Vacation!

Hey folks!  We have lots of pictures this week and that's all that really matters right!?  We're coming off a busy couple of weeks with weddings, vacations, moving, and baptisms.  Let's see if we can hold it together, okay?!

First things first, congratulations to Rick and Jackie on their beautiful marriage!  It was such a great time with a great, great ceremony, great, great location, and a grand ol' reception that followed.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and thanks to my father for watching Daniel so that we COULD thoroughly enjoy ourselves.  Although, when I got home, Daniel told me that he was a little jealous that he missed the dancing portion.  He has a killer moonwalk.  

Daniel's suave looking

Congrats to Rick and Jackie Elsasser.  GREAT addition to the family!

I was also able to enjoy some time with some old high school friends at my 10 year high school reunion (I know, I know..I'm getting OLD).  It was great catching up.  Unfortunately, we missed a big fireworks extravaganza in our neighborhood, but it sounded like it was a real BOOMER! (Thank you, Jen for watching Daniel...also, thanks to my sister, Tina for watching Daniel when we had the Bachelor/Bachelorette party before the wedding).  We were able to have my father and Kate's parents over for July 4th and I made some burgers that were either charred beyond recognition or practically still in the packaging..not my brightest moment...BUT..I'll never give up, never surrender.  Keep on trucking.  I won't back down...etc...etc..I've turned into an old curmudgeon though for our Independence Day.  I'm not as big a fan of fireworks or flaming lanterns or whatnot.  It kept my son awake, almost caught my house on fire, and made mowing a big pain as half my lawn is littered with debris.  I guess I should lighten up (no pun intended)...but whatevs.  I've been there before.

Loved it.  Although...he IS a boy.

Vacation time!  I had a presentation at our NSBA summer workshop in Crete, NE (it went very well) and headed up to Glenwood, MN to meet up with the rest of the fam.  It was a nice drive until it got dark and I entered Minnesota.  The bugs were just really bad and the storms were quite intimidating...but I overcame it and arrived amid little fuss.  The weekend was great.  So nice meeting so many people, relaxing, swimming, golfing, walk/running, playing cards.  I'd say sleeping, but sleep was a little off because of our...well...umm...yeah, I'll just say it, our wonderful firstborn.  It wasn't terrible, but we always worried about our roommates waking up, so we spent much of the night coddling our young one so as not to cry and awaken our compadres. Thank you so much again to Grandma Ruth for setting up our cabin and everyone else who organized the event.  So nice.  We'll have some pictures below.

Traveling happily!

Danny and Dani.  She was SO helpful (along with many others).  Thanks!

Grandma Ruth's siblings.  So cool.

Taking care of his lil' cousin...although she looks terrified.

Sisters playing with Aunt Leona.

Walking with Grandpa E.

Lots of singing going on here!

After Glenwood, we headed to Minneapolis to stay at a hotel and see the Mall of America (MoA if you're local).  We did so with Kate's brother and his family.  It was a grand ol' time.  We swam in the pool, ate some pizza, slept lightly, shopped, ate at a restaurant that had a fire in the kitchen and had to close down WHILE we were eating (we finished our food and got out...don't worry).  It was great.  Following there, we headed to see some of my family in Fairmont, MN.  Thanks to my Aunt Tammy and Uncle Randy for hosting us.  It was such a blast and I only wish we could have visited more.  LOVED IT!  Got to spend time with my Grandpa too.  Really a great time.  He has a new cat that's a lot of fun to HANG with.  Thanks, Grandpa.  

Jack and Taylor.  Hanging out before we head to MoA.

Dad and son....and Mader (spelling?)

We arrived home on Wednesday...I think and have been keeping busy with school/family stuff since. Congrats to Jen and Queño on Elaina's baptism!  She's going to be a wonderful person (she already is)  It's been a great couple of weeks and summer's drawing to a close more quickly than we'd like to admit, but...hey...I'll never complain that I get to enjoy as much as I do.  Keep looking to the stars!

Baptism, sad I missed it, but it looked wonderful.

Just lazing around with his Uncle and Aunt.

Reading at a 1st grade level...upside down, but we'll take it.

He's practicing to be a chameleon.

Sleepy pants.  No..I'm serious, look how tired those pants are!

Face paint or food...

Alright...no puns..let's just wrap it up here.

10 Months!

We've hit the ever-popular 10-month mark!  That's right, 10 months ago, Daniel was being born right around now.  Way to go, dude!  A lot of exciting stuff has taken place in the past month in our lives and we still got lots of excitement left.  On Friday, the whole Elsasser clan moves north for a family reunion of our Grandma Ruth's siblings and family.  I think I speak for most when I say we are extremely thrilled for it to come.  I also was graciously asked to do a presentation at our NSBA summer convention which also happens this Friday.  What a cool honor.  Very stoked to do it.

Working backwards, this past week, Kate's final unmarried sibling, Rick wed Jackie.  What a fantastic wedding and reception.  We'll certainly miss the weddings, as they were so much fun, but I still got one left on MY side.  Daniel behaved very well for the ceremony and slept quite well for my father who watched him that night.  

Out of order, but I don't feel like "backspacing", so I had my 10-year high school reunion this past weekend.  I know...I know...I barely look over 15.  So kind of you all to notice.  It was great though.  So many classmates and it was great to meet their spawns and significant others.  I should have taken more (or any) pictures, but it looks like it will be stuck in our memories (or other cameras).

Let's see, we had some bachelor(ette)((sp?)) parties, middle school band camp, hanging out, swimming...just been a very nice summer so far!  Although it's already nearing it's close for us, it's not done yet!  Enjoy some pics!

Just HANGING around

Looking a little DOWN there, buddy!

Hey, am I seeing DOUBLE?!

Working hard or HARDLY WORKING?!

Captain of the BOWLing team?!

Good guitar technique.

Hey...take a STAND!

Summah Blog

Hey folks!  It's been awhile.  I'd say I've been busy, but goodness gracious I'm on summer break.  We're taking advantage of our first summer as a family and it has been quite nice.  Gee willakers (sp?), it's been a bit since I updated so a lot has happened.  School's out...as I stated earlier, but I just wanted to reiterate.

Since summer has started we've been keeping busy.  It'll be a picture heavy week (I had a former student say that she basically just looks at the pictures anyway.  Internet nerds call that TL;DR (stands for Too Long Didn't Read).  We spent a day at the zoo (Kate had a second visit today with a friend).  That was a nice bunch of walking.  I hadn't been there for a looong time, but I loved it as always.  Daniel liked to watch the monkeys.  I think it's because he recognizes them from the pants he wears with the monkey on the butt.  

We also spent a day camping at the LAKE OF THREE FIRES near Bedford, IA.  We did so with some friends of ours and it was great fun.  We're going to head back there some other time and try for the overnight thing.  I'm just not quite ready for that yet...we'll get there though.  This is out of order, but we celebrated Mothers' Day for Kate's family on Memorial Day.  We have a great field by our house so...what do the Elsasser men do when there's a big open field???...Golf baby.  It was a good time though.  Lots of good food.

We've been running lots of errands, doing lots of yard work, cleaning a bunch around the house, going out with friends, visiting the splash pads at Shadow Lake, moving dirt at our church, working at our schools, fishing with friends...just keeping busy.  BUT...in the essence of becoming long winded (I DID take a few weeks off though), I'll move on.

We had Daniel's appointment yesterday.  He weighs 22lbs 14.5oz (83rd Percentile) .  He's 29.5" long (86th).  His head is 18.5" around (90th).  The doctor said that he's lowering in the weight/height percentile, but he's making up for it with his large noggin.  Way to go son, so proud.

Here's some pictures!

Daniel protecting cousin Elaina.

I've decided that I'm going to tell Daniel when he's older that the style was wearing your pants way up high.

He's actually holding a ladle too. 

Camping with our friends.

Hanging at the splash pad.

Hanging with his homie...Joe HOMAN that is.

Kate spraying Daniel.  Don't worry, he loves it.

Daniel's friend the penguin. 

From our visit to Auburn.  Pre-shave and a haircut............2 bits.

Playing with Grandma Elsasser.

Probably one of my favorite pictures. 

Golfing in the field. 

So I missed a week...

 

Daniel's finger picking is coming around...

 I'm so very sorry everyone.  This past week has been...well..interesting.  Regardless of my explanation, I know that many of you will not accept it and reject this blog altogether.  I sincerely apologize.  It was not my intention to harm any of you whether it be physically or emotionally.  Anyways, here's been our week.

RIP

We woke up last early Sunday morning (about 5am) and noticed Kate's car was outside when it started to hail.  We got her car the hail in the garage and something kept nagging me to look out the back window...I was surprised how much our bushes had grown overnight because they now seemed to be on our deck.  Nope...surprise!  Homeowners for 1 month and our tree blew down.  Ijole!  Another thing you should know about me...I can be pretty cheap.  I was not prepared to drop any sort of money to have this thing removed.  All I needed was a chain saw (did not have) or a handsaw (did not have)...thankfully I DO have good friends and family who helped us out.  In particular, John Kool (borrowed his chain saws), Jason Cooper (showed me how to USE the chain saws), my Dad (did a TON of work), and Pete Madsen (especially a big help getting the stump out).  

Check out our new hole...that'll be fun to climb.

We're getting something out of this bum deal.

Basically every free moment of light was used to work up this tree.  The stinky part was that I also had a busy week of auditions, concerts, and graduation...it made for a stressful one for all of us.  BUT, we prevailed.  It was quite sad because we were looking forward to watching Daniel grow up and play in the tree.  It was a good one for climbing.  We decided we're going to plant a new one and watch him grow up with that one.  It'll be a neat thing.

Daniel's helping do yard work by whining. 

Another exciting thing that happened May 11th was our niece was born!!!  Elaina Rose Martinez was born 11:58 am 7 lbs 9 oz 20 1/4 long.  Great, great, great looking baby.  They're going to be stellar parents for a stellar kid.  We're so happy for them and can't wait to watch Daniel and her grow up together.  Congrats, Jen and Queño!

He loves to run up to this blanket and just put his head down like this...one of my favorite things...that and raindrops on roses.

Well, school is winding down.  Summer (as we know it) is just around the corner.  We'll be keeping busy with this and that, but I'm just excited for lots of quality to family time.  We'll be out on the 25th of May and celebrating my 10 year high school reunion, traveling to family reunion in Minnesota, and hopefully doing lots of outdoor activities to get Daniel accustomed to...summer life =) 

Playing Hide and Seek.

Heeeey.

Happy Early May Day

In the tank.

I'm quite bummed to say that I will not be posting on May Day.  For all you enthusiasts out there, just know I'll have my May Pole up.  We're nearing the end of an exciting school year and my first one as a full-fledged father (I don't count the in utero stuff...or should I??) It's been a challenging one, learning to balance all of our lives, but what a stellar one indeed.  I ended this weekend playing in the pit for our high school's production of Oklahoma!  It was quite enjoyable.  Now, Daniel lays asleep (mostly) in his crib dreaming of his next bottle...and probably some toys too.  

Daniel is intent on learning to stand on his head before walking.

Katie was able to get Daniel weighed this week and we're puting him at 22lbs.  I'm not sure where that puts him on percentile scale..but ya now...

I want to take a quick break from your regularly-scheduled blog update and note that I think our dishwasher is haunted...it sounds like it is hissing at me.  It's a little terrifying sitting quietly in our living room minding our own business only to be provoked by my appliance...albeit a larger one.  I might go shut it off and see who's hissing now...yes folks, I'm actually thinking about hissing at my dishwasher....but it seems to have stopped..anways.

....we're thinking that's a pretty good weight.  We'll find out at his nine-month appointment.  Which, side-note, Daniel will be 8-months this upcoming Thursday!  Big dude!  He's so flippin' mobile now.  He's just all over the place.  He's also growing up with his appetite.  He's eating more solids and doing quite well.  Shout out to my wife for all the great food she makes.  

Insert Jaws Theme

Welp, I'm wrapping it up there this week. Enjoy!

Baby Pillow.  Don't worry, neither of us are really asleep.