getting it unloaded!

If you look closely, you can see Blythe in the drivers seat with me

 Brough all the parts to the backyard, with the help of all the kiddos!

They all enjoyed driving this skid loader!

Next up...bigger equipment. We hired this part out, Anderson Excavation did an awesome job!

They parked this bad boy in the backyard for the weekend and then got started digging on Monday, we didn't mind!

Watching the hole get dug!

Super impressed with these guys and their precision, it was fun to watch!

Time to get to work...shovel work to dig out the deep end and rock got delivered, time to spread it out across the base 

Helpers are ready to help!

Let's get these walls set

Got the walls hooked together and braces set, it took some pushing and pulling to make sure everything was just right but with the help of Derek, we got it done!

Another view and if you look in the background, you can see a trampoline, while the big excavator was in our backyard, we had them dig a hole for the trampoline... it turned out great!

We also hired out Grimes Concrete for the concrete work, they did an awesome job and if you need some work done, check them out! Here was the concrete ring and sonotube anchors for the walls

Then there was lots of shovel work to make sure the deep end was graded correctly. Didn't take pictures of that...it was just me in the deep end with a shovel filling buckets and hauling them out. We did also add drainage under the pool, it goes under the deep end and we added a large tube with a sump pump to make sure ground water can get pumped out and not push on the floor of the pool

Then they poured the base

At this point, I had run all the 2 inch pvc plumbing lines to and from the skimmer that went through a trench in the yard back to the house to our equipment pad. I learned how to build a pressure test gauge and pressure tested all the lines to make sure there weren't any leaks! Once I was confident of the water lines, I backfilled the trench and the walls of the pool

Leveled everything out and prepped for more concrete

Installed the coping around the pool, this is the round edge that screws right into the top of the walls. Then those coping rails and the pool ladders had to be grounded with copper wire to make sure they don't conduct electricity!

Almost done!

Final concrete deck was poured and the yard was graded

and sod installed

Added the liner, stretched it out and clipped into the coping, big thanks for John for the sweaty work getting that done!

...time to add water

Crank on the hoses...and wait

getting there...

It's filling up...

Ready to swim!

We got a solar cover to help warm up the pool. 

Finished product! We did the salt water pool...I've learned lots about chemistry and parts per million but so far the salt water has been easier to work with!

Time for a pool party!

Happy 4th of July!

Smiles and thumbs up from the kids...

It's nice sitting by the pool!

All in all, this was a pretty big project but very doable, I would do it again! We had great people helping us out along the way. Kyle and his excavating crew and Mitch and his concrete guys have all earned lifetime pool passes to our pool! It took about 2 months from start to finish.

I watched hours of YouTube video's on installing a pool as well as pool maintenance but have learned a ton as well. Swim University is a wealth of knowledge and worth checking out!