Trip to Phoenix (April 2016)

This post is a few months late, but time seems to slip away from me. In April, Dave flew to Phoenix for a work conference. The day the conference was over, I flew down to join him.

As I flew into Phoenix, I had to be sure to get a photo of the dessert. Everything was brown, but it was warmer weather so I was looking forward to that.

View of the dessert as I flew into Phoenix.

Labor Day weekend 2016

Labor Day weekend was a busy, yet relaxing weekend with neighbors and friends. Friday night we spent it with good friends we have been friends with for years. I met them while teaching cycling classes at Accel Fitness, now Fitness World here in Ankeny.

Dave, Janet, Angie, Matt, Jen & Andy

Ryan turned 3 (July 2016)

In July our little man turned three. It's hard for me to believe three years has already passed by. We had a fun day with family, and he got a cool cake. We also celebrated Caroline's 1/2 birthday. Since her birthday falls in December, we felt like it would be fair to help split her birthday and Christmas gifts up.

First off, I wanted to share a few photos that Kari Bruck Photography took of the kids. She always does an amazing job. The moments she captures in an hour photo shoot are amazing. Especially the third photo here! Ryan will love this photo when he's older I'm sure!

Vacation in Branson, MO (August 2016)

This past week, we took a family vacation to Branson, MO, our first family vacation. We wanted something fairly close to home because we were not sure how the kids would do on a long road trip. My niece joined us on the trip to help with babysitting the kids while we had adult time, so to make sure we had enough room to travel, we rented a minivan. The kids thought this was the coolest thing ever and loved pushing the button to shut the door every time they got out. They also loved the built in DVD player (we didn't like that as much as it made for a long drive listening to movie after movie).  After we returned it, they said they were sad they didn't have the minivan anymore. The space was nice, but I'm still not sure I could own one!

Staycation with my sister's family - July 2016

Dave and I took Thursday and Friday off so we could spend time with my sister and her family when they came up to visit. We didn't plan on it being 100 degree heat index, but we dealt with it. On Thursday morning, we went to see the High Trestle Trail Bridge. It was a hot walk out there, but my sister and her family loved it once they arrived to the bridge. The view was absolutely amazing and the hot breeze actually felt good. There wasn't much of a breeze on the trail.

Deck addition

For this blog, I decided to turn it over to Dave to give an update on the recent expansion of our deck. So here goes...

Since moving into our home a year and half ago, one of our favorite and most used spaces has been our covered deck. However, at 12 x 14 feet, the covered deck always seemed too small when we had family, friends and neighbors over. So we decided to do a little addition that would be uncovered, but give us a little extra room.  

We started by taking measurements, and decided to extend the deck by 8 feet out into our backyard, for a total area of 14 1/2 x 20 feet. We then reviewed the City Codes and submitted a building permit to the City of Ankeny for the low cost of $36. The City provides a good guide detailing minimum standards and I bounced a couple of ideas off of our Johnston Building Inspectors to make sure I would meet all of the Code requirements.  

Less than a week after submitting the permit, we were given the green light to proceed.  After pricing materials, we used Leachman Lumber to order the materials as they deliver, which was valuable as we had a lot of 16 foot long lumber, and they were also less expensive than Menards. The delivery driver was even kind enough to gently drop off the materials in our backyard, significantly reducing the distance we had to haul all of the lumber. We also requested Iowa One Call to verify we didn't have any buried utilities in the area we were digging, they responded in less than 24 hours from submitting our request.

The lumber was delivered to the back yard.  The spray paint/flags indicate that we didn't have to worry about any underground utilities.

Weekend Wrap Up (6.25.16-6.26.16)

This past weekend was quite relaxing as we didn't have a lot planned. We needed a weekend like that because it always seems like it's go...go...go, every weekend.

Saturday morning I taught cycling at the Ankeny YMCA. Once I got home we ran a few errands and Dave hung up my hammock. I bought this hammock for $54.95 on Walmart.com. We wanted a nice hammock to hang under our new deck addition and this one had great reviews. As you'll see from the photos, the kids love it!