A Christmas Miracle

We started a new holiday tradition this year. The kids got dressed in their PJs. We then loaded them in the car, stopped for some ice cream, then did a tour of Christmas lights. Grampy, Grammie, and Auntie Meg joined in our inaugural parade of lights, and it's safe to say nothing was more impressive than this collection of illuminated Santas, elves, reindeer, and snowmen on Hovey Street in Normal. Granted, Amy and I have seen this collection several times in the past, but in five years here, this was the first time we've been by at night for the full effect.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Soaring then crashing

Flying high on her mom's feet was a pretty good place to be for Maya. The kids are both doing well, despite being ridiculously tired tonight. So tired they'd passed the point of feeling tired. "Something in my body is telling me to stay awake," said Owen after he'd hopped out of bed five minutes after I'd left him there. So I stopped, grabbed at his belly and pretended to remove the thought from him. "Lay still for 15 minutes," I said, and I'll check on you." This always works. He was out in a heartbeat, no need to even check.

And now the photo …

The system still has some kinks.

Mobile blogging

A photo of the kids at bath time is the highlight to my first attempt blogging from my phone. October was crazy with a heavy performance schedule at work, school for the kids, soccer lessons for Owen, a new set of job responsibilities for Amy, welcoming Grammie and Grampy Ives as the newest residents of Normal, Illinois, and being with Nana for another round of cancer treatments.

Oh, and Halloween.

Life took so much time there was none left to write about it.

Anyway, fingers crossed that this new application will work and that bringing the blog with me will be just the thing to keep it up and running.

Special Person Night and soccer begins

Owen welcomed Auntie Pam as his guest to Special Person Night at Sugar Creek Elementary last night. It was an opportunity for him to show off his room and his school to a friend or family member who maybe hadn't had a chance to see his school space. The event also coincided with the school's book sale, a fundraiser that sent us home with three new books to read at bedtime last night.

And after a walk up to school and back, both kids were very tired.

Although not as tired as they were on Tuesday. Owen began soccer lessons on Tuesday at a neat indoor gym facility in town. The class is focused on the fundamentals -- dribbling the ball, inbound passing, kicking toward the goal -- not competition, which is perfect for Owen. He was very excited about starting his class, and he had lots to show me when I got home later that night. I'm looking forward to going to the class with him next week.

Here's a photo of him doing his warm-ups.

Birthday weekend #1 ... a visit with Nana and Grandpa

Candles were extinguished, mountains were climbed, Mayalopes were discovered, swings were swung, and much, much more when Nana and Grandpa visited us last weekend.

Preceding a trip to Massachusetts to visit Uncle Daniel, Nana and Grandpa came for a visit which included a pre-birthday birthday party for Amy, an introduction to Owen's school, and a lot of other fun.

It was also a special weekend for us to share some extra TLC with Nana. She's been such a trooper battling all of her health issues over this past year, and it was fun to have long chances to visit, play games, and get in all sorts of hugs. Everybody took a turn.

The rest of the first week ...

Regrettably, the first week of kindergarten was cut short. Maya came home from school on Tuesday night with the flu. She'd thrown up at school a few times, and a sack of potatoes until she fell asleep early that night. Owen got up in the middle of the night feeling sick himself. Both were home Wednesday and Thursday, and Owen's symptoms lasted through Friday.

It was a crummy way to begin his first week of school, missing three of his first five days, but he was ready to jump in the next week, so rested from all of his sickbed time that he absolutely wore us out with his energy getting ready on Monday!

The First Day of School

Owen had his first day of kindergarten on August 23. He was very excited about the day, as were we, and it really was fun. Amy and I walked him to school and were there for the first hour-long day to help him get situated at his desk, explore the room and school, and meet his teacher Mrs. McCoy (seen at the far right in the picture below).

Sugar Creek is a very nice school. They just completed a major addition to the building last year, including a new gym. The rooms all have smart boards, and it's hard not to notice the "new school smell" when you enter.

His room is very nice. His desk (as have all Aalberts' desks for eternity in alphabetically organized rooms) is situated at the front left of the teacher.

The room is filled with toys, books, and all sorts of other wonderful things to captivate a five-year-old's mind.

And, we learned, the classroom atmosphere seems friendly to those with double-A's.

Owen had a wonderful first day. He's going to be an excellent kindergartner!

The Midwest Road Adventure

Owen and I hit the road on July 23 for an adventure that would take us into three states and past many wonderful sites.

The purpose of the trip was to attend a memorial service for Owen's Great Aunt Shila, who passed away last November. Shila was a sweet lady who had no children of her own, but took great pride in her niece and nephews, and, later, their kids.

The memorial was in Orange City, Iowa. Shila and her husband, Mel, who passed away in spring 2003, had their ashes laid to rest in the cemetery where Owen's great, great great, and great great great grandparents are buried.

It was a real coming home.

As was much of our adventure.

Friday, July 23
We left Normal right after lunch on with the intention of stopping in to deliver a bag of kids clothes to Jeff, Melissa, and their twins Audrey and Henry. Despite an intense rain storm in the Quad Cities that was so abusive we decided to sit on the side of the road until it passed, we got to the Iowa City area early enough to make a quick stop at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch. I worked as a National Park Ranger at the Hoover site every summer I was in college and had been wanting to stop with the kids for a long time. We had a half hour, but that was plenty of time to show Owen all of the highlights (and test my memory about all of the Hoover information that had been my bread and butter for four years).

We looked at his birthplace.

His grave site.

And I once again admired the beautifully landscaped field that connects the two ...

We also had a look in the working blacksmith shop where I had once made horseshoes and other souvenirs for visitors while explaining how Hoover's father made a living.

After a visit with the VandeBergs and an overnight at Grampy and Grammie Ives' house (we actually got to wave at them across I-74 as they were in Normal with Amy and Maya for the weekend), we headed west.

Saturday, July 24

We made it about an hour and a half our of Iowa City before Owen was ready to stretch his legs. Looking across the horizon in Des Moines, I spotted the Iowa State Capitol. I have faint memories of stopping there as a child, but my memories are fuzzy at best. Unsurprisingly, it turned out to be a beautiful building filled with neat things to look at.

Not to mention some unexpected punctuation.

"No, that's I-O-W-A, period!"

Owen's favorite thing in the building was a huge model of the U.S.S. Iowa. We spent a good 10 minutes here, looking at all of the details (especially figuring out where all the life boats were).

Before long, though, it was time to get back in the car and get to our real destination for the day, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo.

I had heard so much about the Omaha Zoo and thought it would be a perfect tourist site on our trip. We had about three hours there, which gave us time to look at the petting zoo ...

Play on a giant spider web ...

Check out the polar bear ...

And ride the Skyfari.

Owen really wanted to ride the zoo's train, but it wasn't in the cards. They were only running one train on the weekend and each circuit of the zoo took the train about 20 minutes. From where we were when we got to the line, we were looking at at least three trips before we had our turn.

The Skyfari, on the other hand, moved much faster. And took us directly over some rhinos, which was completely cool.

The Skyfari deposited us on the other side of the zoo, where we found the aquarium, which may have been our favorite stop of the day.

Owen is very interested in sharks, and he was especially fond of the Shark Tunnel, a 70' long glass tunnel that gave tremendous views of several kinds of sharks.

It was also fun to visit the Desert Dome, and tell Owen a little more about what it was like in Tucson, where he was born.

We left at 5:00 to pick Uncle Daniel up at the Omaha Airport and continue our trip to Orange City.

Sunday, July 25

We finally crawled into bed at 11:15 on Saturday night, so we all enjoyed sleeping in on Sunday morning. Owen was raring to go, though, as he had a new friend in my cousin Mark's five-year-old son Reid.

Seeing how wound up they were at breakfast, we quickly changed and got on our way to the park.

Our destination was Memorial Park. Memorial, or as we liked to call it "Willie" Park, was a favorite place to play when I was a kid, most notably because of the three-storey ladder/slide/fire-pole jungle gym constructed in the shape of William of Orange (I am so not making this up) that used to be there.

No doubt it was a team of liability lawyers who brought down Willie years ago, but the park was still great fun, and just as Dutch themed as ever.

All the kids got a good chasing (thanks Uncle Daniel). And those who were caught were hoisted up and sent down the "slide of shame" (an invented-by-us, not official feature of the park, although no one can argue it would be a merry Calvinist addition).

Here's Owen checking out the park ...

Cousin Mark and his kids Reid and Isabelle ...

And Owen and Reid on the swing ...

After a morning of play, it was time to do what we came to do.

We gathered at the cemetery for Shila and Mel's memorial service. It was a decidedly low-key affair, from my dad's informal service plans right down to the Minnesota Vikings tent that kept us out of the sun ...

Nana Aalberts sat down with Isabelle supporting her back, and we all took turns remembering Shila and Mel.

Regrettably, neither of the boys had strong memories of Shila, but they still had their opportunity to contribute.

The holes were dug to deposit Shila and Mel's remains, and when it came time to drop them in Reid was the first to say, "I'll do it!"

Hearing the satisfying thud of the box with Mel's ashes falling down a four foot hole, Owen was quick to assist with Shila.

... and while the rest of us took a tour of the aforementioned four generations of family gravestones, Owen and Reid befriended the cemetery's caretaker, who was happy to let them help fill in the holes.

... it may have been the best part of the morning for both of them.

We then went to lunch, where Owen found a connection to the other half of his family decorating the wall.

And while we looked through the many boxes of photos that had been collected from Shila's California home, Owen found his way up a nearby tree.

By the evening, everyone had mostly left, leaving the Aalberts clan time to go see "Toy Story 3" before heading off to bed ourselves.

Monday, July 26

Monday started off just right with a breakfast of Dutch pastries.

We then took a trip by the old Aalberts house where Grandpa grew up, taking a photo of the driveway that still bears the Aalberts name.

While Nana and Grandpa returned Daniel to the Omaha airport, Owen and I continued our adventure, checking out a few more sites in northern Iowa on our way home.

We started in Sanborn where Owen saw his great grandparents' house in town ...

... and then the old family farm.

The next stop was Owen's special request. When I told him where we were going he asked "Is that anywhere near Spencer, IA?"

As many of you probably know, Spencer was the home of Dewey the library cat. Owen has the Dewey children's book and was very interested in seeing the library where Dewey lived. It turned out to be a lot of fun.

Owen posed with the statue of Dewey at the front desk.

The librarians then took us behind the desk and showed us the book depository where Dewey had been abandoned on a cold winter night.

Dewey lived at the library almost 20 years, and was well loved. Dying in 2006, he's buried outside. Owen brought his book with him, and we spent some time back in the library looking for things in the library itself that looked like the pictures in the book.

Back in the car, we drove another 2+ hours through Algona where we met up with the RAGBRAI riders heading east, and then down to Ft. Dodge, where Owen was ready for another stretch break. Using my phone, I found the local pool and we went swimming.

The new Ft. Dodge Aquatic Center was brand new and "very splashy," said Owen, but not in a relaxing way. We struggled to find activites we could do that wouldn't end up with a bucket full of water hitting us on the head, but got our energy used up nonetheless. After an hour in the pool it was back to the car and 20 minutes later ...

After a good gluten free meal at the Brown Bottle in Cedar Falls, we cruised into Iowa City for another overnight before returning home on Tuesday.

All in all, this trip may have been one of the nicest experiences I've had with Owen. I really enjoyed having the one-on-one time with him and having the leisure to stop when we wanted to and explore when there was something to explore. That said, it was also nice to be home and to see Mommy and Maya. We'd missed them much over our four days away.