Daniel’s Pilgrimage

I’ve been a little slow to update this blog on happenings. Last weekend we went up to Maryland for a little roadtrip with Nate, Anne, Alisha and Casey. We ate at Phillips, went to a concert(The Hold Steady), had Brunch at The City Cafe and played in my parents pool. Here is a fun video clip of Alicia and Anne learning how to dive off the diving board and Alisha showing off:

Our good friends Scott and Jan had their baby last night! Lucy Janelle Wiese was born last night at 6:05 pm weighing 6 pounds 9 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. We went to see them tonight and she is adorable. Mom was a champ and was doing great. That is a picture of the happy new parents. Seriously, have you ever seen a couple look better after just having a baby?!?! And here is one of me holding her:

My good friend Nate has been on me for a little while to get out on the court with him. So yesterday we went down to the court here on the hill and played some ball. I didn’t embarrass myself too bad so I guess it was a successful first couple games back. I haven’t played a game of basketball in quite a few years, maybe even since we got married(almost 6 years now for those counting).

I was amazed that my body still thought it could do the stuff it used to be able to do. My vertical leap is a foot or more less than it used to be. I’d still get over to the correct spot on help defense but when I jumped to contest the shot it always made it’s way over my hand. That was a sad thing for someone who once blocked 26 shots in a game. And my jump shot was horribly inconsistent. For every one I knocked down there was two that weren’t even close.

But overall it felt good to get to play a game I used to love and obsess over. Once my body recovers from yesterday I think I’ll try to get out there again. Hopefully I’ll slowly be able to work my way back into form. Stay tuned for further recaps.

I wrote two posts for over at hope like mad(my friend Brent’s blog) in the past 2 days. A bunch of us are blogging through the book Jesus For President and my posts are part of that series. They are here and here if you want to be a dedicated fan of mine and read everything I write.

I found these photos of our backyard not long after we moved in. Quite a difference from the ones below:

And then we cleared some stuff and they cleared the lots next door: