Nolan's Five!

We went to the Fair with the Steffen Grandparents, Uncle Jarod and cousins Marlee and Miles to celebrate Nolan's 5th birthday. We ate Fair food and rode a few rides before coming back home for cake and ice cream.

Grand Champion

We went over to the Fair to look at all the 4H projects. Alex got GRAND Champion in the computer category. I was pretty proud of that. I think in some ways it has to help my 'street cred'. :) So it was fun to see all the ribbons on his poster. He also got a blue ribbon for an electric project that he and I did. It's a good educational experience for him to learn these things.

Later, Alex and I went over to the park for a car show. These are the cars that participate in the annual Rensselaer Cruise Night. They bring out their hot rods and drive around town. There are a lot of neat classic cars...Mustangs from the 60's, Chevy's from the 50's, etc.
I took Nolan and Emma fishing over at our little pond. Nolan caught a little bass. Now that he's learned to cast by himself he likes to go over and fish. It was a lot of fun and a good day of quality family time.

the Fourth

We spent the day at "the pond." It rained the entire day. A few people got in the water but most of the time was spent playing games. We got together with Heather's family.

logged toilets

So, I'm checking my fantasy baseball team at my computer last night and I hear Nolan yelling frantically from upstairs, in tears, something about the toilet. It doesn't sound good so I run up and find water pouring out of the toilet onto the floor. Great. I easily get it un-clogged and start working on cleaning up the mess at which time I think, "boy, I wish Heather was up here." Fortunately for her, she was out watering flowers at the time. But then she gets enough messes to deal with when I'm not around. Well, we soon discover that it actually wasn't Nolan's fault, it was Emma. It had clogged on her earlier and she didn't tell anyone because she didn't want to get in trouble. So, guess who helped dad clean up the mess!


Later Nolan was talking about how he wanted a brother (meaning Alex-his older brother) when he was a baby. Don't think he understands the concept but anyway, Heather asked if he wanted a sister. He said, "Yeah but not one who 'logs' the toilet."

Fun times.

Perfect Storm

You know how when multiple things collide and the "perfect storm" is created. It's that way for me with all the construction going on in West Lafayette. The off ramp from I-65 to 43 is closed so I can't go to work that way. They have one lane blocked off on US-52 part way between US-231 and Purdue campus making it longer to go either to or from work on that road which is what I usually take to get there. On top of that, they're working on the parking garage and have half of it blocked off making it difficult to maneuver in there and they are doing HVAC work in our office so we are temporarily set up in a room on the second floor of our building. Sometimes I really envy my Dad's commute...a five minute walk from his house to downtown. This is one of those times.

RVL at GLM

What an amazing weekend we spent at Gull Lake Ministries (GLM).  I had been waiting 18-20 months for this weekend specifically.  Ray VanderLaan (RVL to his friends) came and spoke on the Kingdom of Heaven.  When Heather and I taught Sunday School to the Sr. High, we went through two studies put out by "That the World May Know" that were taught by RVL.  This was how I became familiar with him and I thought they were extremely beneficial to my understanding of the Scripture.  So when I found out he may be coming to Gull Lake, I was pretty excited about the opportunity to hear him teach in person. 

The sessions were great.  We spent approximately a total of 17 hours listening to his teaching.  He had so much content and still didn't get through everything he would have liked. 

We were fortunate to spend the weekend there with Heather's family (her parents, brothers family and sisters family).  We all met up there on Friday afternoon.  The cousins all had a fun time being together and playing too!

Ray VanderLaan teaching at GLM.

Emma w/ her strawberry ice cream.

Marengo Cave

This past weekend, I took a group from church for a retreat to Marengo Cave Park.  I used the same disposable camera that I used when Alex and I went a month ago so I was finally able to get our pictures developed from that camera.  Here are some pictures from our caving experience.