The August Run-Down

I know, I know... I've been slacking! I can't believe I went a whole month without any posts! I have a lot of catch up to do, so here is a quick run-down!

August 9th was the 2008 Linn County Heart Walk. We had a great turn-out of walkers! I think there were almost 30 of us for "Bray's Brigade". Thanks to everybody who walked or donated money! It was a little rainy that morning, but by the time the walk started, the sun had came out, and it was great weather for walking. Nolan, Brayden, and Maddux enjoyed the kiddie games & inflatable bounce house after the walk was over, and of course the little train ride too! Mitchell was still a little young for all of that, but maybe next year! He was a little trooper though... he sported a "Bray's Brigade" t-shirt and ventured out with our troop without any complaints: )

On August 15th, Joel and I grilled out at the Carpenter's new residence in Manchester with Matt & Jill, and a bunch of their friends & family. We played a lot of yard games, and had a lot of fun, however I can't seem to figure out where I saved those pictures to... I'll have to keep looking... then the next morning we headed from Manchester to Waterloo to my buddy Brad's house for our own little UNI Reunion... it was a lot more tame than all of our "old" UNI get-togethers now that the majority of all my friends have babies, but a lot of fun none the less: ) Here are a few pictures from that weekend as well!

We had a ton of fun catching up with all of my college buddies, and although they all thought being around that many screaming babies at one time would pursuade Joel and I to hold off on the baby making for a while, I think it actually did the opposite... they were all just SO ADORABLE that I had the baby-itch even more upon leaving the party than when I had arrived... unfortunately Joel told me we have to hold off on the baby-making until we get our new house built! Bummer! But that brings me to my next speel...

Joel and I bought a nice 2.25 acre lot to build a new house on! We are both super excited and already have our house plans picked out! Joel is going to try to dig the hole this fall before the ground freezes, then hopefully we'll be able to start building early next spring! It's in a newer development just south of Walford. All of the lots are an acre or larger, so it is nice that we won't be sitting on top of our neighbors like we are now. And we'll actually have a yard big enough to do something in- yay! Our lot is at the end of a cul-de-sac, so it should be really quiet back there. Two sides of our property are fields, so really we only have the neighbor to our east side. And it's out in the country too, so that was another thing we really liked about it... it has a country feel, but it's conveniently located at the same time. Of course being close to my family is the icing on the cake! I'm sure we'll keep ya posted on our progress!

On August 23rd I got to babysit Mitchell, so of course I had to share a few pictures of him as well! He is such a strong little guy, and he is crawling all over! Sometimes he does these lunges where he looks like superman... it's pretty priceless: ) He has had the pleasure of going to Grandma & Grandpa Volz's on gamedays decked out in his cute little Hawkeye football jersey since he's still a little too young to get introduced to tailgating: ) Speaking of football, we have already had 2 games this season, and the Hawks have dominated! Let's just hope that they continue to look this good when we play Iowa State this coming weekend! I'll try to add some tailgating pictures to our blog soon! We should have some good ones after this weekend! Matt & Pam Steffen are coming down from Minnesota to go to the game with us, and Michael Wayson and Rachel are coming as well... needless to say, it should be a FUN weekend!!! I can't wait!!!

Nolan started pre-school in August (I know... I can't believe it either!), and he just had his first soccer game on Saturday! I broke out the video camera, and boy am I glad I did because it was so much fun to watch! I'll have to save pictures & stories from soccer and pre-school for another day because my lunch break is winding to a close... I hope everybody had a great month of August! Sorry I've been slacking on my blogging-duties. Joel was giving me a hard time about it, so I said "well you can post things too ya know!" His excuse was that he doesn't know how- haha! I guess I'll have to give him a little lesson in blogging tonight, and who knows, maybe the next post will be from him: ) Have a great week!