Decorah, part 1

June 7, 2015 shreffler

On June 7th, 2015, we drove from Iowa City to Decorah to visit our (great) grandparents. Dad, Mom, Desmond, and Grandma Anne had just traveled to Iowa City to celebrate Calvin’s fourth birthday. It was Desmond’s first road trip and he slept all the way to Decorah.

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Aunt Kellie and Calvin re-enact a game great aunt Molly first taught us as kids: telephone with the pantry beads.

Dad and aunt Kellie also spent many happy hours playing pool on trips to visit great Grandma and Grandpa.

Aunt Kellie and great grandpa Irv

Desi and Cal

Des and Molly

Great grandma Jane and grandpa Irv’s 60th anniversary

Iowa City, part 2

June 6, 2015 shreffler

Des has this hotel thing figured out

Iowa City art fair

Snow cone bliss

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Des’ pride and joy: spoon

Stopping in at the Airliner for lunch and a pint

Des and grandma playing paradiddles on the cheerio container

Des, Cal and mom tickling the ivories

What are these “cows” you speak of? Are they these gray things here?

The sun has gone to bed, and so must I

Dad and Cal playing with the stomp rocket

awesome mid-air rocket shot by grandma Anne

Iowa City, part 1

June 5, 2015 shreffler

Traveling over to Iowa City for Calvin’s fourth birthday, Desi taking a break at his first I-80 rest stop.

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Aunt Kellie and cousin Calvin picking us up at the hotel before heading to North Liberty

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Dad entertaining the troops

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Meeting great aunt Molly

Visiting uncle/chef Mike

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Dad and Cal assembling some pirate legos

June 1st, 2015

June 1, 2015 shreffler

Playing with the truck his friend Elke Wetjen gave him

Garden helper

May 31, 2015 shreffler

Des supervising the lettuce harvest for dinner

Four varieties of tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, tomatillos, poblanos, spaghetti squash, kohlrabi, onions, cabbage, habaneros, ghost peppers, thai red chile peppers, Chinese five-color peppers, mint, celantro, two lettuces, spinach, and kale.

Taste of Omaha

May 30, 2015 shreffler

Despite all three of us having a cold/cough, and Des with an ear infection and pink eye (though on the mend), we just needed to get out of the house for a while. We decided to walk around Heartland of America Park for Taste of Omaha.

Des watching all the geese and goslings waddle on by

Few things Des enjoys more than crinkly packages to play with. Look closely and you can see his two bottom teeth coming in, along with one upper tooth.

And mere moments after Des army crawled through duck poop…

Though he’ll routinely try just about any food we offer him (except scrambled eggs, those were jettisoned with notable velocity), it’s always with a grimace of uncertainty. On the way back to the car, we stopped for a pint and snack and discovered he absolutely loves pita and hummus. No funny faces, wanted more. Go figure- he is our kid.

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Memorial Day

May 25, 2015 shreffler

Des getting ready to walk/stroll down to Memorial Park, though he was too busy plucking blades of grass to notice the paratroopers gliding over our house

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Today I reflected on those lost and my son. I thought about how I’d explain to Des as he grows what this country means, sacrifice through service, and how that extends to duty as an engaged citizenship.

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On the walk back through our Dundee neighborhood, we made our requisite visit to eCreamery. Des tried sorbet (non-dairy) for the first time, results below:

Then some of us took naps at various times. At first glance it may appear as though Des is disappointed his father is sleeping rather than playing with him. I assure you, this is merely a brief intermission to lengthy play and banging.

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