Proud...

I'm so proud of what my wife has accomplished in these short few weeks with starting her new business. I don't know how many times I heard her question what she was doing and ask me if she was doing the right thing, but I do know that she feels much better about it now. She is 4 weeks into her first 6 week session of spinning classes and I can't wait to see what is in store for the future. She is enjoying every minute of it!

I took the day off of work on Monday so that I could help out with her photo shoot that she was having. We ended up rolling the bike over a block away so we could get some good shots, like the one you see below. For the entire sneak peek from Lisa Coots-Schooley and Davis Photography check out the link, here.

Stay tuned for more updates in the near future, Alexa will be working on a website and getting that up and running soon! If your interested in taking any of her spinning classes she has another 6 week session starting October 10th that you can sign up for. Give her a call at 319-241-1230 or e-mail her at fitness.vitality@gmail.com

Thanks Lisa for the great time, and the amazing pictures, I
can't wait to see how the rest of them turned out!

My little outfielder...

So those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting our child, here he is... Kip.

There was one thing that I really wanted when Alexa was looking at getting a puppy, and that was one who enjoyed to play fetch. I don't know how we ended up with the one dog who will run himself dead to go after a ball, but we did.

Second, only to wrestling other dogs, playing fetch is Kip's favorite pastime. No matter how far or in what direction you throw the ball, he is usually there to pick it up and trot back (he doesn't run very fast back). One of the things that we have recently acquired was a tennis ball thrower. Being a former shortstop and quarterback I was a little leery of why I needed a tennis ball thrower so I give it to Alexa and she uses it to throw the ball back and forth to Kip. A few people have commented on what it must be like to have me as a dad, throwing a ball to go and fetch. (It's still up in the air on whether Kip enjoys the long throws or not.)

Here are a few pictures and videos of our (now grown up) puppy, playing fetch. So if you ever see us on a walk carrying a ball, you'll know that Kip's day is about to be made!

Sometimes, even though Alexa doesn't approve,

Kip and I play in the house as you can see above!

He tends to get a little distracted when returning the ball, we're working on it!

One thing that Kip has mastered is catching the ball in the air, he loves to do this as you can see!

It's a Party!

Every year, about this time Alexa and I spend a Sunday afternoon helping out on Dwight and Bonnie Sanders' farm. For what reason, you may ask? To transform their yard from your typical farmhouse, to that of a pumpkin farm.

Alexa and I spent a few hours out there this afternoon helping to pick pumpkins in the field, place them (gently) in the truck and haul them back to the house. I think I heard before we left that there ended up being 37 truck loads brought onto the farm from the field, including big pumpkins, small pumpkins, squash and gourds. It was a great time (and very hard work), but we had a lot of fun! It's something that we look forward to each year, as a reminder that fall is just around the corner. So here is a look at our day through a few pictures:

Here is Alexa enjoying the perfect day, carrying her pumpkin to the truck.

Here is part of the pumpkin-picking crew.

Alexa, loading pumpkins in the truck to Jason.

My job-title... pumpkin catcher. I was on the truck all day

catching pumpkins and (carefully) placing them in the truck.

Alexa, again carrying pumpkins to the truck.

Here is one of my masterfully loaded trucks looked like when we were finished.

We did about 6 loads similar to this during the afternoon.

Here are a few pictures to show you what the farm looks like

after we get through with the fall-season transformation!

If your interested in visiting their farm this fall, here is a map of where they are located. We definitely had a great time again this year and look forward to returning to pick out our first pumpkins for our house!

The Knack

I think in the past Alexa has referred to me on this blog as an Enginerd. She learned this phrase from my roommate this past year, Andy. So what? I enjoy crunching numbers and look at the cost of driving to a different gas station to get cheaper gas (it's called total cost). I was shown this video by a friend and thought it would give people (especially Alexa and Andy) a good laugh!

So that video was kind of a low blow to me and my profession, so in order to regain my street cred (what?) check out this video showing the awesomeness of Engineers!

I thought you would like it! Enjoy the rest of your Friday!

September 15th, Really?

Where does time go?!? Sorry for the long break in posting... lets just say that we have been extremely busy the last couple of weeks. So I just thought I would fill you in on what is happening with us.. then hopefully we will get back to regular posting. However, I'm not making any promises as we have many exciting things coming in the near future that will keep us busy (no there is no baby on the way). Other than that, Payton has been staying busy at work... okay really busy. I have been staying busy teaching spinning and going to school, which is taking up way more time than I would like it to, but that is usually how it goes.

On top of that we have done a few things to our house over the last few weeks.

The first one.. we painted two of our three porches.. and let me tell you this was a job. But they do look much better. Take a look...

(Check out the cute bench I found!)

We also have been working on remodeling our bathroom. So far we have just painted it, took out a cupboard and medicine cabinet and replaced the old lights. Here are a couple of pictures before, well as we are working...

(You can see where we took out the cupboard and the medicine cabinet)

And here is the new color...

There will be more pictures coming when we get completely done...

We have also been training for a triathlon we competed in this past weekend. It was the Cy-man at Big Creek State Park. I wasn't really too thrilled to do it, but I did. And I hate to say it, but it was fun and not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I only wanted to quit a couple of times, all of which were on the running part. But I made it through and it felt good afterward. I finished with a time of 1:29.44 and Payton finished with a time of 1:22.46 We both did really good and are very impressed with our times. We both agree that spinning helped us out tremendously as we had not really been training too hard before and we hadn't swam in over a month. Here are a few pictures.. sorry no action shots this time.. I didn't allow spectators to come and watch this one...

This is taken before the race... I was sure it was going to be the last picture ever taken of me... I'm glad it wasn't

And here we are after the race.. Alive and Well. You can tell we are both much happier at this point!

And we gave ourselves a treat after it was all over...Hickory Park!