Greetings from Boulder City

Went to a conference in sunny Las Vegas over the past few days. It was my first time in Vegas, and I wasn't all that impressed. Cigar smoke, gambling, and VERY hot temperatures aren't my thing. The high point of my trip was leaving the strip and heading out to Boulder City to see the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. The scenery and tour were spectacular. Mike and I finished the night by visiting a local microbrew pub in Boulder City for some wings and turning in. 11:00pm still feels like 1:00am to me...

Flood of 2008

I'm sure we all know someone directly impacted by the recent flooding. I took a few pictures when helping a friend in Cedar Terrace with a flooded basement. James, remember the Engstrom Inn is open 24/7 if we get more rain! Spent a few hours tossing sandbags in Waterloo tonight. The amount of volunteers willing to help in our community is inspiring. The efforts of Cedar Falls volunteers made national news (and saved downtown). Preston was disappointed to see the park in Cedar Terrace underwater.

4 boys on 12 wheels

Preston, Parker, Jax, and I took off for our first-ever group bike ride Saturday. Parker is riding like a pro (considering his three days of experience). Jax seemed to like the ride and eventually fell asleep. As for Preston, he's starting to talk about losing the training wheels. Now that we've found something Preston and Parker like to do together, we just need a few sunny days to ride!

Parker is so excited about riding, the last two days he got up and put his shoes on before Tina and I woke up. He was EXTREMELY disappointed to learn he couldn't ride in the rain this morning...

Curtains sucked through the ceiling

My in-laws were recently unfortunate enough to be in the path of the recent EF 5 tornado that struck the area. While their house was not a total loss, the damage was devastating. In this picture, you can see where the tornado lifted the entire roof a few inches and sucked curtains and papers through the crack. I think we've all seen things in the past few weeks we didn't think were possible... See more pics of the damage to the Schake house here:

http://www.engstrompics.com/schakehouse/

Parking Brake?

Jaxton enjoys hanging out in the stroller outside. Sunday, Tina decided to clean out the garage (while I wasn't home to scold her for throwing away my stuff). She put Jaxton in the stroller - allegedly with the parking brake engaged.

At some point Tina looked and noticed Jaxton accelerating down the driveway on autopilot. She chased the stroller, but was unable to catch the poor lad before he did a 180 and face-planted on the bottom of the driveway. For those who have seen our 45-degree angle driveway, you can appreciate how scary this would be.

Luckily Jax is tough and was laughing and playing within 10 minutes. Big scare for mom and dad however. Mom promised not to trust the parking brake again...