Labor Day Weekend 2011

It has been a fun and busy Labor Day weekend. Activities included the first Hawkeye game of the season, dog-sitting, a birthday party, a sleep-over at Grandma & Grandpa's, an almost 9 mile run, playing outside, getting ready for the first day of preschool, and hanging with friends.

Jake was able to take some time to relax and play the piano, though. He makes lovely music and is so proud to be able to reach and play all on his own.

On Friday evening Mike, Zach, and Drew hopped into the car and headed over to Pa's house. At 88 years-old, Pa is still doing very well. I'm sure he loved having his only grandson and two of his three great-grandsons over for a visit. The boys enjoyed playing with Pa's toys, both old (toy tractors for Drew) and new (Wii for Zach), and they enjoyed snuggling with their great-grandpa, too.

Saturday morning the boys and Mike met our friend BJ and his daughter Anna and headed to the first Hawkeye game of the season. First they were tailgating for a couple of hours, though. It seemed to be bring-your-kid-to-the-game day for many folks, perhaps because Iowa was playing Tennessee Tech and was expected to blow them away, which they did. Drew and I put together some little snack cups for him, Zach, and Anna to have while tailgating. They were very proud in their new McNutt jerseys, too.

Zach made sure I bought black jerseys since that was what he knew Anna had. Here are all three kids being goofy. I think they might have had just a bit of sugar while tailgating.

They had a great time tailgating, and then the rain started. And apparently it rained, and rained, and rained, and rained. Mike said about a half-hour before the game started, they were huddled under someone's tent, and Drew said, "Let's just go home now." They did go to the game... for a quarter. It rained the whole time they were there, and though they had rain ponchos, they still were soaked by the time they left. I think they left at the right time, though, because shortly after halftime they had to delay the game because of the rain. That would not have been fun to sit through with a couple of young kids.

While the big boys were away, Jake and I were home, dog-sitting Mike's step-brother's great dane, Teegan. I've met Teegan before at Mike's parents' house, and I knew she was a gentle giant, but having her in my own house really showed me how GIANT she is! Maggie is a pretty big dog with long legs, but next to Teegan, she looks like a little lap dog! I feel like all the pictures I took don't really even show how massive she is, but I tried.

Teegan lives in Texas and had never been to my house previously, and she and I have only met on a couple of occasions, so she was pretty sad when Mike's step-brother Colin dropped her off and left for his cousin's wedding. She spent the first few hours going back and forth from the front door to the back door, looking for her owner. I was afraid to let her out to potty because I wasn't sure she'd come back, and it was raining, and I had these visions of me, carrying Jake, chasing a dog that weighs more than I do around the neighborhood. Thankfully she always came back when I let her out. This first picture shows a little bit of how much bigger Teegan is than Maggie.

Teegan can easily rest her chin on my kitchen counters, so I had to make sure I never left any food out. I like this picture because of the way Jake is looking up at Teegan.

Once Mike and the boys got home from the game, I enlisted their help in getting a picture of Teegan, Maggie, and Foudy next to each other to also show the difference in their sizes. This is a good one because you can also see how she compares to Zach in size.

Later that evening, Mike, Zach, and Drew took Teegan back to Curt & Linda's house. Mike said it was a bit of a challenge to get Teegan situated in the van.

All the dogs got along just fine. Maggie seemed to avoid Teegan, and otherwise they really just ignored each other. Oh, Foudy did growl at Teegan a little when Teegan walked by Foudy as she was chewing on her bone. Foudy apparently didn't realize that her 43 pounds probably wouldn't stand a chance against all 150 of Teegan's pounds.

On Sunday I talked my friend Melody into going on a long run with me. I'm still on the fence about running the Des Moines Half-Marathon in another 5 weeks or so, but I'm training as though I'm going to do it. It was a beautiful day for the run, and since Mel did a little too much tailgating the day before, I did a little extra running to allow her a little rest time, and I ended up running about 9 miles. It was the longest I've run in a long time (since before being pregnant with Jake), and it felt awesome. It was also the first time I've done a long run with anybody other than my sister Sandy. I sort of felt like I was cheating on her or something. Usually I just run by myself, and it was definitely fun to have somebody to talk to and the miles went by very quickly.

Sunday afternoon we headed over to Curt and Linda's house for Mike's step-brother's daughter's birthday. Alice will be 2 in 10 days, but since Colin doesn't live here, we won't see her on her birthday, so we celebrated early. I think Alice wasn't sure what to think of all those boys being around, but she sure did enjoy her ice cream, cupcake, and her presents. We were happy to celebrate with her.

That evening Zach and Drew got to have a cook-out and sleepover at Grandma Cynthia and Grandpa Kevin's house. Today was just a day to catch up on errands and to see our church friends, and tomorrow Zach has the day off and Drew starts preschool!! Hopefully there are nothing but good stories to share about that!