June 2025

Happy Birthday Rose! (10)
Lucia’s dance intensive
Lucia and GG go to Riverside Bible Camp
Lucia’s cabin group
Lucia loves carpet ball.
Now Rose goes to camp!
Rose’s cabin group
The boys and I went to SJU for Elliot’s summer orientation
Whether they like it or not, the boys can’t help but laugh at each other.
Happy Birthday, Mari! (20)
Rose at camp.
. . . and we’re at the lake.
spikeball
pad life
Gary and Kathie
Me and Susan
Liess Clan
Family Pic
Susan went to her college reunion.
I took the girls camping in Decorah
Ruben came, too.

May 2025

Elliot decided to attend St. John’s for college.
Rose had an orchestra concert.
Lucia got braces.
I picked up Mari from school. Here we are having dinner at Holly’s with a couple of her friends.
Playing in the pool. It’s probably not too warm yet. I can see the ladder isn’t even in.
Family pic on Mother’s Day. Everyone is home from college.
Susan on Mother’s Day.
Lucia did a great job in her dance recital.
Lucia singing in 6th grade honor chorus.
Susan went to Chicago with Jen for a training
Elliot’s last day of high school!
Elliot’s graduation.
Elliot graduated!
Elliot with Mar-Mar and Be-Bob.
Susan
Elliot’s graduation board.
Rose’s friends at track day.
Last day of school for the girls.
6th grade class.
Lucia and Stella in the obstacle course.
Lucia and friends.

Spring Break Trip to Colorado

This year for spring break we went to Grand Lake Colorado with the Reagens for 4 days.

We stopped in Denver for pizza with Andrew.
Some of us.
The view of Lake Granby from our townhome.
Cam eating leftover pizza.

Our first day there we went for a hike at Adams Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Elliot and Cam
Hope, Lucia, Susan and Rose
Rose enjoyed some climbing.
The hot tub.

On day 2 we went tubing at the Frasier Tubing Hill.

Susan and Rob
Windy Family Photo. It got really windy toward the end. Luckily we were about ready to leave by this point.
After tubing we walked about the Winter Park ski village.
Pretty mountain view.
Snowshoeing.

On day 3 we went for another hike, this time along the Colorado River Trail in RMNP.

Crossing the Colorado River
Elliot
Toward the end the snow was less packed and we found ourselves falling through the snow a lot. This is how we knew it was time to turn around. For most of the hike the snow was packed and we could walk comfortably.
This is where we ate a snack before turning around.

On day 4 we rented cross country skis and the shop recommended we drive to where Trail Ridge Road is closed in RMNP and ski on the road. It was awesome. The weather was grat. The views were good. The girls picked it up without a problem. It was awesome to be on the road that is so busy in the summer, but we literally only saw one other person who was out snowshoeing.

Getting started. You can see Rose and Lucia is way up ahead.
Lucia, Rose and Hope
Nate, Erin, Cam and Elliot
In the evening we played games.
Our drive out of the mountains was beautiful.

Our drive home did not go so well. There was a blizzard in Eastern Nebraska and I-80 was closed across the entire state. In this picture we are in a gas station in Western Nebraska trying to figure out what to do with our lives. We were going to drive the whole way home on Wednesday, but we ended up spending the night in North Platte on Wednesday and finishing the drive on Thursday.

Winter Fun

With the cold weather we have been able to get out ice skating on the oxbows and creek.

Rose and Lucia, on Sunday.
Lucia, me and Rose on the creek.
Rose and I went on a winter adventure the next day, skating and hiking, and we saw our neighborhood coyote out on the ice.

Farm Sunset

We were at a friend’s farm this evening for their annual Independence Day party. It was a weird weather evening, but the shape of the storms made for a beautiful sunset.

Northern Lights

We received word late tonight that the Northern Lights were visible in Des Moines. The whole family quickly hit the road and drove to a golf course outside of town. We’ve done this before and failed. Tonight was a major success. The pictures are way more amazing than the live experience, but the live experience was still very cool.

From the car.
At the golf course.
Most realistic.

Eclipse

There was an eclipse. We couldn’t travel because of some obligations in town, but we made the most of it. Cracker Barrel came through with some last-minute glasses and we pulled the girls out of school. It was fun.

Snowboarding at Mt. Clive

One of Andrew’s goals while he was home for winter break was to snowboard on Mt. Clive. Mt. Clive is a big pile of dirt the city uses for projects and is located at the back of a prairie near our house. The city recently took a huge chunk off the front, creating a drop that Andrew couldn’t resist. Andrew was out there for a while in temperatures that were so cold it was hurting our hands when we took the video. He was determined, but Mt. Clive came out on top today. Andrew thinks he could have done it if he had his regular snowboard that he uses in Colorado. His final attempt is below.

More snow!

It snowed another 8 inches or so and we now have a lot of snow on the ground! The temperature also dropped to super cold, but that didn’t stop the girls from building a cool tunnel/fort in the snow bank on the side of our driveway.