Special Iowa Edition

Every year on July 27, it is Finnish tradition to wake up the last person to leave the house by either throwing water on them, or throwing them into a lake or the sea. 

On July 27, 1912, 28 nations and 2,500 athletes celebrated the closing ceremonies to the Olympic games being held in Stockholm, Sweden. The tug-of-war gold medalist? The host country beat England for the title (but only two teams competed, so there were good odds).

And with a deep history from the country that shares the Scandinavian skyline, Norway, Ellen Bersagel was born.

Yesterday, we gathered at Bestemor’s (reminder: Bestemor is Norwegian for Grandmother) farm in northern Iowa to celebrate her 96th birthday. We traveled from West Salem to Northwood in the morning (Ezra’s longest car drive to date: 2.5 hours) and arrived just in time for dinner – which is what they call the noon meal in these parts. We had a really good spread of food, as we always do at the farm. At the conclusion of the meal, we had some ice-cream cake to complete the culinary celebration. 

Not long after lunch, we all sat with Bestemor as she opened her gifts. It always seems to be a special day when we get to visit with Bestemor, but yesterday had some extra emotion attached to it since it was her birthday and we were able to introduce her to Ezra. It’s a pretty cool thing that Ezra has already been held by 3 of his 4 great-grandparents (and hopefully we will complete that wish soon). We hung around through supper and headed off to the hotel for the night. 

Here are pictures from the day, including a couple of the sites on the farm – which only took 5 minutes to go outside and take, bur for which I sacrificed at least 4 mosquito bites. Oh, and Isaac patiently playing catch with Ezra.

Special Wisconsin Edition

Yesterday was a fairly relaxed day. Strike that, it was a very relaxed day. We spent the morning doing a few errands around West Salem and Onalaska, and returned home to pass the car off to Mary Jo. She headed out to meet Kari, Matthew, and Nora about half way between the yet un-named ocean Cedar Rapids, Iowa and West Salem (they had been spending the last week or so with Matthew’s Mom). Ahna and I held down the fort and made ourselves some lunch and went out for a walk. As I mentioned yesterday, the temperature here is really comfortable….the only problem is that someone forgot to tell the humidity to meet that comfort level as well. Everyone around here is excited about how low the humidity is, but for someone from Colorado who is particularly sensitive to the heat, it’s still at a level worth complaining about. 

After the walk, and once everyone arrived, we enjoyed spending the afternoon and evening together. It seems as though Ahna has become more relaxed, or at least her evening sleep pattern suggested that. The night went pretty good with Ezra putting in a solid 6 hour stretch. Enjoy Nora, Kari, and Ezra:

Special Wisconsin Edition

I suppose that traveling on a plane for the first time and hanging out with some long-time friends for the evening before arriving at your destination 16 hours after you started is reason not to do a posting…right? 

Yesterday started early, like 5:15 early. Our flight was supposed to leave at 10:15am and we had decided to get to the airport 3 hours early…just to be safe that we had enough time to make it through everything comfortably since we were traveling with three for the first time. By the way…a baby sure has a lot of luggage for being a baby. A bag to himself. A stroller to himself. A car seat to himself. Seriously, I don’t even get all of that for myself. When we were packing and at the airport, it seemed like we were first time travelers for all over again (trust me, we have traveled enough not to be inexperienced). Everything seemed strange, different, and new. Many of you might be thinking (and I ran the numbers myself) that all of those hours might have made it an idea to drive…but if you add up all of the hours of travel (not the time that we spent with friends), it still would have only put us at Valentine, Nebraska. And trust me, we have spent a night there before, there isn’t much to do or see in Valentine, Nebraska (except for the fact that the gas pumps at the Shell station in town have TVs in them).

Back to the story: we left the house as planned at 6:15, got to the airport parking lot as planned at 7:15 and took the shuttle to the terminal. Ticket check-in went relatively fine, and we headed off to security. Once there, we saw a pretty long line that put our mood in a little of a damper…but not to worry! The line actually moved pretty quickly. We were standing in line both feeling pretty good about how everything had gone to this point…when all of a sudden we realized that we had forgotten the base to the car seat in the car (the base is what attaches to the car, and you can take the car seat out without taking the base out…for ease and simplicity). We made some quick decisions and came to the conclusion that Ahna would take Ezra through security and I would quickly go back to the car and grab the base. This isn’t how we planned on addressing security for the first time with Ezra. 

I left the two of them in line as the approached the screening machines and started to run to the other side of the main terminal to catch the shuttle back to the lot. Just as I approached the bus (and still running), it pulled away. 20+ minutes later, the next bus came. Needless to explain further, the whole trip back to the car was a series of one bad luck after another…amounting to more than 1 hour to get the job done and back through security…maybe there were also a few choice words spoken to whoever might have been within 50 feet (or so) of me. While I was dealing with all of that, Ahna was dealing with security and a lack of help by anyone as she went through. The actual process wasn’t all that bad…except that she only had two hands – which were holding Ezra. One note to parents out there: petroleum jelly, and butt cream (of any sort) counts towards that ridiculous 3-1-1 rule…hope that you have an understanding screening agent – which Ahna had. One note to the people out there: help someone who needs it even though they are in security. We know that there is a lot of stigma attached to what happens once in those boundaries, but it will be okay if you help someone flip a car seat or push some stuff through the machines….and don’t think that I don’t need to listen to this advice as well, I was probably that person who wouldn’t help for the last couple of years. Lesson learned.

All of that excitement resulted is us joining each other only about 30 minutes before we needed to board the plane – just enough time to scarf down some food, use the restroom, change Ezra, and grab a snack for the flight. We did board the plane with the early crowd and gate-checked the stroller and car seat. One more note: (our car seat snaps into the stroller), they will return anything with wheels to the gate when you get off, but not the bag with the car seat in it…meaning that we couldn’t use the stroller for anything but carrying some bags once we got off of the plane. 

The plane ride was good and bad. The good? Ezra was amazing. He was his normal content self for most of the flight – except for when we has hungry, then he fed and was content again. The decent was a little worse than the ascent, but some sucking on a bottle kept him doing well. The bad? The flight itself was really bumpy on takeoff and landing, making it somewhat difficult for Ezra to stay asleep. Once we reached Minneapolis, we met up with Dave and grabbed or luggage before heading out towards Rochester (MN, home of the Mayo Clinic).

Dave is taking a class in the cities this weekend, so it worked out that he could get us from the airport and take us down to Rochester where Mary Jo would meet up with us and drive us the rest of the way to West Salem. Just to our advantage, some great friends of ours recently moved to Rochester and we were able to meet them at their house for dinner. Gina, Dave, and Zach lived in Omaha for the last couple of years and about a month ago moved up to Rochester for work. It has been two years since we have seen them, and since Zach is now 2.5 years old…it was awesome to meet him again. We enjoyed pizza, beers, and fort building with Zach. We had a wonderful visit with Gina and Dave and were saddened when we had to leave to finish the trip to West Salem. The good news is that they are coming down here on Saturday (more on that later) and we will get to see them twice in just a couple of days. 

We arrived last night at about 10:30 and made ourselves at home…which, of course, is still home for Ahna. Ezra and Ahna did great last night learning a new place to sleep and feed. The weather here is much better than expected, with highs in the lower 80’s, a nice breeze, and pretty low humidity (for the midwest). Who would have thought that we would be seeking refuge from the summer in Colorado by coming to the upper-midwest? 

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

And yesterday, thus no posting…I am still trying to figure out how to post while I am at work (and even if I can), so we’ll see. I left yesterday morning at 0545 and returned this morning just before 7. It was actually a lot easier to get back into the swing of things at the station, but it certainly helped that we had a call 20 minutes into the shift – nothing like jumping back in with both feet. It was something of a busy day yesterday: cleaning, maintenance, and training mixed in with a few calls. Ahna and I spoke on the phone a few times throughout the day and then she and Ezra stopped by after dinner last night. At times it is difficult to have a job that takes me away for 24 hours at a shot, but it’s nice that I have a job (that is close to where we live) where Ahna and Ezra can come and stop by when we have some down time.

I found myself getting lost in the work yesterday, even at times ‘forgetting’ that there was this child now at home. However, it was really joyous when I would speak with Ahna on the phone and hear Ezra in the background…and a little difficult knowing that I would not be able to see him as much as I would like. I finally went to bed around midnight with the anticipation of a possible full-night’s rest…only to find myself waking up every hour or two wondering why I wasn’t hearing little grunting noises. We didn’t get any calls during the night, but I didn’t sleep soundly either; however, I definitely had more room in my bed. 🙂

Ahna and Ezra had a pretty good day as well. They made it on their own just fine, although she tells me that she missed having me around (between you and me, I’m sure that there were moments that she was happy to have me gone). They went to lunch with Jay, Karen, and David and headed around town for a few errands (including stopping by the firehouse). Many folks called and checked in to see if she needed anything – which is extremely appreciated. It seems as though her night went similarly to mine (as far as the consistency of the sleep) but of course included being up to nurse Ezra. If they didn’t get enough practice yesterday, there is always tomorrow. 

If you all remember the first time that Ezra came by the firehouse (when we visited with Gil), Ezra brought along some good luck in the form of a fire (it’s good for firefighters). Yesterday he brought us good luck in the form of a magnificent double rainbow just in front of the station. Since he is two-for-two with station visits, he will be welcome whenever he wants to come. (ed. note: one of the pictures is pieced together – not well – from two photos)

Ezra wanted to tell you to have a Scooby-licious birthday celebration today! It was great to talk with you on the iChat and to open your gift together (even though we are a thousand miles apart). 

Kind of. Sort of. For now. The afternoon marked the last scheduled trip to Dr. Cassell’s office, which oddly enough was a little sad. We have had a great experience with Dr. Cassell and in some ways it is a little strange to think of not having to go there anymore. We have estimated the number of visits to the office during the last 14 months to be in the neighborhood of 25; so I suppose that we will have to fill those vacancies with something else on the calendar. The visit went well, and Ahna was cleared to return to “all normal activities with no restrictions.” Even though she has been doing a lot of things for the last couple of weeks, I think that the official word from the doctor is satisfying news. 

In the evening we headed out for Ezra’s second baseball game – only this time with a few less people around. Tanner’s team was playing at a park here in town and we went down to cheer him on. They have started coach-pitch (still not keeping score) and he hit the ball both times he was up to bat. Jay, Karen, and David (who was sporting a new Notre Dame jersey) joined the cheering section as well. Afterwards, we decided on a impromptu trip to the ice cream parlor located next door to Station 1. We all met there, enjoyed sitting outside and talking about the “old days” when Jay, Matt, Geoff, Jeff, Todd, Patrick, and I were assigned to that firehouse. It was good to remember those times and to share some of those with Tanner.

The day yesterday seemed to be one of those that disappears before your eyes. We think that Ezra is having a little growth spurt: or at least that is how we are deciphering the increased frequency in feedings. Therefore, most of the day seemed to be catching up on things between feedings. It was also my parent’s 35th wedding anniversary, so they headed up to Boulder to spend a nice night out with each other. Their absence from home resulted in an empty space (that isn’t our house) with a great view and a nice TV set….so we headed down there and hijacked the house for the evening. We brought some soup and ice cream, a movie (see below) and our walking shoes. It was very pleasant and a nice treat to be able to break away – even if mostly symbolically – for a little while from the norm.