Apartment Swap

A little less than a year ago our apartment flooded. You may remember reading about the lovely event here. A couple of times since (and once or twice prior), it's happened again on a much smaller scale. After just about every heavy rain (which is fairly rare here), at least a small bit of our carpet somewhere ends up wet.

About three weeks ago we got hammered with a major storm, and we woke up on a Thursday morning with wet carpet throughout much of our apartment. It took them from Thursday morning until Monday evening to get our place livable again. It was frustrating, but we're flexible enough people that we survived. Still, with all of this water that's sat in our apartment over the 3 and a half years we've lived in it, we were sure there was mold and probably other organisms making a nice little home out of our home. We sat down with the manager of our apartment property and politely demanded that something be done. We reached an agreement that they would transfer us to another comparable unit for the same price and on the same lease term we were already on. And we got them to give us a reduction on our rent for June, since we were unable to live in the apartment we were paying for for a few days.

The following Thursday, we left for an Iowa/Illinois trip whose purpose was primarily twofold: 1) We had a friend getting married in Illinois, and 2) We hadn't yet met our newest nephew, Judah, who was born in March. Along the way we got to see each of my brothers & sisters-in-law (though for much less time than we would've liked!), and Elizabeth's family too.

We got back from our trip last Monday night, and had a move date of Saturday. So we had about 4 days to pack & prepare to move about 300 yards away. To make a long story long (but probably not as long as it could be), we got moved on Saturday in the 104-degree heat with the help of some wonderful friends who loaned time, toil, and trucks.

This whole post is really to tell you this little bit of info: Our new apartment has the exact opposite floor plan of our old one. As you look at the kitchen, the fridge is to the right instead of the left. The light switches are located on opposite sides from what we're used to. Everything is backwards. So, for the last few days, both Elizabeth and I have had numerous embarrassing moments where we can't find what we're looking for because we're looking where it used to be placed. It's been a little humorous (except when you have to pee in the middle of the night and run into walls and trip over dressers on the way to the bathroom).

Gloria In Excelsis Deo

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...

Wanna know about our Christmas festivities?

Pam does.

On Thursday, December 16, less than an hour after I finished my last class of the semester at Denver Seminary, Elizabeth and I hit the road for a weekend trip to Iowa to celebrate a friend's wedding (Elizabeth was the bride's personal attendant), and an all-too brief family Christmas with my in-laws.

We did a short leg of our trip on Thursday evening, and then drove the rest of the way to Fort Dodge, IA on Friday. Friday evening we had the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It was fun to see some friends from college we hadn't seen in a long time.

Saturday morning Elizabeth got to spend some one-on-one time with the bride-to-be over coffee. Then we got ready and headed to the church for photos. After the wedding was the reception -- some more fun with old friends and lots of laughter (and LOTS of COOKIES). We said our goodbyes and headed back to the home in which we were staying (the bride had hooked us up with some family friends who were incredibly hospitable and made our stay in Fort Dodge very comfortable).

Sunday morning we grabbed some breakfast and then headed a couple of hours south where we met up with Elizabeth's parents and brother in Des Moines. We went out to lunch and then headed to the Des Moines Civic Center where we took in a production of The Nutcracker. It was fun! After the show we all went back to the hotel where we hung out for a bit and ate some more REALLY good cookies, baked and brought by Elizabeth's folks (cookies were a big part of the weekend -- and probably much of the reason Elizabeth's been sick for the last week!).

On Monday we drove all the way back home here to Denver (along the way, I swear to you we saw Santa Claus driving a semi truck through Grand Island, Nebraska).

Last week was spent with me working more than usual (the other admin assistant in the church office was out of town for the holidays), and Elizabeth working more than usual (working retail around the holidays is typically not a lot of fun), and both of us trying to purchase a few presents for the other. Elizabeth had to work on Christmas Eve and so was not able to join me at our church's candlelight service, but she didn't have to work too late.

Christmas morning we slept in (until, as Cliff Huxtable would put it, our eyes just POPPED open!). We opened presents. We watched a little bit of A Christmas Story (because I'd never seen it -- verdict? I agree with my wife: it's one of the more obnoxious movies I've ever watched, and I only watched about the first 35 minutes). We made a huge brunch (biscuits, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, etc.) which tasted delicious. We watched White Christmas (our annual movie tradition, inherited from Elizabeth's family). We pretty much hung out and relaxed. In the evening, we watched the Cowboys game. Then we went to bed.

Any questions?

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.

"...let all you loyal Iowans sing..."

"We have so much time and so little to do! Wait... strike that... reverse it."

Elizabeth and I (Lord willing) will be hittin' the road sometime Thursday afternoon to make our way to the eastern end of the great state of Iowa. We've got a friend's wedding on Saturday, and some hanging out with family for a few days after that.

We are REALLY excited about our trip. It's far too rare that we get to hang out with family, and we're really looking forward to it. (Another reason I'm excited is to drive our new Camry for an extended period of time. Go ahead, call me a nerd -- I love to drive.)

Unfortunately, we each have about ten gazillion (give or take a few) things we have to take care of before we leave, both job-related and home/life-related.

Here's to hoping we get everything done in time!

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!

A few recent photos

We're Rockies fans... but they're our second-favorite team. The only time we're not rooting for the Rockies is when they're playing the Cardinals. The Cards were in town last week and we were fortunate enough to find some really cheap tickets to one of the games. The Rockies swept the Cards in the three-game series, which was kind of a bummer, but it was great to get to go to the game. Even more great was the fact that the day we had tickets, both teams were throwing their aces. We got to see Ubaldo Jimenez pitch for the Rockies, and Chris Carpenter was the Cardinals hurler.

Here's a Jimenez-to-Albert Pujols pitch, taken from our right field upper deck front-row seats (really great seats, actually):

Jimenez ended up having the better pitching day. Even though our preferred team didn't win, it was nice to see Jimenez pitch so well, because even though he's having an unbelievable year, his previous 4 or 5 outings hadn't been all that great. Here's us at the game. The guy sitting next to Elizabeth was kind enough to offer to take our picture, even though we were in "enemy red."

The rest of these pictures are from our anniversary night stay at the Hotel Teatro in downtown Denver. Neither of us had ever really stayed in a "luxury" hotel before. It was extremely nice. I was reading through the notebook of services and amenities they offer while I was sitting in the room, and I came across one paragraph that said if you desire a running companion on your daily jog they have a majordomo (or "Zazu," as I like to call it) who's willing to run with you. What? Crazy. Anyway, the service was really really great (as you should probably expect from a high-end hotel). We booked our room through a website called Perfect Escapes, and when you book through that company, they put a complimentary bottle of wine in your room for when you arrive. So this was waiting for us on the coffee table in the room:

When one of the hotel managers found out we were celebrating an anniversary he also sent us up a complimentary bottle of champagne (don't worry, we didn't even open them both)! At one point I came out of the bathroom to find my wife curled up in the hotel's bathrobe on our king-size bed (most comfortable I've ever slept in, I think) with a package of Twizzlers on her lap (one of her favorite indulgences -- I bought them for her as a gift, though I've probably eaten as many of them as she has), and a glass of champagne in her hand. I laughed and told her I had to get a picture. She's really sitting in the "lap of luxury."

We had a really great time. Even though it was only about an 18-hour getaway, we were able to really relax and de-stress a little. We had a nice dinner out, we got to sleep in the next day and then go out for coffee and breakfast. And since our hotel was right in the heart of downtown, we were only a few blocks from everywhere we wanted to go. We were about a block off of Larimer Square, which is one of the more happenin' areas of the city. Really fun!

RMNP

Wednesday afternoon we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park, because a) National Parks are free this week (through Sunday, I think), b) that's the closest one to us, and c) it's one of the prettiest places I've ever been.

We had a really great hike, but we didn't get all the way to the summit of our trail because the trail became covered in snow as we went up in elevation, and we don't have the proper gear for hiking through deep snow. We also didn't continue along the trail because the forecast called for a lot of rain, and it looked like it was moving in pretty quickly. Fortunately for us, we made it back to the car, then we drove through the park for a ways and got to see some pretty views, and it wasn't until we were leaving the park that it began to rain.

Here are just a few of the photos from our hike and drive. In the third photo you can really see the darkening clouds start to swallow up the mountains. That was happening right before we made our way back down and out of the park.

Iowa trip, briefly

We went to Iowa last week. We were there from Wednesday evening through Sunday morning, and we didn't see the sun once. It was okay, though. It wasn't THAT cold, and it never really rained on us, it was just foggy and sometimes misty and VERY wet because of the buckets and buckets of melting snow.

It was a fabulous trip, but quite busy. We got to see my whole family. Elizabeth's parents took time off work to come to Ames and hang out with us for an afternoon too. Her brother Clay hosted us for three nights and he was far more gracious than he needed to be.

Oh, and on Saturday night, Jase and Rachel got married.

CLICK HERE to see a facebook photo album from our trip.

YAY!

Family's here! We love it when stuff like this happens. Mom, Dad, Jaron, and the five younger kids have all stopped off here to hang out with us for a few hours while they refresh themselves from a long day and night of driving, as they prepare for another long night of driving.

It's really wonderful having them all here, but it always ends up being a challenge too. Our little one-bedroom place isn't fit for 10 people. We grilled burgers, hot dogs, and italian sausages for supper. It was all really really tasty (I was quite proud of my grilling-for-a-huge-group-of-people skills). It was also really fun to do. I like being able to prepare meals for my family... but as I shared with my parents tonight, it's sort of like going through a tornado. There's some normal preparation work, and then when things start coming off the grill it's complete chaos for about 10 minutes while the food hits the table and all the kids need a hot dog, a hamburger, ketchup/mustard, apple juice, silverware, corn, and whatever else it takes to eat their meal. Then as quickly as it started, it's over, and there's a huge mess to clean up (and if they're lucky, adults get to eat). I know that this is nothing new, and all of you with kids probably think I'm a moron for thinking this is a topic worthy of blogging about, but it is, so back off. My blog. Not yours.

California trip: Part 5

Wrapping up our California trip. These pictures are from our last day, Saturday, as we took our time heading down the coast, stopped at the zoo, had some lunch, and hopped our plane home.

This was a weird looking bird at the zoo. I'm pretty sure there's a lady that goes to our church with this same haircut.

The monkey in the middle with his head on upside down is Brian.

This is my always intelligent-looking brother, Jaron, who joined us when he finished working Saturday.

Can you guess who this is?

Jaron and his fiancee, D'Ann!

Cristian. What a guy.

A.J. Nice haircut!

Brian was showing me the shirt under his Lightning McQueen shirt. He was more proud of the Red Green look than the Cars look.

Bringing the good looks to the house full of boys, it's Ana.

And I just had to post our "funny face" picture from Friday night. Who's the funniest?

Dad. Hands down.

A few videos from the California trip

Here are a few of the videos I shot in California. They all feature Brian.

This is the "Rainbow Song." The lyrics are "Red orange yellow, green blue purple, God made the rainbow, sprite! sprite! sprite!" We're actually not completely confident that "sprite sprite sprite" is the word that's being repeated at the end, but that's what it sounds like.

This is the pledge of allegiance. He really thinks it ends with the words "play ball."

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

California trip: Part 4

And we just keep on rolling...

Got to Pismo Beach JUST in time for a few good sunset shots

The family

It looks like there's a log in the ocean, or a spillway... but it's just the wave crashing

Mom and a very happy Brian

I like the color blue, and I like this picture of the town of Pismo Beach

Brian was still quite happy

This is my dad's favorite

Melanie likes to be like the grown-ups by resting her feet on the ottoman, but to do it she has to lay her whole body across the opening between the sofa and the ottoman. We think it's hilarious.

Grandma came over for dinner!

Aunt Aimee and Uncle Jack brought their family for dinner too!