Flashback - May travels

OK so I admit I am not a very consistent blogger. I will try to improve! Since I work on the computer all day supporting Hewitt web apps, I don't often feel like signing on after hours to post to my blog, unfortunately. But I will try to get better about squeezing in blogging sessions here and there.

During one of my blogging hiatuses (hiatii?), we went on a whole bunch of weekend trips during the month of May. So I thought I'd back up a bit and post some quick pics and videos from back then.

Our first weekend trip was a visit back to the Chicago area for Jorie to help lead a Premier training session. We stayed in Deerfield at the Hyatt thanks to an awesome deal we got on Hotwire. I think it was about $50/night - at the Hyatt! Anyway, we also met up with Jason and Roxanne and Annikah for our very last Chicago visit with them. :(




The kids had a great time at the Kohl's children's museum. Silas and Annikah were, as usual, extremely cute together. After the museum, we went to JayRox's place for some hanging out at the beach and park, some Chicago pizza, a little Mario Kart Wii, and watching the kids chase each other around their condo like wild animals. It was hard to imagine that things would never quite be like that again, since JayRox are heading off to Africa. If you're not already following along with their journey on their blog, I highly recommend you check it out. Jason's got a great story about going to see the new Batman movie in Kenya in one of their recent posts too.

Funny quote from Silas during this trip: Joel and Silas met a boy at a park and Joel asked what his name was. The boy said, "Mark, M-A-R-K." Joel and Silas looked at each other with shocked expressions and then Silas looked at us and shouted, "His name is Daddy!"




After Joel bought this macaroni and was "checking out" at the little cash registers, Silas started piling Joel's macaroni back into the cart. Joel shouted, "Hey! I already paid for that!"


The next weekend, we drove down to Nashville for the Lauer cousins reunion. It was a great time of reconnecting, sharing goofy stories, swimming, and eating way too much. Jim and Rhoda graciously watched the kids all weekend so that made traveling, especially the loooong drive from Cedar Rapids to Nashville, much more manageable.



Everyone enjoying their "Five Guys" burgers

Tessa and Evan, Jorie's youngest cousins. Evan is the same age as Joel.


Then, the weekend after that, we headed to Des Moines for the Dam to Dam half marathon. I ran it, along with Jim (father-in-law), Justin (bro-in-law), and Roxanne (sis-in-law). Also, several other friends from our church ran in it as well. Although I didn't do as well as I had hoped, I think it was overall a positive experience for me and I hope to train and run in another half marathon someday and run a much steadier pace. Here's the changes I'll be making for my next run: (these are good tips for all you aspiring runners out there)

1. Sleeping pills - I was a bundle of nervous energy the night before the race. Add that to the strange bed, noise of the city outside, and snoring Silas in the same room, and I only got about 3 hours of sleep before the race. Ugh.

2. Better prep for training runs - I planned very carefully what sort of things I wanted to eat and what sort of things I should avoid eating in the days leading up to the race. I put no such thought into the days before my long training runs, and as a result, my training was not as effective as it should have been. Particularly my final training run, which I ran while in Nashville. I had spicy Jerk chicken the night before at this awesome little Caribbean restaurant. Unfortunately, my digestive system did not think it was so awesome, and it pretty much ruined my final training run. It was supposed to be a breeze of a 10-miler and it ended up being an 8 mile struggle with many pit stops throughout.

3. Train on hills - All my training runs were flat, with the exception of one time I went out and purposefully ran in a hilly area. I should have been doing that once a week. Just before I got to mile 10, I was feeling great and I felt like I could run the rest of the race at a good pace. Then I hit mile 10, and there was a steady uphill climb from mile 10 to mile 11 and it totally drained me.

4. Don't start out at your fastest training pace - Justin specifically warned me about this, but I messed it up anyway. He said, "Run the first half of the race at a very comfortable pace, then if you are feeling strong, you can pick it up and go a little faster in the second half." This is GOOD advice and I recognized at the time that it was good advice, but I still didn't follow it. I tried to run at my fastest pace I had ever gone on one of my long training runs, (about 8:40 per mile) and hold it for the whole race. With better training, and more sleep, I might have been able to do it. But on race day, all it meant was that I had a great first half of the race, and a horrible struggle for the second half. I had to take several walking breaks throughout the second half of the race and even when I ran, it was probably no faster than a 10 minute pace.

So, hopefully, I'll follow my own advice and have a much better run next time. I definitely want to run another half marathon, and I know I am NOT ready to attempt a full marathon yet until I can feel great about how I finish a half.

Animals Invade our Yard

We have had all kinds of crazy wildlife sightings around here lately, right in our yard. We have some kind of berry trees that dropped all their berries in mid-June, both in our front yard and back yard and we have been seeing all kinds of animals hanging out and enjoying the free food.

I first spotted a raccoon while mowing the lawn one night. I was shocked it actually came out into the open while I was mowing, and only about 25 feet away. It must have really wanted those berries. Raccoons aren't all that unusual around here, but this was just the beginning.

The oddest thing that we've seen in our yard, and he's been back several times, is this large wild turkey. We got to see him take off and fly for a short distance right down the middle of our street too. Who knew turkeys could fly? (I guess Les Nessman was right after all -- see if anybody catches that reference, leave a comment if you know what I'm talking about) It didn't look like it could keep it up very long though, looked like hard work.




A few days later, we spotted a good-sized deer. It was a buck with medium-sized antlers. He seems to be a bit of a loner though, as we haven't seen him with any herd. He is actually our most frequent visitor, but we haven't managed to get any pictures of him, as he always decided to dash off just as we pull out the camera.

UPDATE: Got pics and a video of our deer friend, who we have nicknamed "Bucky". Or sometimes, "Bucky the Vampire Slayer". And he does indeed always come out at dusk.




Our last visitor likes to hang out in our yard for hours and just sit and munch away. It's this guy:
He really makes me want to start constructing little animals out of C-4. (that's an easier one, I think -- it's not just a blog, it's a pop-culture quiz!)

Joel is 4!

Joel turned 4 on June 25th and we enjoyed several birthday celebrations throughout the week. The first party was at Grandpa John's house, with my extended families. My dad went all out with great food from the grill and a Thomas cake for Joel with a little train that actually chugged around on top of the cake. The cake was a big hit with Joel and Silas, as were the presents he got from Grandpa and Uncle Tim and his great Grandmas and Grandpa. When Joel opened a card that had a dollar bill inside, he was really excited to be receiving actual paper money. After that, whenever he opened a card, he'd say "No dollar" then immediately close it back up. At first, I thought, "Oh great, he has the wrong attitude about birthday cards already." But then I realized that if you can't READ yet, opening your own birthday cards isn't too exciting, and really, that dollar bill is the best hope you got for something interesting. So I cut him some slack.

Silas and Great Grandpa Leo were very cute together





We had a mini-celebration at Jorie's Aunt and Uncle's house for Joel, where we broke open a "Cars" pinata. The kids loved it, but the pinata proved a bit too tough to break for the little guys, so Uncle Jason finally destroyed it with one powerful blow. Unfortunately, our camera was out of batteries at this point, but if I get some pictures or videos from others who were there (hint hint) I will post them later.

On Wednesday night, Joel's actual birthday, we brought the boys to their favorite destination, the Iowa City Mall and Children's Museum. When we got there, we were disappointed to learn that the museum closes at 6pm on weekdays and it was already 5:55! Ouch! But we took the kids inside and let them play for about 10 minutes, and then we went to the food court to have dinner. The kids ended up having a blast doing other things at the mall, like riding the carousel and playing at the kids' climbing area they have there, so it wasn't a huge deal that the museum closed early. We promised we'd come back another time when we could have more time to check out the museum. They have a new dinosaur exhibit which looked very cool and which I'm sure the boys will have a great time exploring in more depth.

Digging for fossils at the Dinosaur exhibit

Silas loved riding with Stuart Little

Joel is piloting the helicopter





After the mall, we picked up a special birthday cookie treat and came back home and Joel got to open some presents from us.





Finally, on Friday Joel had his first real kids' birthday party, (this is birthday celebration number 4, if you're keeping track) where he invited a bunch of his friends and they got to play at the PlayStation here in Cedar Rapids for a couple hours. The PlayStation is like a McDonald's playplace on steroids and the kids all totally loved running around inside of it, jumping in the balls, sliding down the slides, and basically bouncing off the walls the entire time. Grandpa Jim, Grandma Rhoda, and Aunt Annie and Uncle Justin also came to this party and they enjoyed seeing Joel and Silas and their friends interacting. Annie and Justin will soon be joining us in the land of little kids, with baby Schumacher on the way! We are very excited for them! Annie has also started a blog, so please check it out if you want to follow along with baby Shoe's progress.

The room is all set up, and the boys are anxiously waiting for the party to begin

Joel chose "Cars" as the party theme this year and we got this great cake at Hyvee

The ball pit was one of the highlights of the PlayStation for the kids. These things are pretty rare, nowadays, and I know why! I used to clean the ball pit weekly at Great Odyssey in Carol Stream when I worked there and it was a major pain! We had a huge vacuum that would suck up all the balls into bags made of netting, and then the bags had to be run through another machine that would clean them. It sounds pretty automated, but there were always problems with jams, and the whole process took several hours.





Present opening time was pretty much complete chaos. I think it always is at this age.

And finally, the big present of the week for Joel:

The Neuzils come to town

A couple weeks ago, our friends from our old church in Libertyville were in Iowa, and we got to spend a couple of fun days catching up with them. On Friday we went to the children's museum in Coralville and met Dale and Alissa, along with their son Jake, who is about Joel's age, and their twin girls Amy and Mya.

The kids had a blast playing together of course, and the museum (and the mall) is always fun for them. On Saturday, they came over to our house and the boys played together all afternoon. It was a beautiful day, so we got to take them outside for a while too, and we all went exploring in the little bit of woods by our house.

Here we are in the Lego room. See what Joel has chosen to play with? That's me, trying not to worry. Heh, just kidding around of course.

Jake has chosen to play with a more masculine toy. Joel doesn't care, he wants the princess castle. (more pictures that Joel will love when he gets older -- "DAD, why did you let me play with THAT?")


Amy and Mya are very cute and also very GOOD, which I'm sure is a major blessing to Dale and Alissa, given that there are TWO of them. I can't even imagine having two Silas's running around here -- total mayhem. The girls took good naps on both days we visited with Dale and Alissa and they seemed to be fairly in sync with their sleeping/eating schedules, but still, we could tell Dale and Alissa always have their hands full.

More pics and vids with Annikah

Here is some more entertainment from Annikah's visit to Iowa. (This is going back several weeks now - as usual I have some catching up to do)






I'm sure the kids are just gonna LOVE all these pictures of them kissing their cousin when they get older. (note: sarcasm)

I love Anni's expression here. I imagine her saying, with a sing-song voice, "You'll never guess what I did!"

Happy May Day

Hola! This site is long overdue for an update, so here goes!

We've finished another busy month here in Iowa. Jorie had 11 jewelry shows in April, so things have been a bit crazy around here. So much for a PART-time job with Premier, but it is a good thing that business is booming, since summer is often a slower time. Fortunately for us, Silas has been getting over his ultra-dramatic stage the last couple weeks. It looks like he just got some huge molars that came in on top, so I think the teething was contributing to his lousy mood and oh-so-frequent tantrums. I've been busy too, with training for a half marathon. I am running the Dam-to-Dam in Des Moines the first Saturday in June. I've been steadily increasing the distance of my runs for the past 2 months or so. This weekend, I'll be running 9 miles!

Here's Joel and Silas playing at the playplace in Iowa City Mall. This is currently the most requested destination around here. Mainly because the Children's museum is there, but they do have lots of other cool stuff like a Carousel, an Ice Rink, and this kids' Play Area.

Cousin Annikah has been visiting us frequently this week, since she is staying with Grandma & Grandpa while Jason & Roxanne are on vacation. A week in the Caribbean with no kids - yes, we are jealous. Watching Annikah and Silas interact is always a blast. Silas loves to give hugs and kisses - Anni puts up with him for a while, but eventually she's like "Enough is enough, man!" We are sad that Anni will soon be moving to Africa for so long, since Jason and Roxanne will be going to the mission field. It is really hard to imagine her growing up through the toddler years and missing out on it. But hopefully we can do some online chats so the kids will still feel like they have a relationship.





Silas has been amusing lately with some cute antics. One thing we discovered is that he really is quite the little thespian. We tell him to do "Poor Silas" and he makes this pitiful face and says "Poor Silas" in a mournful tone, and then he can immediately switch back to laughing hysterically. One night around the dinner table we were all trying to do "Poor Silas" but we were laughing so much none of the rest of us could do it without cracking up. But Silas can throw a switch and go from laughing to pretend-crying and back again very convincingly and it is quite hilarious. He also likes to suddenly shout, "Oh no! A monster!" while he and Joel are playing and then he goes racing around the room waving his hands over his head and laughing like a loon. Pure silliness.

The boys showing off their new shark raincoats
A few weeks ago, the boys got to meet Bob and Larry at the local Christian bookstore. Silas was terrified, as you can see him clutching me in the picture, but Joel was cautiously interested. He said Larry made him nervous though, because he was "even bigger than Daddy".

Hot tubbin' with Grandma Rho

Put that on the blog!

That's what Joel has been telling me over and over lately, so I guess I'd better do it, before all this stuff falls out of my head. In Joel's own words, "Whenever something is funny or cool, you need to put that on the blog." This comes up even with fairly mundane things that I would never include, for fear of boring all 3 of my faithful readers to death. For example, I pointed out one of Joel's baby carrots he was munching on and said, "Look at that one, Joel, now that is a fat baby carrot." He laughed and said, "Fat baby carrot?! You should put that on the blog!"


Joel actually told a pretty funny joke the other night, although I guess it was more of an impression. We were all munching on popsicles for a treat, and Joel and I were joking around about how the popsicles make you feel cold, but being near the fireplace or wearing socks makes you feel hot. (Joel is always taking off his socks and saying, "I was hot") Silas was listening in too, and he piped up and said, "Silas, hot!" We chuckled and then Joel imitated Silas's intonation and said, "Joel, cold!" (Silas refers to himself in 3rd person, typical for a two-year-old, but Joel has long since grown out of that phase) Hey, for a 3-year-old, that is pretty sophisticated humor. I laughed a lot, anyway, and so did the boys.

Here's Silas with his kitty that he now carries almost everywhere. (This was a gift from Great Grandma Leo from a while back) He calls her meow-meow and she goes with him to the gym, the mall, the park, on car rides, etc.


Joel loves knock-knock jokes, but he doesn't understand what makes them funny. He enjoys the ones Jorie and I tell, where the words actually make a new and unexpected phrase, but he also enjoys completely nonsensical ones. Example of a Joel knock-knock joke:
Knock-knock.
Who's there?
Candle.
Candle who?
Candle refrigerator! Haha-haha-ha!

My favorite knock knock joke: (I think it's from South Park?)
Knock-knock.
Who's there?
Interrupting cow.
Interrupting co--
MOOOOOOO! (Trust me, it's hilarious out loud)

A really cute thing I have noticed about Silas is that he is extremely polite. (When he's not having a tantrum, that is) He will say "thank-you" for anything you give him, even if it is intangible, like information or even a diaper change. After a diaper change, he says, "Thank you, Mommy!" And often he'll find me and ask me, "Jo-jo!?" (translation: "Where's Joel?") I'll say, "Joel is in the kitchen." Silas will respond, "Thank-you, Daddy!"

Cedar Rapids held an Easter Egg hunt at the mall and the boys had a blast. This was taken just before the doors opened.

Gotta brag about Joel's genius here for a minute, so please excuse me for going into bragging-Dad mode. The other night, Joel and I were working on puzzles, which is one of Joel's favorite new activities. These are little 35-piece puzzles which we can assemble quickly, so Joel likes to do a few before bedtime most nights. He likes to "race" me where we each work on a puzzle and see who is faster. Even if I work my fastest, he is often about 80% done when I finish. Anyway, the other night, I thought I'd show him how we could make the puzzle a lot harder. I disassembled it and turned over all the pieces, so we could not see the picture. I started explaining to Joel how we could solve it by finding the corners and the edges and figuring out which pieces fit together. While I was talking, I was finding some pieces that fit together. After a minute or so, I had about eight pieces connected, in several clumps, and I looked over at Joel to see what he was doing. I was shocked to see a perfect rectangle of 6 pieces (all middle pieces - no edges) that he had assembled without looking at the pictures. I'm still not sure how he did that.

Some other random quotes:

Joel recently asked this question: "Why don't Grandma and Grandpa have a baby?"

I was asking Silas about his doctor visit, and I asked him if the doctor listened to his tummy with a stethoscope. Joel suddenly piped up, "I'm listening to my tummy with a golden graham!" Sure enough, he was holding a golden graham against his tummy with one finger.

The other night, Jorie was telling Joel about how the shamrock plants (she got one somewhere around St. Patrick's day) close up at night and she said, "They know how to go to sleep." Joel replied, "They go to sleep without any stories?" Awww, poor plants, no bedtime stories for them.

Our family on Easter morning. We enjoyed an excellent brunch at Grandma Rhoda's after the morning church service.