Pretty sweet

Tonight we babysat for a couple from Oklahoma. This is the second time we've babysat for them, and somehow tonight we ended up on the topic of guns & hunting. Justin said he had one particular gun that he really liked that he used for hunting hogs in OK with a friend of his (who happens to be a U.S. Marine). I asked if I could see it, and he was happy to oblige. It looked a lot (thought not exactly) like this:

It's called an AR-10. I'm sure my Marine/Air National Guard brother will be unimpressed, but it was one of the coolest things I've ever held with my own hands.

That's all.

Wingardium Leviosa!

Cowboys receivers Laurent Robinson and Dez Bryant levitate in celebration of a touchdown during the Cowboys' shellacking of the Buffalo Bills last Sunday.

Is this heaven?

Our week in Iowa has been fantastic. Unfortunately, we have to leave the corn-filled rolling acres in the morning to get back to our regularly scheduled lives. It's been warm but not miserable for our stay, but I will say this: humidity makes a BIG difference in how 85 degrees feels.

On our way eastward across the state on Sunday night we got to stop and stay with Jase & Rachel (how did we not get a picture together, guys?). That evening we also had the privilege of meeting up with Mike & Katherine and their two-month old, Benjamin. LOVE that family. 

The other day Micah was using a plastic tub as a hat.

Jaron and a co-worker took Joel and I on a tour of his glass-manufacturing plant in Dewitt. It was REALLY cool. Somehow, I didn't get any pictures of Jaron on our trip (though he did take a few). Later, we all got to go swimming at my in-laws' place. You'll have to visit Pam's blog for pictures from that outing. Pam calls Micah "a bit of a wild man in the pool," and I just have to say that's an understatement. The kid seems neither to realize nor to care that when he steps off the side of the pool, or off the step in the pool that he will sink, and not be able to breathe, and drown. It felt like he spent the whole afternoon just testing to see if an adult really will show up any time he decides to throw himself in.

Today we had to say good-bye to Joel, Pam, Gabriel, Micah and Zaley, but first we got to hang out a little bit. Micah asked me to read him Corduroy... about three or four times. 

Then they both wanted to listen to their new book, Luke Goes to Bat (nevermind the hat... Micah insisted I wear it).

Here's Gabriel (and Elizabeth) listening intently.

Family photo!

In this video, Gabriel was "playing" the conch shell like a trumpet. Micah wouldn't stop asking me to "take a picture!"

So, after filming for a few seconds, I took his picture.

And those are our tales from Iowa.

The Holiday Weekend

We were lucky enough to spend time with some of our closest friends almost every day during the holiday weekend. On Thursday we got together with our life group for prayer and a few games of "nuke 'em" (a really fun game played on a volleyball court... but requiring much less athletic skill than volleyball).

Saturday evening we joined up with most of our life group (and a couple others) and played some more games (including Bocce Ball, Rummikub, and Buzz Word).

Sunday evening 8 of us got to go to a Colorado Rapids (MLS) game. The game ended in a 0-0 tie (don't get me started on what's wrong with that sport [short answer: A LOT]), and it was really hot... but we had a good time. After the game we were shown down onto the field so we could watch the fireworks. It was a really fantastic fireworks show. It took us more than an hour to get out of the parking lot after the game, though. That part was NOT fun.

Monday we hung out with our life group (and others) at the house of an uncle of one of our members. There was a pool, a yard for playing Bocce Ball, and a big basement with ping pong and a Space Invaders arcade game (Elizabeth whooped me at ping pong). In the evening we headed to the park to watch the town's fireworks show (not nearly as impressive as those following the soccer game the previous night). Tons of fun!

Now it's back to work, but only for a few more days! Then it's off to IOWA for a week with family!

Were you hoping to see some pictures? Ok, here are a few.

Waiting for the soccer game to start Sunday night.

On the field after the game, waiting for the fireworks show.

After the fireworks, being scolded by a security guard just

off camera who was rudely yelling at us (the most cooperative

people in the stadium) to leave the field, "We wanna go home!"

An intense game of doubles.

My highly cooperative friends as we waited for Arvada fireworks Monday night.

Hound Dog

From a Skype conversation with a couple of my brothers last night...

Boerboel

I have officially decided, once and for all, what kind of dog I want to own someday (someday = when I have a big enough yard to let it run around in).

This is a South African Mastiff, also known as a Boerboel (Dutch for "farmer's dog").

The following is the description of this breed's temperament from dogbreedinfo.com:

The Boerboel is reliable, obedient and intelligent, with strong watch and guard-dog instincts. It is self-assured and fearless. The Boerboel are very playful and affectionate toward their owners. Their favorite pass time would be to play a game of fetch loving every minute they spend with their master. Their jaws are strong and they will most often pop the ball they are playing with. Not to fret, they will just play with the popped ball! They are very gentle and good with children they know. Allowing them to ride on their backs like a horse, loving every minute of the attention they are getting. Boerboel will do okay with other dogs, cats and other non-canine pets, letting birds come down and snatch from their food bowl! They will guard their family, friends and property with their life. When the owners are not home they will not allow anyone to enter the home, unless they know them very well.  When welcomed visitors arrive they will accept them after being properly introduced. This breed requires a dominant owner. The authority the owners project over the dog should be so strong that the dog will not bolt out the front door when it is opened. The objective in training this dog is to achieve a pack leader status. It is a natural instinct for a dog to have anorder in their pack. When we humans live with dogs, we become their pack. The entire pack cooperates under a single leader. Lines are clearly defined and rules are set. Because a dog communicates his displeasure with growling and eventually biting, all other humans MUST be higher up in the order than the dog. The humans must be the ones making the decisions, not the dogs. That is the only way your relationship with your dog can be a complete success. If one does not understand this concept 100% and have confidence that they can handle such a large guard type breed then this is not the dog for them. With the right owners the Boerboel can make wonderful pets.


I just thought you all should know the kind of dog you can expect to see running around with us in the future.

Catching Up: Highlights from the last two weeks

- I had scheduled my last two posts to post on Friday, May 27, and Monday, May 30 - both really early in the morning. They didn't actually post (or at least they didn't show up in RSS feed readers) until sometime in the afternoon on Tuesday, May 31. I don't know what's up with that, but I apologize for two untimely posts this week. I'll try to get to the bottom of that.

- From May 19 until May 28 we were extremely fortunate to be visited by my brother, Jaron. It was absolutely fantastic having him around for more than a week. He's a hassle-free houseguest, and I love his idea of "fun." We spent a lot of time at the park playing with his super-long-distance frisbee. After I threw it into the tree once (and he had to climb up and pull it down), we managed to have a really fun time with it. What we learned is that to play with that kind of frisbee, you need a field about the size of 10 football fields that has NO ONE else playing on it.

- Tuesday we checked out Red Rocks Park and amphitheater, which is one of the coolest sights to see around here (I think Jaron would agree). After that we headed up to Evergreen and did a mild hike that Elizabeth and I have enjoyed numerous times. When we got back to the city Tuesday night we went to a Rockies game. The Rocks lost the game, but we all had a fabulous time (it was $1 hotdog night... and the dogs were Hebrew National, which totally made it worth it).

- Jaron took me golfing. First time I had swung a club in over four years. I had a really good time. I birdied a hole for the very first time in my life. Jaron was a bit disappointed, because the 9-hole course had just two par-4s and the rest were par-3s. We both felt a little silly for having rented a cart. It felt like the equivalent of riding the escalator up 3 stairs.

- Last Friday Jase and Rachel arrived from Des Moines. They were here to pick Jaron up and bring him back to the Motherland, but they drove through the night Thursday so they could be here for all of Friday and spend some time with us. It was a fantastic 24+ hours. We went out to Red Rocks Park to run around a little bit. Later, we pulled out the Saint Louis Cardinals-themed cornhole set that Joel built for us last year. It was the first time we'd ever used them. They are AWESOME and we had a great time playing. Jase, Rachel and Jaron took off on Saturday morning. Spending time with my family always makes me want to move back to Iowa as soon as we possibly can!

- Monday (Memorial Day) Elizabeth had the day off work, and was signed up to run one of the biggest and most famous 10k races in the country - the Bolder Boulder. So we headed up to Boulder early in the morning for her to run. It was a really fun race. A lot of people put on goofy and funny outfits to run it, and there are bands playing all along the race course. Elizabeth finished well below her goal time, even without ideal training conditions the week before with family here and everything. I'm really proud of her.

- Today I had two wisdom teeth pulled. It was an interesting experience. They gave me an IV and I was "consciously sedated" during the procedure. I was told that after the surgery I probably wouldn't remember much of it because the sedative gives you a mild form of amnesia when it wears off. I remember it pretty well, though (I think). It didn't hurt at all at the time, but since the numbing stuff has worn off, it's gotten pretty painful. Fortunately, I've got a bottle of vicodin to keep me company. I can't really eat solid food, though.

That's the last couple of weeks in a nutshell. Now it's June.

How Swift Am I?

This morning Elizabeth made a jokingly insulting comment to me and I jokingly responded, "Why you gotta be so mean?" Then I said, "I'm just like Taylor Swift" (whose latest song includes the refrain "why you gotta be so mean?"). Then she laughed. I said, "What's so funny?" and she said, "Dear, you couldn't be less like Taylor Swift." I'm not sure what she meant by that. I'll let you decide whether or not I'm like Taylor Swift:

Family time

Yesterday we returned home from a week-long trip to California's beautiful Central Coast. Spending time with family is one of the greatest blessings of my life.

A few photos, followed by a couple of short videos (FYI: the videos were of much higher quality before going through Blogger's uploading process - not sure what that's about).

(We were both very tired) 

The little ones were dancing to a few of the ringtones on Elizabeth's phone.

Still dancing...

A whole lotta dough

There's an Oroweat (bakery) outlet store nearby that we just discovered about a month ago. It's super cheap. Today we went back for just the second time. They have a "punch card" where when you spend $25 you basically get three items for free. On Tuesdays, apparently, it's "double-punch day," so for spending $12.50, this is what we got...

Also, since we used Elizabeth's Old Navy credit card for something other than Old Navy, we also get a $20 Old Navy giftcard... so for twelve and a half bucks we got TONS of bread, buns and bagels, and twenty bucks to Old Navy. Not a bad shopping trip.

Ware

My wife bought a DeMarcus Ware jersey the other day. We got it for her because a) she's wanted a Cowboys jersey for awhile now, and b) every Friday for her job at Dick's Sporting Goods employees are encouraged to wear an NFL jersey.

Today she was telling her dad about it on the phone and I overheard her say the following...

"It's a DeMarcus Ware jersey. He's a really good player on the defense. He sacks the quarterback. Often. He's really cute too. I like it when he takes his football helmet off."

For the record, I think he's kinda cute too. And my wife knows quite a bit about football. Just thought you should know.

Alright, Iowa!

This is the obligatory post-Iowa trip post. I had hoped to blog fairly frequently during our trip, but I was unable to, so now you have to suffer one long all-inclusive post. To see pictures (and there are only a few) you'll have to read this whole thing (or scroll to the bottom!).

• Left home just before 4 pm last Thursday. I essentially walked out of my Thursday afternoon class, drove home, loaded the car, and left. After we accidentally missed our exit and took what I like to call "the scenic route" to find our way back to the right road, we made fairly decent time to Lincoln.
• Stayed in Lincoln on Thursday night... slept in a KING SIZE bed (which is always a highlight for me). We were able to sleep in a little bit on Friday since the next leg of our trip was shorter and we didn't have a real pressing time we needed to be in the Quad Cities. Our hotel offered a fantastic hot breakfast, so I took full advantage.
• Rolled into the Quad Cities at a little after 3 on Friday. We stopped off at Joel and Pam's. We greeted Joel and Micah (Pam was gone and Gabriel was sleeping) and checked out the in-progress Cornhole set Joel was working on for us.
• Headed to Elizabeth's parents house, where we'd be staying for the duration of the trip. Visited briefly with her whole family. Her parents had an obligation Friday night, so we went out with Clay (Elizabeth's super fun brother). We had dinner at Bennigan's and then went to the cheap movie theater and saw Salt (really good movie).
• Saturday Elizabeth and I were joined by her dad on our 9-mile run on a beautiful path through Davenport. The weather, by the way, was aMAZing for our trip. Highs were between 65-75, and no humidity the whole time. Reminded me of Denver weather with Iowa scenery. Kinda weird, but incredibly great.
• Saturday afternoon we attended the wedding of one of Elizabeth's best friends. It was a really great wedding, with a fun reception, great food, and we got to spend (all-too little) time with a couple of other friends of Elizabeth's from high school.
• Sunday we went to Northridge for church, where we met up with Jase and Rachel, Joel and Pam (obviously), and Jaron and the friend he brought with him from Texas. My grandparents and aunt cousins were there too. It was SUPER great to see everyone! I sat in between Jaron and Jase during the service, which turned out to be a not-so-good idea. We're all too big to fit comfortably on normal-sized seats, so we were quite friendly with each other. At one point, Pastor Doug made a comment that made Jase and I giggle, and we eventually both just lost it. I could not contain my laughter. Every time I giggled my body shook a little, so even though I wasn't making any sound, Jase would feel my laughter and that would get him going too. It was a cycle that could not be defeated.
• After church we all went to Joel and Pam's and hung out all afternoon. We played a little catch outside, had a really fantastic lunch and dessert (thanks, Pam!), and sat around chatting. Then we got Tropical Sno and then went disc-golfing in Long Grove. Turns out I'm awful at disc-golfing. I'm pretty sure I hit every tree on the course at least once... including one throw where the only tree anywhere near the path toward the hole was about a foot and a half tall and it was about 50 yards away. I hit it. It was actually an incredible shot.
• Sunday night Elizabeth and I had dinner with some of her extended family. We had brats and chatted with everyone.
• After dinner we headed back to Joel and Pam's where we all played Loaded Questions and laughed our heads off... almost literally.
• Monday morning was the "Run with Carl." Elizabeth and I were supposed to run 3 miles for our marathon training on Monday, so we had signed up, along with her dad, to run the 5k "Run with Carl." Joel drove into Bettendorf and ran it with me, which was incredibly nice of him to do. I really enjoyed it -- this was the first real "race" I've ever been in. I was more or less satisfied with my time, and I felt really good all during the run, even though it poured on us for about 10 minutes of it.
• After the race we showered and then went back to Joel and Pam's. We all decided to have lunch and dessert, but in reverse order. We drove to Whitey's for ice cream, then ordered some Casey's pizza, which we ate while watching Wipeout on the computer.
• Shortly after lunch, Jaron and his friend took off back to Texas, and then Jase and Rachel had to get going back to Ames. I was in desperate need of a tough-to-find journal article for one of my classes, and the nearest library that had it was in Dubuque, so Joel and I dropped Elizabeth off at her parents' and drove north. I had a really great time hanging out with Joel on our mini road-trip... but then we got to Dubuque and they didn't have the article (even though all signs indicated that they did). The student worker at the desk didn't seem to have much of a clue, either. We went to two other higher-education libraries in Dubuque where we struck out twice more on the article. So we headed back to the Quad Cities, having failed our quest -- but enjoying our time nonetheless.
• Monday night Elizabeth and I had a redbox night with her family. Turns out The Backup Plan is an awful movie (Joel and Pam warned me).
• Tuesday we took a 5-mile run in the morning. After lunch Elizabeth went shopping with her mom while I did some homework. In the afternoon Elizabeth and her mom and I had chiropractor appointments in Clinton. After the chiro we stopped at a few more stores to do some shopping. We went back to her parents' house for dinner, then we headed to Joel and Pam's one more time to pick up our finished Cornhole boards and say good-byes (thought I had a picture of the Cornhole boards Joel built us, but I don't -- I know for sure he has a picture of us with them, so he'll have to post 'em for you. They're impressive!).
• Wednesday morning we were on the road at 7:00 (Central Time), and we got to our place in Denver before 6:30 pm (Mountain Time) for a total of less than 12.5 hours on the road.

Some other tidbits:

• Elizabeth counted and determined that in 4 full days in Iowa I ate 11 desserts and drank 6 soda (for you Californians)-pops (for you Iowans). So I'd say my marathon-training diet is looking pretty great. But I'll have you know that it was worth it. My 11 desserts included TWO Tropical Snos (fabulous), and multiple different kinds of ice cream including home-made (YUM!!) and Whitey's (YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).
• We really got to know our new Camry on this trip. We put almost 2,200 miles on that thing in less than a week.
• Came pretty close to hitting two possums, a couple of deer, and a cat (just missed it) while in Iowa.
• While on our way back through Nebraska on Wednesday, we had to call 911 to report a drunk driver. When we called we weren't sure if he was drunk or falling asleep, but he kept drifting out of his lane really badly. Nearly hitting a couple of other cars, and almost driving completely off the road. Right after Elizabeth hung up with the 911 dispatcher, the guy DID drive completely off the road and down into the median. Rather than it jolting him awake and scaring him and making him reconsider driving while impaired, he drove right back up onto the road and kept going. That's when I got especially nervous -- and pissed off -- about the guy. Oddest part? He was in a company truck. Elizabeth has called the company to not-so-kindly ask them to get their deadly drunk drivers off the road so that my life can continue to be lived.
• At the Run with Carl on Monday we ran into a couple of college friends we hadn't seen in awhile. That was fun.
• Funny moment: At one point Joel looked out the window of his house and noticed that a little boy and his teenage sister were approaching his door to try to sell him something. He began to groan about it, but then in an instant his eyes lit up and he raised his finger in an I-have-a-great-idea kind of way. He exclaimed, "Quick! There's a gorilla suit in the closet!" Both he and Jase sprung off the couch and flew down the stairs. In just a matter of moments Joel was dressed like a gorilla... and that's how he answered the door. It made me laugh pretty hard. We're a weird family.

New addition

That's right, we have a new member in our family! He doesn't have a name yet, but he arrived just this afternoon. Don't have his specific length or weight either.

This is our new (used) 2002 Toyota Camry. (We're having the tint on the windows removed in the morning.)

A lovely mountain trip

On Sunday we were able to take a drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park. This park has become one of my favorite places on the planet over the last couple of years. It's just gorgeous. It was a picture perfect day for the trip, too. It was about 80 degrees in Denver, 76 in Estes Park, and as you drove up Trail Ridge Road further into the park, the temp dropped quickly to about 62. Just beautiful.

We packed a picnic supper. Stopped at a lakeside picnic area to eat and enjoy the beauty.

This was the lake we were beside. How awesome is this?

We pulled over at about the highest point in elevation that the road hits (the road can be seen in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture). Then we hiked up the mountain a few hundred more feet. I think being above the treeline in a place like this really does make you feel like your on top of the world.

All in all, we had a very leisurely road-trip up to the park (we were still driving our very nice new-model Chevy Impala rental car at the time, and that's a comfy ride). Then we poked around the park for a little bit, mostly making our way through it on Trail Ridge Road. As I said before, the weather was perfect. The scenery was breathtaking. Our picnic supper was tasty. At one point we pulled over and saw a huge elk with antlers the size of most mini vans about 25 yards away, which was beautiful. Then, a little bit further down the road, we pulled over because we saw... a MOOSE!!! First time either of us had seen one of those. It was awesome. Those things are stinkin' HUGE. He was probably about 40 yards away, but then he made his way toward the road until he was about 15 yards away. He seemed a little nervous about the people looking at him, so he decided not to cross the road right there (good thing for drivers -- if you hit a moose, your car and possibly your life are in real trouble!) and meandered back into the woods.

If you continue on Trail Ridge Road it'll lead you out of the park on the opposite side, so then we had a longer road-trip home, but it was a path through the mountains we'd never gone before, and as the sun fell low in the sky and the shadows lengthened we were able to take in even more mountain beauty! This was pretty much a last-minute trip idea because my wonderful baby brother let me know about free National Park weekend, but it was so relaxed and beautiful that it really refreshed us both. We felt like we'd taken a whole vacation, even though it was only about an 8-hour trip from start to finish!