Bald Eagles

Went to Squaw Creek the other day with Allison to take some pictures of the Bald Eagles that stay there. 

Squaw Creek is a National Refuge located in Northwest Missouri. We saw about 6 Bald Eagles, lots of Muskrat homes, a few eagles nest, and 1 raccoon. This pictures really do not do the experience justice. One of the Bald Eagles was really close to the road we were driving on - - so cool!!

Holiday Luminary Walk

The Overland Park Arboretum has a HOliday Luminary walk. Lots of people at my work rave about how awesome it is and how I should go and take some pictures. So I talked some my friends into going as well. Come to find out it was good but really I think it could have been way better! It was for sure something different to do. Anyways here are a few pictures for you to check out.

Pretty sweet bridge

Noah and Cass in the little house for the kiddos

Noah and Cass in the Corn walkway. I think this one is funny because Cass is trying to squat/kneel down - because I am squatting to take their picture. Funny girl!

My buddy Sam - peeking out through the tunnel! 

The littlest bear we took with us!

Mom/kid picture

Mark Maasen in the KC Star

My brother has been in the paper twice this last week and in a Pet Magazine! He is getting quite the publicity for the winter show he is in. I went and saw the play on opening night. It was really good, however he is my brother so I am obviously going to say that. It is funny and clean.
Here is the link to the spotlight he got in the Sunday paper:
These players bring holiday treats to the stage - KansasCity.com

If you are interested in going to enjoy some good laughs and want to check out the play here is the information:
The Martin City Melodrama & Vaudeville Co
9601 Metcalf Ave. (Metcalf South Shopping Center - by Sears)
November 20-January 2nd
Call 913-642-7576 or www.martincitymelodrama.org

No Words

This was taken at Wyatt's 3rd birthday

Fritz's

So the other day we went to what I think is one of the best places in the world. Fritz's! This is a restaurant that is in KCK (the original one) and that I went to a lot when I was a child. This restaurant is one that I went to with my Grandma Marlin pretty much all my life. It is the famous restaurant that brings your food to you on a train! So fun - for all ages!! My grandma (86) still gets a kick out of it and she has been going there for a really long time. If you decide to go I highly recommend the Gen Dare burger, it is a cheeseburger (a thin one like Winsteads), with grilled onions, pickles, mustard, ketchup, and hash browns - yep hash browns that is the key. You can get something else however it is the best item on the list, and they are famous for it. I also recommend the onion rings and the root beer also very great there too. 

Leah, Cass, my grandma, and me went to eat lunch there on Friday. We all had so much fun. Leah even ventured out and tried the Gen Dare - she liked it! Cass thought it was pretty cool how our food came to us on a train. All in all it was a very successful trip with great people and amazing food. It was fun that Leah and Cass got to meet my grandma. 

The Gen Dare and some great sides

A fake Fritz's train

The little engineer 

This is our food! Being delivered by the train! 

Cass watching the train and our food 

The satisfied customer.

a little closer

Today I made a huge payment on my car and it is all paid off. Paid off early even.
It's pretty exciting! I have 2 more things to pay off and I owe my mom some money.
Then let the saving begin. Who knows maybe when I am out of debt I will have a celebration with good food - I am probably saying that because I am on the cleanse and I really want the rice crispy treats that are sitting on the counter. :)

Maase & Cass Ice Cream Date

Cass sitting outside of Baskin Robbins for the first time EVER!

First spoon full of ice cream, the flavor she picked was cotton candy 

"Wow, Maase this is great stuff!"

Pink & Purple - her favorite colors together in one! 

Big Bite!

Time for scoop #2 - no worries we shared this one, bubble gum flavor 

Tasty 

 She is showing me the bubble gum pieces in her mouth

Still showing me the gum pieces in her mouth 

Really - this is so fun! 

Maas & Cass after ice cream date #1

So my little friend Cassidy Faith Blake was having some issues with having accidents in her pants. The problem is that she was potty trained or toilet trained and then sort of reverted backwards. Lets be honest she has been a tad under stress lately. So anyways I wanted to do something to help her out. So I told her that if she went 4 days in a row without any accidents then I would take her to get ice cream. She could have any kind she wanted to have. She said "Do they have purple?" I said of course. She said, "What about pink?" I said yep they have pink with bubble gum in it. She was pretty pumped and excited to do it. She actually told other people about going to get ice cream if she didn't have accidents. She went 4 days in a row - technically she is still going strong with no accidents. So the big day came and we went to get ice cream!! Yippee I was just as pumped because I REALLY REALLY like ice cream! The best part was probably the smile on her face when she saw all the different kinds of ice cream! Priceless! Then she saw the purple and pink ice cream in one!! Cotton Candy flavor. Man she was pumped! "Maase, they have a kind that is both my favorites - pink and purple, whoa!" It was such a great date, so much fun to watch her eat it up and say how good it was. After she was done with the first scoop I asked if she wanted to share another scoop with me. She said "Yes!" and her eyes were all lit up. :) So she picked the famous pink bubble gum flavor. I taught her how to eat it like I use to when I was a kid. We got an extra cup for the gum pieces and we spit the gum pieces out into that cup and then eat/chewed the gum when we were all done. Truly so much fun - prolly some of the most fun I have had in a long time.  

Hot Air Balloon Fest

So a couple of weekends ago the Great Midwest Hot Air Balloon Fest was here in Overland Park. So Jessica and I got up really early to go and take pictures. It was fun, super foggy as you will see in the photos, but still a fun experience. It got so foggy that we could not even see the hot air balloon until it was on the ground. They actually stopped all flight activities for the morning because it was so foggy. So here are a few photos that I got from the day.

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON.

He's at it again

Colorado for a wedding

So I spent my Labor Day weekend in Ft. Collins Colorado for Jinger's (Tres as I call her) wedding. Jinger is a girl I met around 12 years ago when I was her sophomore basketball coach. She was and is such a great person. Well she got married this past weekend to a guy named Chris - I really think they will be a great pair. I of course was going to go to her wedding regardless because we have remained friends over all these years. However, she asked me to read scripture in her wedding so now I was going to the wedding to watch and to be a participator. I was honored to be part of their big day! While I was there of course I went around town a little - I did not have a car so walking or tagging along with others was my way around town. So here are a few pictures from a fun weekend get away.

A pumpkin patch at a local community garden

I thought the sky looked cool in this shot

A biker with the mountains in his background - awesome

Pretty

This is my favorite flower shot I took while there

This is Hops - an ingredient in Budweiser beers (went on a brewery tour)

Tour de Fat - a bike event, people dressed up, the tiki torch gets my points for creativity

Maase & Tres

where i spend my days at now

Well school/work is in full swing. I am back to teaching middle school P.E. and coaching 9 months out of the year (really 10). Right now I am coaching 8th grade volleyball, the girls are awesome and we should have a pretty decent season that is the coach is decent. :) Here are some pictures of where I hang out some of the day time, the rest is in the gym or on the football field.

My big office window - that looks out onto the locker room - I know exciting! If you are in need of a good window view someday just stop on by and I will share my office view with you.

This is the view I have of my office most of the time

This is the view you get when you first walk in my office

i taught this kid

KC ROYALS DRAFT PICK: With the fifth pick in the 2010 MLB Draft, the Royals have selected Jason Adam, a local prospect out of Blue Valley Northwest. Adam is 6′ 4″ and around 225 with a blazing fastball. He was named a 2009 East Kansas League All-Star and a 2009 All Sun Baseball Team honorable mention last season. He has a lot of room to grow and can improve his power dramatically over the next couple of seasons in the minors. The consensus amongst most baseball scouts was that Adam would be a second round selection, so the Royals may have caught a huge break by him falling to the fifth round and can get him to sign.

I tried to find a picture of Jason however I cannot locate one. I know that people read the posts when there are pictures!

I liked Jason when I taught him he was one of those good kids. He was always doing the right thing, he even participated in the FCA huddle that I helped lead.

I am pumped to cheer him on when he is wearing the powder blue!! Heck I might even buy a jersey!

dog wash

So a week or so ago Leah took Yuma to the dog wash - that is set up like a car wash (sorta). I went purely to see what it was like and to take pictures to blog about it! There was a small scary moment but we survived it. If you decide to take your dog here I highly recommend taking another person with you since it is very hard to manage solo.

The dog was area

The different options - check out the one in yellow! :)

For some reason Yuma was not to willing to climb the ramp!

It's go time, Yuma is getting the oatmeal shampoo wash! Her skin loved it!

All finished: blow dried and clean!