Independence Day 2018

We celebrated Independence Day in Independence, where else?? In the morning we went to the parade and saw all the usual floats and antique cars and tractors, but this Mad Max-style car caught my eye. It broke down a couple blocks into the parade route, hence the few close-ups. I expect to see steel spikes welded onto the front of it next year:

We went back to the Conrads to cool off afterwards (it was hotter than blazes all day) and brace ourselves before going back out. There wasn't as much going on that afternoon as usual, probably due to the heat. The airport wasn't doing plane rides this year due to a change in ownership, so hopefully they resume next year. Emily was blowing some pretty rad bubbles while we were cooling off:

For lunch we grilled burgers and dogs and then went back outside. Even though the heat index was 105, it actually felt comfortable once we started playing in the water:

The Pork Tornadoes played their first show in Indy, they were fun to see. It almost didn't happen due to the random rain showers that kept passing through, but then it cleared up and the temperature dropped nearly 20 degrees! 

Waiting for the fireworks show!

Happy Independence Day 2018!

Come What May

Wow, I missed the May update completely. Too much going on to try to recall all of it, but here are the highlights from May...

I designed book covers for a couple self-published authors I know. One for Casey:

And one for Jolene:

I'm also finalizing the design of 15 flavors of granola for O'Brien's Own, which will be sold in Hy-Vee grocery stores and numerous other grocery stores throughout Iowa. It's been a huge task designing 15 different products, but it'll be cool to see them on the store shelves! Not too long ago I shot senior pictures of their son and mentioned that I also am a graphic designer, so they asked me to take a shot at designing their new packaging and it turned out great.

The Quad City Air Show is normally later in the summer, but this year it was early and we had a perfect day for it. Cynthia, my dad, my brother and his wife all went with me and we had a blast! Got lots of good shots. Some of my best so far of the Blue Angels:

I'll add more air show photos in a separate post later.

We celebrated Cynthia's birthday and invited friends and family. The weather was awesome, so we set up in the garage and I grilled out.

I got her a really cool banjo for her birthday, too!

In May we went to the Bicycle Rodeo in Hiawatha and the girls both got new helmets. I bought Emily another bike (since she has outgrown her old one) and Rose is riding without training wheels now!

After a lot of waiting and anticipation, Cynthia and I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road the night it opened. It was a blast! OH WHAT A DAY, WHAT A LOVELY DAY! So much fun and it exceeded my expectations. They've been filming it for years and I've been following the news and waiting for it to be released in theaters, so it was pretty exciting to finally see it. It did not disappoint.

The girls' both had artwork that was on display in May at the Cherry building in NewBo. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the pics prematurely from my phone and only have one remaining:

In May we spent time in the backyard around the fire roasting marshmallows:

I saw these little dudes when I went for a walk during lunch one day – a baby snapping turtle and a toad:

Before school was out, we attended Garfield Elementary's 100th anniversary celebration:

We also went to the girls' outdoor school concert during the last week of school and sang our butts off. Actually, they sang and we did parent stuff like taking pictures and complaining about hearing all the same songs for the 3rd straight year, haha.