Sparkles

Our Fourth of July celebration was pretty subdued this year. I mowed the lawn, we went the local water park, then after meeting the kids and I lit off some sparklers. Then we went to bed.

Kenrick is hoping the sparks burn out before they get to his fingers.


Daddy makes shapes.


Anthony spelling his name. Maybe.

Branching Out

Now that our family (and most everyone else) knows, it's probably time to formally announce that we're expecting another kid soon. So here it is:

ANNOUNCEMENT
Andrea's pregnant!

There, now you can't say we didn't let you know.

The baby's due late in the year, Andrea's already ready, we're all very excited. The boys are lobbying for a sister. If I can post some pictures of the growing bulge without Andrea taking my computer away and making me sleep in the garage I'll do it. Stay tuned.

Wall Drug or Bust

Soon after crossing the Wyoming border into South Dakota on I-90, you start to notice a pattern in the scenery. Ice cream at Wall Drug. Visit Wall Drug. Bus parking at Wall Drug. New T-Rex at Wall Drug. Free coffee and donut for hunters at Wall Drug. Shooting gallery at Wall Drug. Experience Wall Drug. Free ice water at Wall Drug. And on and on, every 300 feet or so (it seems), small signs and large signs, skinny signs and fat signs of various colors, all extolling the wonders of the pride and joy of Wall, South Dakota.





Do they really think that we're so susceptible to the power of suggestion that we'll be compelled to pull off and visit? This wide spot in the road in the middle of the Badlands can't have that much to offer can it? A drugstore? With a dinosaur! Who wants to see a shooting gallery?

Finally the Wall exit!


We pulled off to take a look. Bought a bottle of water and a bag of taffy. Passed on the jackalope mount. Now we know.

There and Back Again

We're home again from our annual pilgrimage West.

Here's what we saw:

• Four thousand, three hundred and two miles of America's finest highway system, from the rolling farmlands of Illinois and Iowa, through the Nebraska sand hills, the rocky deserts of southern Wyoming and the harsh highlands of southern Idaho, into the dry mountains of eastern Oregon and then back, skirting the northern tip of the Rocky Mountains along the edge of southern Montana and then down again across the north-eastern tip of Wyoming and into the Black Hills, Badlands, and tall grasslands of South Dakota before crossing into the familiar hazy hills of Iowa and the tall corn fields of home.
  
• Lots and lots and lots of antelope, a few deer, and one largish lump that may have been an elk.
  
• The vast grass land of South Dakota waving in the breeze like the Little House on the Prairie.
  
• Oil rigs, pumps, and pipes spreading like a web across most of Wyoming.
  
• Windmills on the hills and windmill parts en route to make more windmills.
  
• The Mississippi River, the Missouri River, and the Snake River
  
• More freight trains than we could count.
  
• A couple of A-10 Warthogs taking off in Boise and two B-1B Bombers coming in for a landing in Rapid City, SD.
  
• Bumper-to-bumper semi-trucks along I-80, motorcycles and motor homes on I-90.
  
• Traffic jams in Idaho.
  
• Grandpa Steve’s new tractor.
  
• Uncle Byron’s new house and new baby.
  
• Grandpa Scott’s new moustache.
  

We met friends in Boise that just moved from Michigan who where good friends with a young couple that just moved to Illinois. We saw some friends in Montana that are in the process of moving to Boise but know my cousins that live in Seattle from when they lived there.

Anthony got his second set of stitches.


We saw no fish.

We found Stuart’s new house and learned that retaining wall blocks weigh 62 pounds in the morning and 96 pounds in the evening. Dad got to drive the skid-steer loader. Auntie Meggan has a bump in her belly!

We enjoyed the company of Grandpas and Grandmas, brothers and sisters, numerous cousins, second cousins, cousins once removed, and many friends. Thank you all for your hospitality.

(Sam has a few more pics here)

Fish-less

On Tuesday afternoon uncle "Baja" Sam, recently returned from an epic expedition, took us out to the local watering hole to do some fishing and swimming. With cousin Cooper and grandpa along for comic relief and extra fishing expertise (not necessarily in that order) and mom along to record the event, the kids had high hopes of snagging something other than weeds.

Just going out in the boat was an adventure for the boys. Despite my expectations of at least one unplanned swim, neither pole nor kid was lost overboard. And Kenrick did a good job of keeping his jig out of the weeds, which is more than can be said for his dad. I was proud of them.

We saw lots of birds, including this Blue Heron.

And while the kids swam for a bit, the three Daddy's got a chance to hurl every combination of tasty bait imaginable into every promising hole and hideout.

But... NO FISH! Zero. Skunked. This is highly unusual considering claims of recent success by our guide, but on par with my limited experience. Better to start the boys out with a healthy dose of fishing reality, I guess.

We had a good time anyway. The kids will remember our mini-adventure, the sunburn will fade, and Sam's secrets are still safe.

Monkeys Watching Monkeys

A free day during our trip to Idaho found us checking out the animals at the Boise Zoo with grandpa. It's a decent zoo; not so big that it takes two days to see everything, but with enough interesting critters to keep the kids engaged. The monkey that dad fed a hot pepper-stuffed banana to when he was a teenager isn't there any more.

Here's a couple of critters checking out the Wyoming state dog.

Andrea got a nice shot of a couple of eagles.

The air is alive!

When mom was here (up in Chicago) last week she noticed a strange humming chirping noise that seems to be pulsing out of thin air. Them thar's cicadas. Every year about this time they come up out of the ground, climb whatever vertical object happens to be near (usually a tree), molt, then try to find a mate before they kick the bucket about ten days later. The try to find a mate by making the most tremendous racket you've ever heard.

Here's a better description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada

Anyway, this is the year of 17-year cicada, so named because it has been in the ground for 17 years and people remember their parents. The folks that keep track of such things expect an enormous swarm and proportional amount of noise. Which should be interesting.

I'll post a picture of one of the critters if I get a chance.

Ahhh, Glorious Silence...

The house is quite. Nothing goes crash in the night, nobody falls off their chair at breakfast time, daddy can read his newspaper from start to finish without having to attend to some minor emergency in between the sports page and the funnies. You guessed it: we're kid-less. Thanks to grandpa and grandma, we've been granted a short reprieve from the daily pandemonium.

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, but it's really nice to be able to carry on a normal conversation in the car.

Grandpa and grandma drove out last weekend and took the boys for what will be about two weeks by the time Andrea and I wander back west to pick them up again. They were very excited, and under the strictest of orders to be on their best behavior. Anthony repeatedly assured us that he would be a good boy: "I won't get into Grandpa's tools, daddy." We'll see.

So far the reports are good. Grandpa and grandma are holding out fine, the kids sufficiently worn out from the hotel swimming pools to keep from rocking the ship too much, and Rob and Andrea catching up on their sleep.

Thanks grandpa and grandma.

Sprouting Windmills

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that there was a new wind farm going in close to us. Boy, is there ever! We'd noticed a few sites where the windmills are going to be when we went out before, but we've been past there a couple times since and the dirt piles, access roads, and construction activity seems to be multiplying by the week. There are going to be dozens of the things in about a three by four mile swath of farmland and they're bringing in tons of material, and equipment to get it done. The boys and I went out again the other day to take a look.

This seems to be the steel support cage that is cast into a large concrete block which, I assume, forms the base for the tower.

The finished base. I don't know how deep the base block is sunk into the ground, but haven't seen anything yet that suggests it's much deeper than what is visible here. That doesn't seem quite right, knowing how tall the tower is going to be.

Just for a rough perspective, we met a couple of semis last weekend that were carrying the generator houses that sit on top of the windmills. We had to get off the road. The wide angle here doesn't quite convey the size of the generators, but they were big! I can't wait to see one of these hoisted a couple hundred feet off the ground.

Kindergarten: Done

Yesterday was Kenrick's last day of kindergarten. He learned a lot. Grew a lot. Still a squirrel.

His teacher was sad to see him go.


Anthony thinks he's ready for school too, but as you can see from the misspelled marker 'tattoo' on his arm he still has a hard time remembering his name.

Triathlon Survived

I finished the Galena Triathlon on Saturday in two hours, ten minutes, twenty two seconds - nearly six minutes faster than my time from the previous two years, but slower than my buddy Luke by less than a minute! Aaarrrrg! I started fifteen minutes behind him, and I knew it would be close when we passed a little more than a mile apart during the run - me going out and he coming back - but at that point the motivation to run faster than a hobbling plod just wasn't there. Oh well, much fun was had by all anyway.

Andrea and the kids were my official sponsors, and got a few photos.

Getting ready to go, pre-wetsuit. Not sure why Kenrick is looking so sad. Probably because I had to take his stylish yellow hat.

I'm probably the most excited about the swim portion of the race because for the first time I was able to relax a bit in the water and get into a good steady rhythm. I only paused few times to rest and look around, but didn't have to backstroke once! My swim time was much improved from last year. Must have been the lucky wetsuit!

This tri course is fun to run but not very spectator friendly so Andrea and the kids had to leave me at the start and drive to the finish (sixteen miles from the lake to Galena) before the start of the race. The next chance to take a picture was about an hour and half later at the finish of the bike ride as I entered the bike/run transition area.

It was fun to have them there cheering for daddy.

About forty five minutes and one monstrous hill later (two miles up, two miles down), Daddy crosses the finish line! I'm not really sure about this picture, it doesn't quite seem to capture my blazing sprint to the finish... I was sprinting, right?

Anyway, it really was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to next year and hoping to convince a few locals to try it with me!

Off to the Races!

This is the big weekend. I mentioned a while back that I'd signed up for the Galena Triathlon, and the time has come. We'll head up tomorrow afternoon and get checked in then run on Saturday morning. Swim, bike, run. It looks like the weather will be ideal for triathlon-ing.

I'm a little nervous, but excited too. I'm determined to beat my time from last year (which was 42 seconds slower than my first attempt!) and although I'm not in the greatest shape ever, I feel like I can at least do that. And I've got the "lucky wetsuit" to help navigate the ice bergs in Apple Canyon Lake - thanks to Don for letting me borrowed it - that's got to help.

So, I'll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck.

Corn: Part 1

The boys and I went for a drive this afternoon. This is what we saw.

That's corn, in case you didn't know, and that's what the Heartland is made of!

What we wanted to see was some construction on a new wind farm being built just 15 or so miles from our house, but the project is only just starting so there wasn't much more than a field office and some initial road work to access the places where the windmills will eventually be. I'll keep you posted.

While I Was Away...

I was in Iowa City all week for work, but found a couple of pictures on the camera when I returned:

Anthony seems to have taken over the family business.

The business of Talking to Grandma, that is. Serious stuff.

At least his finances seem to be in order...
Which is more than can be said for Kenrick. His account looks to be in the red already, not to mention upside down!

It was nice to be back in Iowa City. I got to see some old friends and had a chance to wander around a bit downtown. It doesn't seem all that long ago when we were there, buzzing around like the rest of the caffeine-fueled college crowd, but it's been longer than we want to admit. Anyway, we had good times there, but I can't say that I miss that scene; it felt awfully good to come home to our quiet little town and our quiet (sometimes) little family.