Iowa vs. Iowa State

Well,

today was the Iowa vs. Iowa State Game! Enjoyed the game at Lane Anderson's house with some of the All9Yards teammates and wives. Too bad Iowa lost by 2 points!

No big news. We have just put our house on the market so we can get into the Southeast Polk district. We have a lot to do, but it is all coming together. Sunday is our first open house.

The summer racing season is winding down. Kurt is hoping to do a lot of cyclocross this fall. He did not do as much as he was hoping to do this summer as far as racing is concerned. I think he had a good year, but I know he was wanting to do a lot more than he did. Some of the photos are from the St. Louis weekend (Labor Day weekend). Kurt raced Sat. and Sun. This race was by far his biggest. There were 140 racers in the Pro/1/2 race. It was neat to see so many racers! He worked hard and Sunday's race went well for him.

The other photo is from the other night. Bode is now pulling himself up to sit and doing the army crawl, so he is into everything. He was trying to decide which book to "read" next (or rather chew on). He is growing so fast!

Brianna is having a good year so far. She is playing volleyball again this year. Her team is doing pretty good. They have won more games than they have lost! Monday they play Norwalk, who has like 60 girls on the team, so they will be playing 12 games to allow all of Norwalk's team to play! Brianna will get a good workout that day!

Hope all is well with everyone.

Our Hearts are Heavy for the Vande Lune family

This is a sad message to be posting today. Our friends Chad and Dorothy Vande Lune are dealing with something that no parent should ever have to deal with. They lost their sweet baby boy, Price, 6 months, to SIDS last week. They have been so strong for each other, but today must have been the most difficult for they had to say goodbye for the last time. We want them to know our thoughts and prayers are with them. Price will be missed. He and Bode were buddies at daycare and we were so looking forward to the two boys growing up together. We are sure they would have been the next fastest bike team ever!

We hope the pain subsides and is replaced by all the warm memories Price left behind.

Europe

Well, for those of you who would love to hear about our trip, call us! I will say that Brianna loved it and our fear of her not quite fitting in was silly. She fit right in with the high school kids. We had a wonderful time and saw a lot of exciting things. I think my favorite was seeing Brianna get so excited about all the things she has learned about in school! She loved the British Museum and all the Egyptian artifacts. We saw the musical Wicked in London and both loved it. She loved the Eiffel Tower (I have already been!) Switzerland was relaxing and beautiful. My mom would love all the Swiss cows! (Although I know she is ready to be finished with their own!) Italy was fun. Venice was neat to see and Rome was fascinating! It is truly amazing that these massive structure were built by men without machines! It is even more amazing that they have withstood so much!

Enjoy the pictures!

(At the DSM International Airport, Easter Island Statue at the British Museum, Eiffel Tower, at the top of Mt. Pilatus in Switzerland, and Brianna buried in sand on the beach in Jeselo, Italy near Venice.)