Mount Pleasant Welcomes RAGBRAI Riders

This past Friday over 15,000 bike riders came to Mount Pleasant, doubling the town's population for less than 24 hours. I had the pleasure of greeting RAGBRAI riders as they entered town. Iowa Wesleyan College provided free, COLD water to riders just before passing through the archway to downtown MP. Saturday morning I also had the pleasure to wishing the riders well and providing breakfast refreshments as they passed our house on their ride to Burlington to dip their tires in the Mighty Mississip. With connections to James Van Allen and Peggy Whitson, Mount Pleasant came up with the theme, 'Have a Blast in Mount Pleasant'. It was definitely a blast!

These rockets blasted off (with real fire) about every 5-7 minutes. The Heatilator company designed them. It was cool. And speaking of cool, water misted on the riders as they passed below the blue arches on the road to the downtown square. The riders commented on this being one of the best entrances. Way to go MP!

Bailey by the rocket

We were also fortunate to have a front row seat to the riders leaving town as they passed our house.

This hill out of town was nothing compared to the hills the riders endured on their ride into Mount Pleasant against a bad headwind. Many commented that it was the hardest ride of the week.

Former S-F student and recent Upper Iowa grad Storm Schmitt stopped by for a quick picture and breakfast snack before catching up with Team Peacock in New London.

Fun With Family

The past 2 weekends have been filled with family, the most important thing in the world to me. Last weekend we celebrated my nephew Austin's (aka Boomer for a birthday on the 4th of July) 2nd birthday and celebrated our nation's Independence Day with sparklers. This past weekend I finally got to meet the newest addition to my family, Graham, and celebrate my 34th birthday in Des Moines. Hope you enjoy some of our summer highlights. With only 5 weeks left of my summer, I'm still going to squeeze in some more family fun in the weekends to come.

Holding Graham for the 2nd time (didn't have my camera the 1st time)

All the presents are open

Fun with Austin's new bubble blower
(I don't think I could get Alli's head in a bubble again if I tried).

Hi Grandpa

Bailey loves being the big cousin

Lauren loves sparklers

Alli was pretending she was a Fairy Godmother saying Bibbity Bobbity Boo

The Seegers Cousins (minus one)

Softball Season 2009

Last Thursday we wrapped up softball for the season. We were pretty fortunate not to get rained out of many scheduled games and only had to endure uncomfortable heat the final night. The Mount Pleasant Girls Softball Association does a great job making the sport fun for the girls, yet teaching them some basic softball skills and rules. No score is kept and balls and strikes do not yet apply. It's still fun without having to be so competitive. Everyone wins!

All smiles at 3rd base

Batter Up

Getting the out at home plate

Running Home I Love Softball

The family comes to watch

They're Free

For those of you who have been following our caterpillars, my apologies for the lack of posts following the caterpillars transformation to butterflies. 3 of the butterflies emerged on June 5th and the final 2 arrived on June 6th as we were en route to the Seegers farm. Grandpa and Grandma Seegers helped Bailey care for the butterflies while I was on my 6th tour of colleges in Iowa. The trip has been a highlight of my summer since taking it in 2004 and always gets me thinking. Riding in a charter bus across Iowa, a person has a lot of time to think.

On Saturday, June 13th, we released the butterflies back in Mount Pleasant. The instructions said they may stay close to home for a couple days, but that has not been the case. I was excited that we were able to see all 5 of them grow and finally release them to their natural habitat. Bailey had said in an earlier journal entry that she was going to name the butterflies, but then decided it was too hard to keep track of who was who so she named them all Morgan (see June 13 Journal entry). The butterfly above was the bravest of the bunch and took flight 10 minutes after taking them outside.

3 empty chrysallis and 2 getting ready to come out

Painted lady butterfly about a week after emerging from chrysallisButterflies like flowers and fruit. We had a sugar water mixture that we put on this flower. This butterfly was not quite ready to take off and stayed on the flower outside for about an hour.This was the 4th butterfly to take off.Bailey with her butterfly garden

Bailey tries coaxing the butterflies out of their home

The Art of Journaling

Bailey began journaling in 1st grade during the 2nd semester. Wednesday she brought home her journal. It was so interesting to read the different topics she journaled about and understand what is important to her. It also helps capture her memories. My grandma also shared her childhood memories with me recently in a memory book. A couple weeks ago Bailey brought home her Panther Book where each child in the class had to write something they liked about each student in the class. Some of my favorite journal entries are here.

Not much activity lately

Now that the caterpillars are hard at work turning into butterflies, there has not been as much activity to journal about or see. I got a little excited on Sunday and misinterpreted the directions, moving the chrysalids to the butterfly house about a week too early. After realizing my mistake, I moved the little guys back to their cup. Although it's hard to see the chrysalids real well, we can see one changing orange. Within the next week, we hope to have 5 beautiful butterflies.

An Evening at Magic Kingdom

Last night Healthy Henry Communities held Magic Kingdom at East Lake Park, an opportunity for families to spend an evening together getting some exercise and meeting familiar characters along the walking path. Bailey's friends Lilly and Abby arrived at the park the same time we did so she enjoyed taking part in the activities with her friends. The 3 moms also enjoyed the adult conversation.

Bailey and Lilly with the Queen of Hearts (aka: their favorite High School Helper, Miss Dyall)

Bailey with Cruella D'Ville (this girl was type-cast well and had fun with her character)

The girls with the Wizard of Oz characters

Peter Pan Characters