Exploration continues

Last weekend we took our first major trip with Jakob. The five hour trip to Storm Lake, Iowa, was met with many ups and downs. We found out a few things about Jakob and ourselves. Like his father, after sitting in the car for an extended period of time, Jakob is done and needs to get out and move around. The further into northern Iowa we went, the less opportunities we had to pull off, and Jakob definitely let us know about it! :) Marc used the new Garmin Jakob gave him for Father's Day and it was great to have it along!

On the way up, Jakob continues to "talk" with us about the things he sees and how he feels. It's pretty amazing that in the mixture of "ma-ma!" and "da-da!" both which are said with authority, he inserts noises and other funny words. After checking in to the luxurious Super 8, (if Jakob had been older, we would have stayed here: www.kingspointeresort.com) we headed to the camp site to visit with Kim's family.

On Saturday, Jakob had the first of two weekend baths at the hotel. After that in the morning, we spent the day hanging out with Kim's family and taking photos at the Lighthouse nearby. We're pretty sure Jakob will one day enjoy some aspect of aviation like flying, BASE jumping, hang gliding or parachuting. Any time the wind picks up and blows on him he totally gets excited. On top of the lighthouse was no exception and he loved it.

On Sunday, we left and headed back home. On the way, we were able to stop off in Omaha, Nebraska, and hang out with our friends Scotte and Annie Hansen. Marc was at Christian Campus House at Northwest with Scotte and they've remained friends ever since. We walked around the Old Market and enjoyed a late lunch at the Spaghetti Works. Great time!

This week, things had been pretty low key. Marc met our friends Matt and Jennifer Brunk at the airport to bring them home after a great trip to Italy and Kim got things ready for a garage sale over at the Heil home. Then last night (Thursday), Jakob stunned us. He let go of our hands as we helped him stand and stood on his own for about 15-20 seconds. He continued to do this throughout the night for our friends who were over for small group.

Again, walking is probably about one week away. We are in alignment with this also because his crawling and exploration skills continue to reach new heights each day. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlJbhrdluMo for confirmation.

This weekend we will be celebrating Marc's father's retirement and Marc is off on Monday for a nice day of vacation. Next weekend, Marc is off both Thursday and Friday from work so we'll have a nice four day weekend ahead of us. There will probably be a few movies involved. Oh, and FYI, take a pass on "The Happening." Not great. Medium rental at best.

In a few weeks, after Marc returns from a conference in New Orleans, we will celebrate our 10-year anniversary and Marc has a few things planned that are classified right now. We'll share them later.

The days keep getting better and better! We haven't done so in a while, but thank you all for visiting our blog on a regular basis. Also, those of you who use the RSS feed to your email, we'd like to thank you too.

More soon.

Wave bye-bye to our first Father's Day

Okay, so it's been a while since our last post, but we have some major news.

First, a few weeks ago Jakob had been flirting with pulling up on things and crawling. Well, last weekend, not Father's Day weekend the previous one, he did it for the first time (crawl). For more on that, check out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Dv1NE95zA. It's pretty amazing and we're sorry we didn't get it out sooner.

Earlier this week, we decided to take Jakob to the pool. It was a bit cool when we got there and Jakob wanted nothing to do with the pool. We tried dipping his feet in and he went ballistic. Eventually, he was able to put his feet in the kiddie pool and sit with us looking at the water, but we're hoping to head back soon when the weather is warmer.

Last weekend, we celebrated Marc's first Father's Day and it was fantastic. The day started with heading to one of the local Liberty Square breakfast spots before hitting the 11:00 service at church. We got poured on by a huge rainstorm on our way out of church and Jakob (who hasn't felt rain before) couldn't figure out why he wasn't surrounded by porcelain and floatie toys. It's easily the fasted Marc has ever gotten him into the car, buckled with a toy and burp rag. Later that day, we went to one of our favorite restaurants with Marc's parents and got a few great photos, specifically a "Father's Day Generation" photo. Over the past visits, Jakob has decided he likes whatever Pape's goatee is made from and wants to mess with it all the time.

Later that evening, we got a serious hail storm and while it doesn't appear anything has been damaged, we're really just more excited that Jakob slept through it!

This morning, Marc held Jakob while Kim got a morning bottle ready and then came back for the boy. As she began to take Jakob away to the living room to eat, Marc waved at him. For the first time, Jakob waved back. Pretty cool stuff.

This weekend, we will head to Storm Lake, Iowa to visit Kim's family and take part in an annual family reunion. It will be Jakob's first time staying in a hotel. We'll have photos soon of our trip.

Next month, Marc heads to New Orleans for a conference and we will celebrate our 10 year anniversary!

More soon.

Farewell to May

May was an interesting month. We had our final court hearing. We had a huge party with friends and family from all over the country. We celebrated a few firsts as well (first Memorial Day as three and a first family Royals game). God continues to bless us as the summer rolls on. Below are more photos and a video of one excited little boy. We hope you enjoy it:

I want the camera please.

I'm too sexy for my bouncy.

Hoping to get time off for good behavior.

At the Royals game Friday with our small group.
Our buddy is sneaking a peek from above.

It's not what it looks like. . . really.

It looks like they're riding a roller coaster, but it's just Royals game shenanigans.

Our small group has faith the Royals will turn it around.

Never mind the yahoo in the blue shirt that looks

like Cousin Eddie. It's just our friend Phil.

Saturday morning, Jakob decided he would show

that he can fill daddy's shoes. . . or socks.

Jakob Marcus: I'm So Excited -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmD5UHeCPMg

Also, Kim is now officially done with the 2007-2008 school year and looking forward to spending some quality time with Jakob. This week she's also going to be cashing in her 4-hour spa package so the next time you see her she'll be totally relaxed. :)


In a little over one month we will celebrate 10 years of marriage together. We've seen ups and downs, but thankfully God has provided strength, hope, forgiveness and support.

More soon.