Turnin' Up the Heat!!

As you are all aware, this past month has been HOT!!! Not only have we had scorching temperatures but it has been really humid as well. This is one summer that I have "lost" my tan because I've just stayed inside in the air conditioning as much as possible. However I have been busy this past month and have done some fun things with a lot of great friends.

I'll start with the last weekend in June. Two of my really good friends, Elliot Enright and Joe Ranum, made their way to Kansas City for the weekend to hangout and attend the Royals/Cubs series. Elliot currently lives in Milwaukee and Joe lives in Chicago. Elliot's brother Mike and his wife Amy also made the trip. On that Friday night we all got together and went to the game and then went out in the Power & Light District that night. We had a blast although all of them were Cubs fans and the Cubs beat the Royals that night so I had to listen to them brag. On Saturday we all eventually got up and we went

to eat at Jack Stack Barbeque (www.jackstackbbq.com). After stuffing ourselves with BBQ, we all headed out to Kauffman stadium where the Royals got revenge and beat the Cubs. Following the game though, everyone was dead tired from the past couple days so Whitney and I decided to head back to Lawrence for the night. This was a great couple of days and it was really good to see Elliot and Joe. I can't wait to go to Wisconsin on October 1st for the Wisconsin/Nebraska football game!

The following weekend was July 4th. I took it easy for the most part this year. We had a

group of six of us that got together at my friend Abe's house for dinner and drinks. It was Abe and his wife Riley, Shawn and his fiance Aubrey and then Whitney and I. Abe and Riley made a great dinner and it ended up being the perfect night to chill outside on the deck and enjoy good conversation with friends.

A few days after the fourth of July, Whitney and I took my brother and her cousin Jess to Worlds of Fun. It was a perfect day to go because the sky was overcast and it was supposed to rain. This was great because it ended up only raining for about 20 minutes total and it kept the park from being crowded. In fact we never had to wait longer than 5-10 minutes to get on a ride. It had been a long time since I had been, probably about 6 or 7 years. My brother and I went on 12 roller coasters, and Whitney was a champ, her stomach wasn't agreeing with her after a few of the rides but she fought her way through the day and still had a good time. :)

The following Friday night was the Advisors Excel annual summer bash. Each year the three owners of our company schedule a big get together for all of the employees and their spouses/significant other. This year they decided to rent out the entire Party Deck at the Royals game for us. The owners rented out three big buses to pick everyone up in Topeka and Lawrence so that no one would be drinking and driving. They had tons of food set up and all you could drink. I think everyone was feeling pretty good by the time the game was over but nobody got too crazy.

However...I cannot say the same thing about the following weekend. The next weekend was Cole Ahlver's bachelor party. We had a party bus pick up twenty of us guys at Harrah's in Kansas City on Friday morning and take us to Omaha. The party bus wasn't bringing us back until Sunday afternoon. Our party bus was pretty sweet and our driver knew how to have a good time as well. If you are going to be renting a party bus anytime soon then I strongly suggest the KC Night Train (www.kcnighttrain.com). After getting to Omaha on Friday night we immediately hit up the casinos and then went to the bars. Saturday we played the longest 18 holes of golf.....EVER!!! It was about 104 degrees out and the course was backed up all day. This just made everyone drink more which was not a good thing because we had a long night ahead of us. That night we had bottle service set up at one of the night clubs downtown, The Capitol Lounge (www.omahacapitol.com). The next morning we all ate breakfast and then hopped on the bus for the long ride home. Now obviously I had to leave out some details of this trip, of course what happens in Omaha stays in Omaha!!! hahaha. I think that everyone was just happy that there were no hospital trips and no arrests. Bachelor party=success

The first part of my July was so jam packed that it was tough to match it in the second half of the month. However it only made sense to try. So for starters, I decided to go skydiving with my brother and one of his friends. Last year I took my brother skydiving for his graduation present and it was his first time being in a plane...and he jumped out. So it wasn't until our vacation to Riviera Maya a few months ago that Colton had actually LANDED in a plane. Well this time, it was Colton's friend, Wacey, that had never been in a plane before but was going to be jumping out of one. It sure makes it a lot more entertaining when one of your friends is freaking out because they've never flown...let alone jumped out of a plane. Anyway, we all did it and everything went smoothly. I swear that the rush that you get from the initial free fall, will never get old. I hope I never have a year go by again without going skydiving at least once.

To end the month I celebrated the greatest day of the year, July 30th...my birthday. On the Friday night before, my parents and friends Travis & Beth VanVleck all came up to Lawrence for dinner. They came to see my new place and then we went down to Mass St. to get some BBQ. It was a fun night and it was good to see their little ones. Creighton is the youngest and his picture is to the right. He is definitely a cute baby and is certain to be a wildcat fan for life!!

On Saturday Whitney and I went with her sister Wendy and her husband Ben to the Kenny Chesney concert at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Zac Brown Band, Uncle Kracker and Billy Currington were also playing. We got to KC around noon and ate at Gordon Biersch (www.gordonbiersch.com) which was really good and then went to the hotel to check in and pre-drink. Since it was really hot outside we thought it was a better idea to stay at the hotel for awhile and have drinks in the air conditioning. We got to the concert later that afternoon and stayed there til about midnight. We had a blast and the atmosphere was amazing, there was about 75,000 people there. I'm not a huge country fan but I had a great time with great people!!

Now this week I'm looking forward to going home each night after work and watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel!!!