Portland

After we arrived in Corvallis, saw our house, met our landlord and neighbors, unhooked the car from the car dolly, and finagled the big Penske truck into our driveway, we headed north to Portland to pick up Rick from the airport. Since we were in Portland anyway, we decided to spend the next day there and explore a little bit. We ended up at a tea shop.

Portland (picking up Dad)

When we got back to Corvallis on Friday night we did just a tiny bit of unpacking.

Unpacking

Driving to Oregon

Dave, Jamie and Lori spent three days driving across Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon to get to Corvallis. We camped along the way and had marvelous scenery!

Driving to Oregon

Packing

We got really lucky and ended up having lots of help packing: Skip, DeDe, Soren, Collin, Will, Rick, and Lori all helped us throughout the day!

Thanks!!

Packing

Mortar and Pestle

Jessica gave Jamie a mortar and pestle! Hooray!

Kaiser Kids Family Reunion

This year's family reunion was held in St. Joseph, Missouri. We had a great time seeing everyone before we moved!

Kaiser Kids Family Reunion 2008

Florida Vacation

We made a trip down to Florida to spend a week with Dave's siblings, nieces, and nephews.

We had a great time hanging out, spending time at the beach and pool, playing poker, playing frisbee golf, getting massages, cooking dinners, and exploring Amelia Island!

Florida Vacation

Kirk and Katie

Kirk and Katie came over a few times before we left Iowa City. One of these times dance music got put on...and dancing occurred. Here's the evidence.

1 year anniversary

Natalie may be in Morocco, but she's close at heart! She sent us flowers for our one year anniversary (June 23).

4th of July

Charlotte came to visit us from Sweden and happened to be here for the 4th of July, so we all went downtown to enjoy the festivities and fireworks.

Oklahoma Trip

Lori and Jamie made a trip to Oklahoma in July. Jamie got to meet little Hunter Jack for the first time! Here are some photos from the trip:

Oklahoma Trip

Iowa City Friends

Zac and Hollie



Sam


Talia and Saralyn


Jon and Jaro


Typical Boys


Lovely Ladies

Amos's Baptism

Amos's Baptism

On June 1 Amos was baptized!
Click on the photo above for more photos.

Norah

This is Norah Bear. I babysat Norah once a week last school year. She is adorable!

Saying Goodbye to Tara & Nick

On May 16 we said goodbye to Tara and Nick as they headed West to Colorado.
We miss them!

Our Oregon Trip

A couple weeks ago we traveled to Oregon with Jessica and Jon to find an apartment for next year. But before we got to Corvallis we stopped in Portland and ate seafood, Eugene to see our friend Nate, Smith Rock to climb, and then Corvallis where we stayed with a great family who showed us lots of good things in Corvallis. Finally we ended up back in Portland to see Maura before we flew home. What a week!

Click on the link below to see a couple photos.

Oregon Trip

Graduate School

University of Minnesota, Oregon State University, Tufts University, or Portland State??

We have finally made a decision. After much deliberation, lists and lists of pros and cons, etc...we have decided on Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon!




Here's a link to a slide show of photos of Corvallis:
http://engr.oregonstate.edu/advantage/slides/index.html

UNI Climbing Competition

Two weekends ago we participated in the annual UNI climbing competition in Cedar Falls with some friends of ours from Iowa City. All of us University of Iowa climbers did really well and had a fun weekend! We've posted a few of the photos below.

UNI Climbing Competition

Pet-sitting

We spent a week hanging out with Bailey the dog and Bonzo the cat while we were pet-sitting for friends. Here are a few funny photos of our time with them!

Pet - Sitting

Dave's Birthday at Home

We spent a weekend in Des Moines to celebrate Dave's birthday with family. We were dog sitting for friends of ours, so Bailey had a lot of fun meeting the family too! We enjoyed getting to spend time with everyone and seeing how much Amos had grown!

Dave's Cooking Skills

This is Jamie writing.

One day, as I was walking out the door for work, I asked Dave if he wanted to whip something up for dinner when I returned since he would be home before me. He said, "Sure, I'll see what I can find when I get home tonight." Upon my arrival, I was amazed (but not really because he's brilliant like this all the time when it comes to food) to find a fabulous meal waiting for me.....a meal that he just "threw together."

Toasted french bread with olive tapenade, a stir fry of snap peas, peppers, zucchini, and carrots, and broiled parmesan, garlic eggplant over a bed of wheat pasta....wow!

Dave's Birthday

For Dave's birthday we decided to try and bake a vegan cake...and it turned out absolutely delicious! We took it into the climbing gym and all shared in Dave's celebration of being a quarter-century old.

Dave's Birthday

News Flash #2!

Jamie has been accepted at Tufts! Now we actually have to start making some decisions...choices, choices!

News Flash!

Jamie has been accepted to Graduate School at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon! It is the only school that we have heard from thus far but we're excited at the prospect of moving to beautiful Oregon!

Sledding!

Iowa City got hit this afternoon with a ton of snow... so we decided to bundle up and go sledding - what fun!!

Jamie's Birthday

Groundhog's Day was Jamie's birthday - we were so happy that people could join us to celebrate! Jamie's parents and Natalie came to Iowa City from Des Moines and luckily left on Sunday before the 6-8 inches of snow hit!

Jamie, Lori, Jessica, and Natalie enjoyed tea and snacks at the Leaf Kitchen!

A delicious dinner was had at a great vegetarian restaurant called the Red Avocado, and a few friends met up with us afterwards for good beer at Old Capital Brew House.

Jamie's Birthday

Amos Christian Hanser

Amos Christian is here! 3 1/2 weeks early but healthy and beautiful - and he has red hair! There is a slide show below of some photos of him at 26 hours and 34 hours old.
We were lucky enough to be able to drive to Des Moines and see him and Heather and Ryan twice before heading home.



You can click on the slide show above to actually view the photos on Picasa.

Winter Sunset

Just a beautiful winter sunset in Iowa City, seen from our apartment window.

New Recipe

This is our version of a "Spicy Peanut Noodles" recipe. You can make it as mild or as hot as you like, so it is very versatile.

The rice wine vinegar (or brown rice vinegar) and chile (or red curry) paste can usually be found in the Asian section of a grocery store.

The linguine cooks really fast so it's best to have the vegetables chopped and sauce made first before you start the pasta.


Spicy Peanut Noodles

8 oz. linguine
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tsp rice wine vinegar (brown rice vinegar works fine too)
1 to 2 tsp chile paste (or red curry paste) depending on how hot you want it
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
3/4 cup chopped cucumber (can seed it if you wish)
2 green onions, sliced diagonally into 1/4 inch pieces


Combine 1/4 cup water with peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, chile paste, and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until blended and creamy. If sauce is not the consistency of light cream, thin it with a little water or it will be chunky! Add bell pepper, cucumber, and green onions to cream mixture. Cook linguine according to package directions (approximately 4 minutes) and toss with mixture and serve.

Serves 3-4 people.

Nutritional Info per serving:

234 Calories
9 g Protein
8 g Fat
33 g Carb
0 mg Cholesterol
270 mg Sodium
3 g Fiber

Christmas in Colorado

Rick, Lori, Jamie, Jessica, and Dave traveled to Colorado for a fast trip to see the Nelson side of the family for Christmas.


To enjoy the photos, click below.

Christmas in Colorado

Heather's Baby Shower

On the day of Christmas Eve we convened at La Mie Bakery for Heather's Baby Shower! We had delicious food and enjoyed each other's company.

Click on the photo below for more pictures.

Heather's Baby Shower

Christmas with the Petts

We had a great Christmas spending time with family, eating delicious food, and relaxing.

We took quite a few photos!

Christmas with the Petts

Christmas with the Nelsons

We had a great Christmas spending time with family, eating delicious food, and relaxing.

We took quite a few photos!

Christmas 2007

Christmas at Thelma's

We had a nice Christmas dinner at Thelma's on the Saturday before Christmas with the Browers and Petts.

Click on the photo below for a few pictures from the evening.

Christmas at Thelma's 2007

More Wedding Photos

Sorry for the long delay, but here are some more of our wedding photos from the ceremony.

Click on the photo below for a slide show.

Wedding Ceremony Photos

Mexico - El Potrero Chico

After Thanksgiving in Austin we hopped on a Mexican bus to go climbing at El Potrero Chico in Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Natalie joined us there a few days later.

The weather could not have been more perfect and we had a wonderful time climbing. We met lots of cool people and ate delicious food. We wished we could have stayed longer - there is so much rock there!

The cold weather, ice, and snow of Iowa has been a shock to our systems and we're definitely reminiscing about our 80 degree temps....


Click on the photo below for a slideshow of some of our pictures

Mexico - El Potrero Chico

Thanksgiving

We joined the rest of the Petts family in Austin, Texas at Abigail and John's house for Thanksgiving. We enjoyed a few days of fun family time: playing poker, eating good food, shopping at Ikea and REI, a ladies-only tea room luncheon, baking pies, and watching Logan's baptism. Click on the photo below for a link to some of our photos of the week.

Thanksgiving