Normal Weather?

We moved to Iowa from Chicago 11 months ago. Honestly, we didn’t expect a huge change in weather. Chicago is only a 5-hour drive away. However, since our move Iowa we have experienced the following weather phenomena’s: the wettest August on record, 6 months of sustained temperatures below 50 degrees with more snow & ice fall than any of the local folks can remember in a long time, and the most severe spring including several tornados and of course the Floods of ’08. Luckily we have a nice home that has protected us well from the elements. We have really only been affected by the heating bills, and now the record mosquito population resulting from the floods. Everyone keeps telling us that this is not normal weather, but after 11 months of abnormal weather, we don’t really believe them anymore.

Summer is off to a good start. Thankfully we have been having fabulous weather. Not too hot or muggy. I am still waiting for our schedule to slow down a bit, but I suppose that’s not really ever going to happen. Zak has had a day camp at Living History Farms where he had fun. Both of the boys went through two weeks of swimming lessons and showed significant improvement afterwards. Zak had a golf camp and proved his new skills to Jared on the course last Saturday.

We enjoyed a great July 4th Carnival complete with rides, temporary tattoos, cotton candy and a great Fireworks display. Owen danced for about 90 minutes on the dance floor. Yes, he is a dancing fool. As we were walking to the car we were the first to come upon a man who had just fallen down. Jared started CPR and with the help of a few other physicians saved the man’s life. Others quickly spread this news around the office so someone made up a superman body graphic with Jared’s head on it. I will try to get a hold of the file and post it later. It’s pretty amusing as you can imagine. Grandpa Steve has been to visit twice and Grandma Hatt stayed with us for 10 days so we have been blessed with some great Grandparent time. We entertained them both by making trips to the farmer’s market which is always fun. Grandma joined us for an Iowa Cubs game and our 4th of July Carnival.

We are all doing well and anxious to see many of you next week. If you have some time, we have some new movies posted on our gallery at gallery.mac.com/jarednielsen and pictures at homepage.mac.com/jarednielsen