Here we go again

Yet another bulleted list to catch up for my severe and chronic lack of posting.

• I went to Spain from June 10-25. I spent two weeks traveling around the country with 17 Catholic school girls. Yes, spending that much time with teenage girls was just as annoying as it sounds. But it was good being in Spain again.



• While I was in Spain, there was apparently a little flood around here. Our house was fine, and all of our friends were unaffected as well, which makes us pretty lucky.



• We spent a few days in July on vacation with Colleen's family. Her two sisters flew in and we all went to Lake Geneva, WI.



• Upon return from Wisconsin, Colleen flew to Seattle for the National AP Conference. This not only gave her more time with her sister Erin, but also a surprise visit with Donor and Jenniffer!



• We spent the last weekend in July not only packing for our big move, but heading to Chicago with our friend Wendy for the Neil Diamond concert. He did all the big hits, including "Sweet Caroline", which got two encores on its own right in the middle of the show. For a minute, I thought the rest of the show would just be the chorus of that song over and over again. It was a pretty great show, made even better by the middle-aged man sitting next to Wendy who spent the entire show openly weeping. I wish we would have found out what it was about Neil Diamond that reduced this man to a tearful, slobbering mess.



• At the end of July, we closed on our new house and left our days of renting behind us. We are now all unpacked and looooove the new place! Ben really likes his new room and having lots of space to play in.



• Ben has been having a rough week because he is getting his molars. He seems to be miserable and is having trouble sleeping, but it looks like the teeth are making progress and hopefully it won't be much longer.



• Ben is also on the verge of walking. He took two steps on his own last night, but in general seems content with crawling to get where he wants to go. He does enjoy climbing up the stairs in the new house to get to his room every night at bedtime.



• I have been accepted to the MBA program at the University of Iowa. I am in the Cedar Rapids program, which means I will still teach during the day and go to class two nights a week right here in the Crapids.



• I can't believe school starts again for us next week. The summer has flown by!



• To conclude, here is a gratuitous Ben picture:
  

Sweet Jesus

It is easy to forget about this thing. Here comes the quick catch-up bulleted list!

• went to Seattle for Spring Break. Yeah, it was great. If you want the rest of the story from below, call me already.
• We spent most of April house hunting. It has been decided that in lieu of the Ph.D. that I had my heart set on, an MBA is my ticket out of teaching high school. So we are sticking around and I am applying to the MBA-PM program at the UI--they do evening classes in Cedar Rapids.
• We found said house the first week of May. It is a townhouse built in 2006 in Marion. 3 bedrooms, all upstairs, 3.5 bathrooms, 2 car attahced garage and finished basement--complete with full bar. We love it and are excited to move in July!
• Ben is now crawling everywhere and pulls himself up to everything. Eight teeth and all kinds of food--sweet potatoes, squash, prunes, pears, peas, peaches, apples, bananas--he looooves bananas. He is getting to be such a big boy.
• I leave for Spain on June 10. My friend Jackie is taking a group from Xavier and needed another chaperone--so I am going! Yippee! I get back on June 25.
• this school year is never going to end. ever. guh.

Seattle--Part Two

OK, so after a short delay, here is more from Seattle:
We spent the second day at Seattle Center, up to the top of the Space Needle. The first picture is another from Pike Place Market, followed by the Space Needle one.

After the Space Needle, our handy Seattle Pass included admission to the Pacific Science Center, so we checked out the exhibits there. Ben liked the dinosaurs, especially when we put him inside the dino footprint model:
On Tuesday, we ventured out to the Zoo in the morning. It was a pretty chilly morning, and not only were we a little frostbitten, the weather apparently had its effects on the animals as well. Most were hiding somewhere in their ultra-realistic enclosures (which made it too easy for them to hide from view, in my opinion). And then we came upon the sleepy wallabys:
There were about 6 of them all in this enclosure, and I think we got a picture of the peppy one. We cut the zoo short, after dodging all kinds of unruly kids (gotta love vacation during Spring Break). On the walk back to Erin's apartment, we stopped for sandwiches at Paseo, a place so cool and local that it doesn't even have a sign outside. The sammies (as RR would say) were out of this world. Roast pork, banana peppers, spicy mayo, on a toasted roll--amazing! We kicked it at Erin's place for most of Tuesday, giving Ben (and us) a much-needed rest!

Seattle--Part One

Over Spring Break, we took our first family vacation to Seattle to visit Colleen's older sister, Erin. Here are some pictures from the first couple of days of the trip.

Ben and I wait for the shuttle bus at O'Hare. We parked at the long-term parking lot, then somehow managed to get on and off the shuttle bus, onto the tram to the terminal and then through security to the gate. Colleen carried the stroller and Ben and I had all four suitcases.

Colleen's sister, Erin, and her boyfriend Dustin met us at the airport in Seattle. We were the first ones in the family to get to meet Dustin, so we took copious notes to share once we returned :)

Our first full day in Seattle was Sunday. We spent the day exploring Pike Place Market, watching the fish throwers and enjoying a cup of coffee from the very first Starbucks ever.

mmmMMMmmm...crabs.

More pictures to come later, including our adventures at the zoo and Ben's first Major League Baseball game!

Five hundred twenty-five thousand...

Instead of buying each other presents for our first anniversary, Colleen and I decided that we would get tickets to see Rent when it comes to Cedar Rapids on May 1. Colleen hasn't seen it in several years and I haven't seen it since I was in London in 1999. I'm pretty excited to see it on stage again, although part of me inside keeps saying "What kind of cast do they send to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a one-night only performance?"
Oh well, if it isn't good, it won't take much to convince Colleen to head to Chicago for a day this summer to see Wicked again to get my good theater fix.

6 months already?!

Last week, we celebrated Ben turning 6 months old. Well, we didn't really "celebrate". But we are amazed at how fast he has grown. It is unreal how much has happened in the past 6 months.
Friday, we went to visit my parents and on Saturday morning, we went to have his picture taken. I was planning on a few pics for family and Ben's scrapbook. But we walked out of the place with a ridiculous amount of pictures. I will post some here below.
Easter Sunday was a nice, quiet day with just the three of us. We went to mass at Saint Patrick's, then came home and had a big Easter dinner. Colleen made ham with a cranberry-bourbon glaze, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, and an angel food Butterfinger dessert. It was awesome.
Next week we are heading to Seattle for Spring Break to visit Colleen's sister. We plan on taking in a Mariner's game and touring the Nintendo facilities, where we are going to get a Wii. Fun, fun, fun!!
Here are the pictures. Go Hawks!

GO HAWKS!

We celebrated Valentine's Day by taking Ben to his very first Hawkeye game. Unfortunately, the men's basketball team lost to Michigan. Maybe we should have taken him to a wrestling meet first.
He loved Carver. He just kept looking around and would get mad when Colleen turned him to face away from the court. He was so tired, but kept fighting sleep. Eventually, he caved in and fell asleep--much like the Hawks