Father's Day Weekend

This weekend my parents came to Cedar Rapids to visit their grand kids and attend Autumn's baby shower. The shower was at Autumn and Reed's church. I think it's called New Life Bible Church. It's in Marion near their house.

The guys stayed with Reed and watched some of the Fifa World Cup. One of Autumn's friends classmates from high school stayed with us. His name is Nick Potts. He was the goalie on my soccer team when I was a senior and he was a sophomore. It was good to see him again.

When everyone got back together at Autumn and Reed's house, we had a baseball themed supper. There were nachos with jalapenos, hot dogs, bratwurst, chips, beer and soda. It was a great way to get in the mood to attend a Kernels baseball game.

This was Grayson's first baseball game. We tried to go last week, but the rain kept us away. He liked it a lot until the game actually started. When they announced "Play Ball!" Grayson got scared and started to fuss. Eventually he got used to it and fell asleep for a long nap in my arms. When he woke up, he did really well. He didn't fuss at all. He just looked around at all new things to see.

The next day was Father's Day. We all meet up at our house for a Sunday Brunch. Everyone brought a dish to share and nobody left hungry. I think as our families get bigger and bigger, going out to eat as a family is going to become more of a challenge.

Tyler and I were able to spend Father's Day with our dad for the first time in years. We took him to a pub called the Londoner. It is a new soccer pub that Tyler found in Cedar Rapids. We watched the Brazil vs. Ivory Coast match until halftime.

For Father's Day at my house, Trina and Grayson gave me a new Bulova watch. I've been hinting at it for a long time and finally gave up talking about it. I guess the hinting worked. Trina bought it two months ago and keep it a secret. I love it! Thank you Trina!

Food that doesn't come from a bottle

On Sunday, Grayson turned 4 months. See below his 4 month "monkey" picture in comparison with his 2 month and 0 month.

Grayson 0 months:

Grayson 2 months:
Grayson 4 months:Remember this is an 18 month size shorts outfit. He is now 15lbs 12oz. Boy has he grown!

This is a big milestone for Grayson! He'll be getting food that doesn't come in a bottle! On Tuesday we gave him baby cereal for the first time. It was so thin (how they told us to mix it) that it just ran down his face. I knew he was ready for cereal because he did a great job opening his mouth in response to the spoon and acutally did a good job entertaining the idea of eating off a spoon. The past two days we mixed it thicker and he ate everything we mixed! He was a tropper! After 2 weeks of cereal, we will introduce veggies, then fruits.

Grayson enjoying food from a spoon:

In preparation Tanner and I spent some time last weekend making our own baby food. Here was the general process:

1) Buy produce.

2) Bake/Cook/Prep as needed.

3) Process in baby food mill (eventually we will be able to use this mill to get any food to the right consistancy without additional steps).
4) Process with hand wand mixer, to get it thin enough for a first food.
5) Divide into small containers.

6) Freeze.
7) After realizing the containers take up too much space, remove frozen food from container and put "cubes" into freezer bags.We made him avacados, green beens, bananas, peaches, butternut and acorn squash, and sweet potatoes. We bought pears, but they aren't ripe enough yet.

We look forward to our little guy eating "big boy" food.

Road Trips

Grayson is finally big enough for his Jump-a-roo. I'm not really sure if that's what it's called. I think I heard Trina call it that once. We now have a much smaller living room. Last weekend we went to Tim and Erin's wedding just outside of Omaha. It was the first time that we were able to meet Erin. Unfortunately every time we had a chance to sit and talk with the couple, someone else had the same plan. I guess that's what happens at weddings. We wish the couple a very happy life together.Here are a few of my high school classmates. Left to right; Kate, Abby, Trina, Tanner, Tim, Tony and Dina. After the reception, Trina and I went to a bar with Tony and Dina. The girls enjoyed being on the dance floor, and I enjoyed leaving the dance floor.We didn't bring Grayson with us that night. We were lucky enough that Trilby could watch him overnight. It was the first time that we were away from him for very long. We really enjoyed our time to our self. Grayson and the rest of the family met up with us near Sioux City the next day.

There was a bachelorette party and wedding shower that the girls attended. I'm sure someone will blog about the crazy things that happened.

Grayson says hi!

Goodbye Grant Wood

Today is my last day around the students at Grant Wood. I'm really going to miss them. I look forward to seeing their names in the the sports section of the Cedar Rapids paper. Starting next year, some of my Grant Wood students will be attending Washington High School. I've seen a lot of growth from my students over the past four years. I'm proud to say that I taught these kids.

Above is a ariel view of Grant Wood School. This picture was taken by a coworker in a hot-air balloon. I spent the majority of my time in the top left corner of this picture. The gym appears to be pretty small, but it is a pretty good size compared to other elementary school gyms in Cedar Rapids.