Werth Family OnlineThe boys dressed up for Halloween and hit the street. Thanks to some wonderful sewing by Nonni, the two dressed up as Pooh Bear and Piglet. The Pooh bear originally had been worn by Elise when she was much smaller!
Enjoy these pictures from the night:
In addition to birthday parties and house buying, Jacob and I managed to find our way to the park to practice our kite flying. The little guy had a great time, but unfortunately the winds didn’t last too long. Overall, it was a great time with plenty of excitement.
On Sunday, August 22nd we hopped in the car to go cheer on “tt” as she ran in the Bloomington Iron Girl. The race consisted of a 2 mile run, 22 mile bike, and 2 mile run. Teresa did quite well and Jacob enjoyed cheering for all the ladies (“Good Job Ladies!”).
After searching and waiting, we are once again homeowners.
Last Friday (September 27th) we closed on our new house in Delano. We are excited about the house and its location but there is some work to be done (painting, cleaning, etc.) before moving in.
We got started right away on Saturday morning starting to clean, paint, and set up the new desk. After a full weekend, Elise decided to head out of town to chaperone 160 sixth graders in the north woods. It was a three-day field trip for the entire Rockford sixth grade filled with some great activities like orienteering, rock climbing, and canoeing. Meanwhile, Papa stayed home and took care of two boys who were battling colds/fevers.
Overall, we’re excited to get settled in Delano and be a part of this new community.
Not even a full week after moving to Minnesota, I got wrangled in to running the Minneapolis Duathlon. One of Laura’s friends dropped out, so I officially ran as a girl, but it was a whole lot of fun. Teresa and Fred paired up as a relay, while Laura and I went solo. Due to the heat, Laura and I were never able to finish up the race as the medical staff called it quits (which I must admit I was rather happy about). All in all, it was a great day and got me excited to train for future events, which I’ll need to do for my knee’s sake!
Enjoy this picture taken by the event staff:
The moment has arrived: the Werth family is moving to Minnesota! This weekend we are packing the last of our belongings in to a U-Haul and leaving Iowa City (mostly). While Elise and the boys will officially be in Minnesota, I (Jon) will be hanging back for one more week to wrap things up at work.
We’re excited about the move and being closer to family & friends, but we don’t have an official place to live yet. Elise’s folks are allowing us to crash their basement until we find that perfect place. Once we do, we’ll let you know where we end up!
This past Monday (July 15th) our house officially went on the market. The following day, it was on property tour in the morning and we had two showings that night. On Tuesday evening at about 11 p.m. we received an offer from one of the earlier showings. After talking it over with Elise, we slept on it and countered in the morning. After some interesting logistics (Elise was in Washington, IA and I was in Boston), we managed to pass the offer and counteroffer around for signatures. By noon on Wednesday (48 hours after the listing came active), the buyer had accepted our counteroffer and we were officially set as “Accepted Offer”!
We are now waiting for the inspections and paperwork to go through, but are scheduled to close on Aug 21st. Now it’s time to find a house in Minnesota!
I had the benefit of traveling to Boston this week for a work conference. Following the conference, I was able to meet up with Teresa for some good sightseeing. Here’s the week in photos:
Yikes! It’s been quite the summer. If you haven’t talked to us recently, this post will get you caught up on some major changes. Here it goes…
We just spent the past three weekends travelling: a week and a half on the east coast and a weekend in Omaha (see previous posts). Not wanting to have a relaxing summer, Elise had (after applying) received two offers for job interviews in Minnesota; one in Prior Lake and the other in Rockford. As a result, her and the boys headed up Thursday night (after spending the past two days at a work conference). While the boys hung out with Mary, Elise interviewed and by the end of the day had not one, but two, job offers. So.. now what? I (Jon) hop in the truck and head up to Eden Prairie late Friday night.
Elise and I decided to spend Saturday checking out the two towns and deciding what would be the best fit for our family. Coming to a decision that night, we decide that Rockford would be the best fit for Elise’s job (middle school science at an Environmental Studies magnet school) and for the family (small town).
After having made this decision, I get a call from my parents… Glencoe received a major dousing Saturday night and their house was filled with three feet of water. So…
While Larry heads to Laura’s house (out of power for 3 days and some water in her basement) and Elise calls the schools to finalize the decision, I head out to Glencoe to aid in the disaster recovery. Needless to say, after three feet of water, it was a very emotionally and physically draining time. We pumped out the remaining water, saved what we could, and started to clean up the mess, mud, and ruined belongings. It was quite the experience of digging through your history and tossing a lot of it into the trash. I took Monday off of work to stay one more day before heading back to Iowa City with Elise and the boys.
To keep this giant narrative moving along, I came up the next weekend to help finalize the gutting of mom and dad’s house, who are now living temporarily with Grandma A until they can get a new house. The next weekend, Fred, Cathy, and Teresa came down for a four day weekend over the fourth of July. Why? To finish up the basement remodeling of my house in order to get it on the market! Meanwhile, Elise traveled to Minnesota with the boys for the annual Mouse party and to allow us more construction hours in the day.
So… It’s currently Sunday, July 14th. I have been in a different state 5 out of the past 6 weeks (not including this one). Elise starts a new position Aug 19th, at which point I will continue to work for UIowa, albeit remotely. We’ve started to look (tentatively) at houses in Delano, MN and have arrangements for daycare. Our house is going to be listed tomorrow (Monday). Fred and Cathy have an accepted offer on their new house, and Teresa just took possession of hers. And while I write this, I am at 35,000 feet over New York headed to Boston for a work conference.
Needless to say, it’s been one hell of a summer. Hopefully, my next post will be from Minnesota 🙂
Best wishes, – Jon
Upon returning to Iowa City only a few days ago (5) from our East Coast vacation, we thought it would be a great idea to hop back in the car for another road trip.
This time we headed west to Omaha for Camilla Degen’s birthday celebration on June 15th. Elise, the boys, and I stayed with Mary, Larry, and Laura in the guest suite of Camilla’s residence. The party was held downstairs in a large room where nearly all the Degen’s were present. It was a good chance to see everyone and catch up on stories and current events.
After a long day of celebration, we drove back to Iowa City on Sunday, making a stop at the Baker’s Square in Des Moines for a Father’s day meal.
On Wednesday morning, we packed up our belongings and said goodbye to Cape Cod, Nickerson State Park, and our sweet little yurt. We drove back west and pulled in to Newport, RI a little before noon. We decided to make a stop at the visitor’s center to determine what our options were for the next 24 hours.
After the visitor’s center, we went and checked in to our hotel: the America’s Cup Inn.
Once we were placed in a room, we grabbed some lunch across the street at Busker’s Irish Pub. With full stomachs, we hit the town to see the sites. We took a scenic ocean view drive around the south end of the island and parked to start our cliff walk. The cliff walk is a paved path with the ocean on one side and large estates on the other.
If you want to see really cool mansions with scenic views of the ocean, the cliff walk is the place to be. After a while, we had to turn back due to storm damage, but we headed via the surrounding neighborhoods.
At this point, we were feeling a little tired, so we traveled back to the hotel for a quick rest. Feeling refreshed, we walked down to the wharfs to catch our evening sailboat ride that we had booked earlier. It was an enjoyable experience, motoring out into the open water where the crew of three raised the sails and started off on our small voyage. We enjoyed Narragansett beer while watching the sun go down and hearing stories about the sites we were seeing. It was a great end to our vacation and headed home the next day.