I had a rare busy Saturday. Although admittedly a lot of my Saturday was spent watching other people do stuff or sleeping on a wet lounger. Perhaps the highlight of my Saturday was trying the taco dip that spawned Monica’s world famous taco dip. I should have gotten a picture of that.

The first batch of pictures is from Willy running the 4K at the Iowa Games. Willy also ran the 8K. Then for fun, he ran 18 miles when he got home.

The next batch of pictures are from the Minor Girls State Tournament in beautiful Huxley, Iowa. I used to have a friend that lived in Huxley, Iowa. Maybe that guy will return a phone call some day…

Kalista’s team beat Madrid in the game that I witnessed, before falling to Grand View in their next game. Their game against Madrid was an excellent example of how positive energy overcomes negative energy.

Boone won the game. The deciding factor in the outcome of the game was positive energy. I do not think that Boone had the more talented players. I do not think that Boone had the superior strategy. I think the entire difference in the games was that positive energy was flowing from the Boone coaches and negative energy was flowing from the Madrid bench.

As many of you know I despise Little League. This comes from 10 years of coaching and many more years sitting in the stands. Little League is a shining example of how adults go out of their way to ruin children’s activities. There is some good, but it is usually outweighed by the bad.

An example: While the outcome of the game was still in the balance, the Madrid coach began yelling at her daughter as she was coming off the field for what she perceived to be a couple of mental errors on her daughter’s part. At about second #15 of the tirade, the 8 or 9 year old girl began crying. The Madrid coach’s response: “Don’t you cry. This is YOUR fault.” Another timeless childhood memory provided by Little League.

I won’t even get into the sequence where the Madrid coach began yelling at the Madrid fans.

The next batch of images comes from my trip to the Boone County Fair to visit Becky.

My favorite part about the Boone County Fair (besides getting the World’s Best Funnel Cake!) is the fact that the Boone County Democrats were giving away free gun locks.

The Fair was followed by a trip to the Henning household in Ogden. Christopher and Robert were both back in town. Christopher from Iraq. Robert from Wyoming. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I didn’t.

This was followed by a trip to Lone Wolf State Park AKA the McAlpine Lair to do some barbecuing. No pictures of this either, so you’ll have to take my word that it was a good time.