From Rockstar to Farm Boy

For Nathan's birthday Heather and I got him a pair of overalls and a trip to Living History Farms. Sunday we got Nathan geared up with his John Deere hat and boots and his new overalls and headed to the farm. We first got a tractor ride out to the farm. Nathan loves his tractors!
The first stop on the tour was the 1700's farm complete with a tee pee.
Nathan learns how tee pees are made.
"See Nathan, all those logs get tied together at the top," I explain.

After the 1700's farm we head down the trail to the next stop on the tour, the 1800's farm. This working farm has pigs, cows, chicken and sheep. This farm even had a baby cow.
Nathan and I get a front row seat as the farmer gets ready to milk the cow.
"That's a big cow" Nathan explains to me.
Nathan learns how to milk the cow.
Nathan tries his hand at milking the cow, it was fun but his hands got dirty.

Nathan shows us how the baby cow closes his eyes when he takes a nap.
We are finished with the 1800's farm and head down the trail to the next stop, 1900's.
Auntie Heather and Nathan pose for a picture on the bridge.
The 1900's farm has a big red barn, horses, cows, chickens and a turkey that gobbles.
The barn even has a hay loft.

I showed Nathan how the pump works and he say "Here, I can turn the water on." And he tried to turn one of the bolts as the "on" switch. We found an old bike to ride.
Nathan figuring out how to use the pump.
Auntie Heather and Nathan on the old farm equipment.
"This is a combine!" Nathan tells us city folk.

"It picks up the corn"
Climbing up the ladder with Heather.
All the way to the top!
"Let's get to work!" Nathan yells from the top of the ladder.
One day a rockstar the next a farm boy.

Nathan checking out the red wagon.
"Hook up the horses!" Nathan yells to Auntie Heather.
A good day at the farm.
Nathan with his own John Deere tractor.

We had so much fun at the farm with Nathan. He taught us city kids about tractors and combines and he showed us cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, horses and we even saw a snake on the trail. It was a great day!

Nathan J the Rockstar

Here are a few fun photos of Nathan playing at our house. We got him a new t-shirt and explained that he looks like a "rockstar" That got him dancing like a rockstar and yelling "I'm a Rockstar"
The Comfort's version of Guitar Hero.
Practicing his rockstar skills.

Orange City Birthday!

Our nephew Nathan stayed with us for the weekend. His parents, Chad and Shay, are in Italy for 18 days, so we got to enjoy the little man for a few of those days. Check out their blog for updates on fun in Italy! Friday we loaded up the Mariner and Nathan and headed up to Northwest Iowa to help Karys celebrate her 2nd birthday. Once we got to Orange City and hugs were given it was off to the trampoline for some fun.
Gracie showing us how to jump on the trampoline.
Nathan wasn't too sure about the trampoline, but it was fun to jump as long as someone had a hold of him.
Here we are showing off our "Rockstar" t-shirts. Nathan's phrase for the day, "I'm a Rockstar!"
Checking out the swing set. Gracie is such a big girl, she helped me by pushing Nathan while I pushed Karys.
Nathan quickly transformed into a fireman when he found the firetruck.

Sharing is caring, Nathan showing Karys how to use the walkie-talkie.
The big birthday girl with her birthday cake, Veggie Tales and Snow White, what more could a girl wish for?
Nathan enjoying a piece of cake.
Uncle Rob put Nathan to work mowing the grass.
Auntie Erin and Nathan playing Hide 'n Seek, it was so much fun!

Reading some books before bedtime.
Everyone loves a good story.
The next morning, Grandma surprised the kids with new pillows and new blankets and...
...new cell phones!
We had a great time celebrating with Karys. Thanks to Rob and Erin for opening up their home and letting us stay with them for a crazy weekend! Thanks to Gracie and Karys for sharing your toys with Nathan, we had so much fun!

Meals from the Heartland

Wednesday evening, our small group volunteered to help package meals with Meals from the Heartland: http://www.mealsfromtheheartland.org/ The concept is that Iowans are better together and working side by side, we can make a global impact. The packaging is taking place from Sept 1st through Sept 9th. Currently the total meals packaged: 3,506,976!
Here is our small group getting ready to start.
This is being held at Hy-Vee hall, here are all the workstations.
The ladies model the sweet hairnets!

Matt and Josh are busy working.
Sarah and Heather take a time out to pose for a picture.
Mike is so amazed at how fast I work, he couldn't even watch.
Our small group of Matt, Sarah, Heather, myself, Kelly, Meredith, Josh and Mike.

We had a great time packaging food. While we were there the Waukee football team came to help package food and there were also a few Drake sororities and fraternities. It was great to see people from all around the community, the state and even from surrounding states gather together to make a difference.

IKEA

Monday was Labor Day and what better way to spend a day off from work than to take a road trip, and that is exactly what we did. Heather and I fueled up the Mariner and headed up north to Ikea in the Twin Cities. This would be my first time to Ikea!

After 3 and 1/2 hours of driving we made it to Ikea way right around 11. We did a quick walk through because we were meeting some friends for lunch. Small world moment, as we were leaving we ran into our friends from our small group, Josh and Kelly with their little guy Hudson. They were in the twin cities for the weekend and stopped by Ikea for some quick shopping.
Our good friends Seth and Nicole moved up to the twin cities after college. We headed over to their apartment for some lunch. The lunch was great, we had grilled pork loin, green beans, pasta salad, strawberries and some cheese curds (turds). It was so nice to catch up with the Zehr's and see where life has brought them.
Seth and Nicole taste testing lunch, it passed the test!
After lunch and some time of catching up, we headed back over to Ikea to take a closer look at some items. We are in the planning stages of remodeling out kitchen, so we checked out the cabinets and all the features Ikea has to offer.

We made our way through the whole store and into the warehouse where we picked up a few items.

A quick pit stop at the cafeteria for some refreshments

We made our last purchases, checked out, loaded up the car and headed back to Iowa. I was very impressed with Ikea and plan on returning in the upcoming months to purchase some cabinets!

A day of first's

Saturday brought a day filled with first time experiences for both Heather and I. We came up with the idea that we wanted to try and ride a tandem bike. I called my good friend Ryan to see if they had a tandem bike we could borrow. Much to our delight, they did have one that they could lets us use! So we headed over to their house. Upon arriving at the Elsbernd's we meet the newest member of their family, Cali. This was our first time meeting Cali and she is a great dog. Very mellow and calm but once she smelled us out she was willing to play. (We forgot to bring our camera along, so this picture isn't actually Cali, but as close as I could find on the world wide web)

We got the tandem, made sure it fit, Ryan and Cindy gave us some tips and pointers and we were off. We headed down past the Art Center and hopped on the trail. We took the bike path down through Water Works park and made a loop around Gray's lake and then biked back up the trail.

This was another first for us, we enjoyed riding on the tandem bike, but our rear ends didn't enjoy it as much, they were a little sore after the ride. Again we forgot our camera, but I am guessing we looked something like this.

Guy Night '08

After much planning on Derek's part, Guy Night '08 was a huge success. In attendance was Marcus, Brian, Jake, Josh, Jon, Joel, Ryan, Charlie, KJ, and myself. We started off the evening with some disc golf at the Ankeny course.

Brian teeing off, he throws the disc so hard his shoe falls off!

Jon sends his disc flying towards the basket, not bad for a rookie.
Derek lines up his putt...
...and the release

The one downside to playing disc golf at dusk that we found was the attack of the mosquitoes. They came out by the hundreds and put a damper on our game.

So with our heads hanging low, we left the disc golf course, onto the next stop on Guy Night.

Wig & Pen
This British style pub has great pizza and a great atmosphere, add in some great company and you have a great night!
After the pizza and beers we headed out to Charlie's place to cap the night off with a bonfire. A good ending to Guy Night '08!
Can't wait for next year!