Hunter the Closer!

Last night The Flash played the Nitro. Hunter pitched the last inning and closed the game for a win 12-8.

Afterward, he was awarded the game ball for throwing 5 strike outs in one inning. 5 outs? isn't that 3 outs?

After the game we went to a graduation for a girl we know that is going to college on a catching scholarship. She understood!

Great Job Hunter!

Floridians soon to be Iowans again

Spring in Iowa means Blossoms.....

.....all kinds of blossoms.

See you soon!!

Farewell Tour

	We always visit our favorite Venice spots one last time before driving north to Iowa. So we stepped out our front door for the annual look-see. One of our favorite spots is our backyard where Becky's jungle of plants provides privacy and paradise ambience.
It seemed that "the season" is well over and the snowbirds have flown north. We checked out Becky's "reading room" at Sharky's--the gallery at the top that overlooks the ocean has colorful canopies this year.When the place is vacated, it's perfect for reading under the palm trees.
	Allen took his last walk through Heritage Park, passing by the ancient banyans.
Venice beach still had beach fans but TJ Carney's al fresco seating was abandoned.
	The jetty had fewer tourists and Sea Pleasures' dock posts guarded the doors.
	Scamotz, our favorite pizza place, looked closed.
	We ended up at Pop's for shrimp appetizers where a white egret entertained us on the rooftop.

IKEA opens in Tampa...

...and we headed over to check it out. It's our fifth IKEA location so we're now making comparisons. This IKEA has a more colorful look than we've seen before and a lot of Latino is spoken over the intercom. The store map comes in a Latino version. We don't see the blonde Scandinavians of the Minneapolis IKEA or the luxuries of resting spots offered at Chicago's IKEA. Tampa's customer seating is all about eating. Seattle's IKEA (one of the oldest in the USA) has a waterfront location and a rag-tag look. Sweden's first IKEA ever looks like an old warehouse but has a wonderful presentation of Swedish fabrics...no dining there...plenty of that across the street at IKEA headquarters.

We arrived at Tampa's IKEA in time for $1.99 breakfasts and stayed long enough to lunch on salads around 2 p.m. The store felt a bit like DisneyWorld--a talking toucan (the voice came from behind a pile of quilts where a funny guy operated the puppet and conversed with customers), Pippi Longstocking (bouncing around on chairs), and a guy doing magic card tricks--all probably hired for opening week. The parking lot was chaos with a flag-waver directing traffic every 100 feet.

We spent only $127.

Earth Day Trash Bash(just a little late)

I know Earth Day was a couple weeks ago, but I just haven't found a good picture to share until now.

On April 22, Adam participated in the Des Moines Parks and Recreation Earth Day Trash Bash along with over 200 Wells Fargo employees (along with employees from several other Des Moines businesses). See Adam circled; trust me that's me :).

Many interesting things were found; I personally rolled one tire up a hill and filled a garbage bag. Others near me found what seemed to be the remainders of a homeless camp. I guess a rusted out delivery truck was even discovered. After all the work there was a party downtown to recognize everyone's effort.



Here is a map showing where the Wells Fargo gang worked, MacRae Park.

First Weekend in May

This weekend was the Spring Classic Baseball Tournament. Between Blake and Hunter we attended 7 baseball games. The weather was perfect so we really enjoyed each one.

Photo of Hunter pitching. Blake played third. We didn't get good photos. He really burned it up.

Beside baseball, we also had a higher belt test for Karate. Hunter tested and did very well. Below is a little clip of him.

To end the weekend the boys went over to Valley for open Chess night. Blake claims he can beat anyone in 8 moves. Here are his chess buddies and his teacher Ben. They have their Tournament Awards night on Thursday. Blake is hoping to be 1st Grade Champ. We will see.

Mother's Day - the plans are gardening.

Royal Poinciana

Becky here, from Venice, FL where the jacaranda trees, like giant lilacs, are in full purple bloom. We don't have any jacarandas but we do have two Royal Poincianas in our front yard. We've never seen our early-summer blooming poincias show their colors before because we fly north by the end of May. While we're here in winter, these "flamboyants" are partially or wholly deciduous and have long brown pods that hang like razor strops. This year, our royals decided to grace us with their crowning glories. The huge scarlet blooms are the size of large bowls with diameters of about 18 inches.