Storm Lake

We went to Storm Lake Iowa this past weekend to hang out with the Quam family. We hadn't seen Rachel and Sam since they drove to Omaha to help us move into our apartment in January, so it was great to spend some time catching up with them and seeing the rest of the Quam family, Erika, Erik, & Brody and Rella and Larry.

We relaxed in the lake........

Celebrated Rella and Larry's 34th wedding anniversary.........

And goofed around and laughed a lot.......

We are missing them a lot this week because we had so much fun with them over the weekend, but we are excited because we are leaving Friday to spend our first weekend in Peoria with Rachel and Sam.

House Pictures

We have been in our house for one week today! We have been busy unpacking and doing some work on our yard. It has been fun so far and we have realized that we have a lot to do. Our house will definitely be a work in progress for the next few years. As promised, here are some more pictures of our place.

The outside....


One of my favorite things is our front door....

The entry way....

Check out the entry way tile. It is original from when the house was built in 1930!

The view from the entry way into the house.....

Our living room.....


Our dining room...(no table yet)....

The kitchen....


Two bedrooms and a bath on the main floor....

The master bedroom and bath is upstairs. We haven't moved anything up there yet because the floors have never been finished and we are hoping to finish them this winter before we move our room up there.


The basement is totally unfinished. We have our washer and dryer down there and all of our unpacked boxes! We can't wait for all of you guys to see it! You are welcome anytime.

Our New House

It is official! We moved into our first house this weekend. We rented a u-haul and had a few friends that helped us move everything on Friday. We said goodbye to our apartment.............

and hello to home ownership..................

I will post some pictures soon of the inside of our new place. We have been busy trying to unload boxes and get settled. We learned fast that old houses have lots of quirks...the first night I swore there was a squirrel trying to crawl into our bedroom through the air conditioning vent. Jon took the vent apart the next morning and found a small wooden fisher price dog that was rattling around in the vent........

We already made our first trip to home depot and will have ongoing projects for a LONG time, but we enjoy it and will keep you posted on our house projects.
I will send out an email soon with our new address.

The Oregon Gang in the Midwest!!

Our dear friends from Oregon, Grant, Nicole, Tom and Donna arrived in Omaha the last week of July. They made the drive from Eugene with stops in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Grant and Nicole got engaged in the Grant Tetons just a day before we saw them, and we couldn't be happier for them. We hung out in Omaha for a few days and our fellow Duck Alumni, Brett, who is now an assistant professor at Kansas State drove up to Omaha too. We checked out Omaha and UNO for a few days..............

and then drove to Kansas City for a Royals Game. We saw Sammy Sosa hit a home run, a rain delay x 2 and some great laughs...........

and to go to Worlds of Fun. It was about 100 degrees and humid, and after 5 roller coasters we were not feeling so hot. This is the last roller coaster we tackled before the sickness set in......

We had such a good time with everyone here, and it was so hard to say goodbye when they had to start the drive back to Oregon. We miss you guys and can't thank you enough for making the long drive so we could get together. We will post more pictures when we get copies from Nicole, so check back to this post within a few days to see more.....

Here are some more pictures....

Ava's First Birthday

We had a nice weekend with the Meendering family at Sam & Nick's house in Cedar Rapids, IA. We celebrated Ava's First Birthday Saturday afternoon. She had her first real sugar experience, as you can tell from the photos she enjoyed it thoroughly.

Home Owners.....well almost

We put an offer on a cute 1930's brick tudor house near the UNO campus. After what seemed a million counter offers, addendums, and home inspection requests we finally came to an agreement with the seller last night and it looks like we are going to be first time home owners! We are set to close on the house on the 24th of July and take possession on the 29th of July. We are really excited to move into our first house!!

Building a Deck

We drove up to Minneapolis MN this weekend to visit my my sisters and their families. My parents also came up to Minneapolis so our whole family was together for a fun weekend. Harry, Sophie, and Rita have a new brother George and Jon and I got to meet him for the first time this weekend. He is so cute! The project of the weekend was helping to build a deck for Julie and Joe. Harry jumped right in and was a big help to Grampie, Jon, and Joe. After the deck was finished we got to attend Ali's birthday party and then we had a big family bbq at Jen's house.
We got a cute picture of Jon and Rita , which was special because Jon is Rita's godfather and we haven't taken a picture with just the two of them since Rita was a baby. We also took a family picture after church with everyone together.

Dr. Meendering

Jon and I went back to Eugene this weekend for my PhD graduation.
I was nervous as I was asked to be graduate student speaker for our department and there were over 700 people there. My speech went well and I can officially say that I am Dr. Meendering! My parents even made the trip out to Eugene for the big day which really meant a lot to me. I feel so lucky to have such amazing supportive parents. After graduation we went to Stephanie and Davids for a BBQ and then out for drinks to celebrate.


More than anything on this trip, Jon and I realized just how much we LOVE eugene and miss all of our friends there. There were like our family for the last 5 years and it is hard to be away from all of them. We love you guys! Luckily, Grant, Nicole, Tom, and Donna will be driving from Oregon to Omaha at the end of july to visit. Brett will come up from Kansas and we are all planning to spend a few days in Omaha and then head to Kansas City for the weekend. We can't wait!

Tour de Cure

Jon and I decided to do the Tour de Cure this year to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. We rode 50 miles on our bikes and were lucky to have many family and friends support our ride. Together we raised almost 800 dollars for a wonderful cause. Thanks to everyone who donated to support our ride and the National Diabetes Association.

The bike ride was difficult, but fun. Who knew there were hills in Nebraska? After the ride, all of the riders met at local vineyard for dinner and entertainment. We will post more pictures from the day when we get them off our camera!

Back to Eugene....

Jon and I went back to Eugene last week for my dissertation defense. I was so nervous for the entire month before my defense, but it went well, I passed, and I am now officially Dr. Meendering! The last year of nonstop work on my dissertation was challenging in so many ways and I can not even describe how good it feels to be finished. Jon and Nicole surprised me with a party at Pegasus Pizza after my defense and had invited all of our friends in Eugene.

In the same trip back to Eugene Nicole and I threw a baby shower for Stephanie, David, and Baby Swayne. We outdid ourselves with mom-to-be friendly drinks and a beautiful spread of food. We played a game where everyone had to taste baby food and guess what kind it was. I am now second thinking ever feeding our future kids processed baby food. After the baby shower, Nicole and I met Grant, Jon, and Sean at a beatuiful winery just outside of Eugene and enjoyed some wine and the beatuiful scenery for the rest of the day.We also went hiked up dog mountain in the columbia gorge. It was super hard, but a lot of fun.
When we were hiking up there were all these people hiking down in full winter weather gear. We thought they must be crazy because it was warm and we were all in shorts and t-shirts. After we got past the tree clearings at the top we realized why.....we were freezing and the wind was whipping around. After hiking we had a great bbq at Nicole's parents house with her familly and Grant's parents. We had a wonderful time, but it was not to hard to leave this time because we will be going back in 3 weeks for graduation!