Category: Activities

Categories
Activities

Grandparent Visit

This past weekend, Larry and Mary traveled down to Iowa to visit and relax in Kalona.  Despite being a little warm, we spent Saturday at Kent Park near Tiffin, IA.  After a picnic lunch, we walked around the lake and dipped our toes in the water to cool off.  It was a good chance to relax and for Mary and Larry to have some time with Jacob.  Also, Mary quickly realized that Jacob’s nickname is the Tag-Finder, as he loves to find and lick tags on Pooh, the purple horse, the jumper, and just about anything else.

Categories
Activities

Whew…

As you may have guessed by the apparent lack of posts in the past 10 days, the Werth family has been busy.  On July 18th, Elise started her two-week intensive training for a Project Lead-the-Way course: Biotechnical Engineering.  She will be teaching this course at Washington this next year and is taking the course at the University of Iowa.  As the training fits a semester course in two weeks, Elise is in class from 8-5, Monday through Friday and then has several hours of homework. 🙁  On the days that I work, Jacob gets to hang out in Washington.  The situation makes for long days for all, but in two days life will return to a somewhat normal state.

In other news, along with Elise celebrating the end of course on Friday, I will finally be done with my many years of schooling!  This will mark an end to my Master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa.  While still searching for career opportunities, I have been hired on as a miscellaneous professional at UI ITS.  Essentially, I will be maintaining my current responsibilities (desktop support, master calendar management, and website development), as well as my hours (20 per week).  In addition, there are a couple of other part-time opportunities that I am pursuing to round out the work week.

Last but not least, Jacob turned 6months old on Monday!  He continues to grow and mature each day, developing his many skills: making strange sounds, jumping in his jumper, and wrestling anything he can grab.  He continues to improve his rolling skills and is showing very early signs of crawling – although this is still a ways off.  A weight check the other day revealed he is nearly 19 pounds.

All in all, it has been a very fulfilling, busy, tiring, and exciting time for the family.  As always, continue to check back for more posts and fun pictures!

Categories
Activities Parenting

A Day at the Beach

On Saturday morning, the Werth family decided to take the canoe out for a spin at Kent Park.  It was Jacob’s first time for many things: being in a canoe, wearing a life jacket, and being in water other than the bathtub.  Overall, the little guy did just great – although, he was rather stunned by the lack of a bathtub bottom.  When he did find the bottom, he found the sand to be a rather strange feeling on his feet.  Enjoy the pictures from the day:

Categories
Activities

Mouse Party

Elise and I just returned home from an eventful weekend in Minnesota.  After driving up on Friday, we spent some time with the Kelly’s at the annual Mouse Party.  Everyone was excited to see little Jacob – as it was the first time for many.  On Sunday, we were able to visit the Jorgenson’s and go out for Grandma Jean’s birthday with the Kauffmann’s.  We spent the night at Teresa’s new place and headed back home on Monday.

It was a great, albeit hot, weekend!  We always enjoying spending time with family and friends.  Jacob fared well despite the many new faces and is quite exhausted.  Enjoy the pictures from the weekend:

Categories
Activities

Vacation Photos!

Along with a couple shots of Jacob, here is the highlight reel from our vacation:

Categories
Activities

Vacation Pictures

Here are some great panoramas from our trip.  More to come…

Categories
Activities

Vacation: Day 3

Friday was the day for our tour of the West Point United States Military Academy. Our tour was scheduled for 11 so we took off at 10 for the 25 minute drive. After ending up on a detour route, the detour forgot to tell us where to go. We found our way back to our initial road and were cruising down a small scenic road only to hit a roadblock where a rock slide had occurred. At this point, it was 10:42 and we were still a ways off without knowing how to get there. (Keep in mind, our GPS isn’t being used due to the cigarette lighters not working.) After a quick call to the tour agency, we had our directions and were heavily speeding up, over, and down a mountain. We got there just in time and were off to the tour.

After going through Thayer gate we drove around the campus stopping at the parade fields, trophy point, cemetery, and the cadet chapel. The main campus was on a high bluff, filled with Gothic military buildings, and occupied 3,000 acres. Behind the campus was an additional 10,000 acres of mountainous terrain used for training. It was a very enjoyable tour and we found a small pizzeria for a late lunch. We hopped back in the car, and after some amazing roads through the mountains, the Hudson river, and Connecticut forest, we arrived in New Haven. We met Chris and Karen for a Thai dinner and some drinks. Tomorrow we are off to Gouveia Vineyard north of New Haven.

p.s. We are taking some amazing pictures, but forgot to bring the card reader. We will post the pictures after we return.

Categories
Activities

Vacation: Day 2

After having a good nights rest in Hamburg, PA Elise and I drove north toward Pottsville to tour Yuengling brewery. On the way we took a couple scenic off-shoots – one up a gravel road on a mountain and another on a winding tar road next to water dams. Arriving in Pottsville, we found a nice bluff city with crazy roads (skinny, one-ways, and ridiculous hills). We saw a cool castle-looking building and upon almost entering discovered it was a prison. We were kind of confused since it had a historic landmark placard describing the hanging of the mollies. But after realizing it was a prison, we took off and went to the brewery.

Yuengling Brewery is in its 182nd year and has been family owned the entire time. Under the current ownership of Dick Yuengling, it has grown substantially and someday will be owned and operated by his four daughters. The tour was great as we saw the various stages from the kettles to the bottling/canning and the old storage caves carved into the mountain. The beer was good and we both really enjoyed the Yuengling Porter. After another beautiful drive, we stopped for dinner at Barley Creek Brewery and Grill. From there we drove on to our hotel in Newburgh, NY.

Categories
Activities

Vacation: Day 1

Elise and I decided to take a trip to the east coast to visit a friend and see the countryside. After leaving Jacob in the welcoming arms of his grandparents, we departed MSP and flew to Newark, seeing Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty during the landing. Arriving without a hitch, we rented a car and drove west to Pennsylvania. We stopped in White House Station, NJ for a fantastic dinner at Reddington’s Diner where a number of folks were speaking Italian. From there we traveled on to Nazareth, PA for an impromptu trip to the Martin Guitar factory. There were no more tours for the day, but we took a peek at the shop, toured the museum, and tested out a few guitars. We were able to see the history of the guitars as well as the guitars of Johnny Cash, Paul Simon, and others. We drove onward and stopped for the night in Hamburg to prepare for our brewery tour tomorrow. Best wishes from PA!

Categories
Activities

New Website!

Hi All,
Please check out the new and improved JonathanWerth.com.  During the past week, I’ve spent some time reinventing the look and feel of the site to better accommodate my future plans for the site.  Take a look around and let me know your thoughts, suggestions, or improvements (really!). Thanks!
-Jon