It is a quiet Wednesday night in Iowa, with thunderstorms rolling in.  I just got back from my Production and Operations Management class.  I drank too much coffee to stay alert, and then class was shorter than I anticipated.  So, it's a good time to update the blog. Things have been pretty uneventful for us the last couple of weeks, with lots of work to do.  Last weekend, we did go to a hospital downtown to visit some friends who just had a handsome baby boy.  Welcome, baby August!   While we were in the area, we went to see some of the new improvements along the Des Moines riverwalk.  There is an interesting new suspension bridge over the Des Moines River (the design doesn't translate well in these pictures), and the Chinese pagoda and gardens are looking great. It was a pretty day, and we took lots of pictures of the kids.

As I said, things have been pretty uneventful around here.  Asher has been taking advantage of the too-few, beautiful days of Midwestern fall to play outside:

Eva is growing bigger and more independent every day.  She crawls around with amazing speed, and pulls herself up on anything that will support her in order to stand.  She says several words already, including Dada, Mama, All Done, Up, Doggy, and Brother (the last one is a little hard to understand, but she only says it when she sees Asher).  She is wild about Asher, and loves watching him and trying to do whatever he does.  So far, Asher is incredibly patient and gentle with her.  He's a great big brother!  Even more incredible, the dogs have put up with Eva's tendency to grab onto their fur with both hands and screech if they come close.  She loves all animals, and especially dogs.

Fall in Iowa is really about two things, corn and football.  The corn harvest is already starting, and football is everywhere.  Go Hawkeyes!

 The other night, a thundershower passed over us just before sunset.  As it finished, we went out on the deck to see a huge rainbow, which doesn't really show up well in photos, in the east.  In the west, there was an otherworldly, bright orange glow from the sunset and the mist (see our new masthead).  It was awesome!