Carol the bride, myself and Big Jake in Cedar Falls, Iowa, May 2007

I found myself in Iowa this past weekend for a wedding (not too surprising for those that know me). This wedding was the marriage of Jacob Nielsen and Carol Stepan. I know Jacob from wayyy back, we went to school together for as long as I can remember. His dad was a teacher and my parents were teachers at the same school district. So yeah, I've know Big Jake for a long, long time. We even randomly lived on the same floor the first year of college at Iowa State.

I was a groomsman in the wedding party. By now, I've got the whole wedding thing down pretty well. "Walk slowly, the women are in heels." "Dab, don't smear (the makeup if/when you cry)." Anyone want to wager on how many more weddings I will be in? Hopefully my own sometime.

The wedding was a real fun time and it is always an honor to be asked to be in someone's wedding.

Here's to the Nielsen's!! May you have many, many years of happily wedded bliss!!

Hawk and Brandy Omundson, March 2007, at the wedding of Leah Zidon in Littleton, Colorado. Yes, I'm actually taller than the other person in this photo. Does not happen too often. Notice the slight lean.

"For those of you that may be chronologically challenged, 12 years is like half of our lives."

At the wedding of Leah Zidon (see previous post) I also saw an old Bondu classmate ('99), Ms. Brandy Omundson. Not only were we classmates at Bondurant-Farrar Junior Senior High School but we started out as classmates at Iowa State University. We didn't end up in the same graduating class as Brandy took the 3.5 year plan (maybe she was there for four years but the last semester was an internship off-campus and out of town, I think) and yours truly took the 5 year plan. We did share some times at Iowa State though as we both lived our freshman year at the Towers Dormitory complex.

Brandy arrived at Bondu for her freshman year of high school and immediately connected with Leah. They seem to communicate in a different language, a language in which incessant giggling seemed to be a major part of. At any rate, it is always good to see people enjoying life and their friends. And I know first-hand that Brandy and Leah do.

One of my best memories of Brandy, oddly enough, regards her stylish handwriting. The girl, well, woman now, has the neatest handwriting you'll ever see. I'm sure even her grocery list is 100% perfect and suited for a scrapbook or better yet the Smithsonian archives. If you ever see a font named "Omundson" in a Microsoft Office product, they've merely adopted her handwriting into a font. Move over Arial and Times New Roman.

Brandy was the maid of honor for Leah, and Leah's two sisters were the bridesmaids. As per tradition at most weddings, the maid of honor said a few words about the bride. Brandy said she wasn't too prepared for the speech but she pulled through and had one brilliant line in particular. I think sometimes less preparation is good and often results in more sincere, candid speeches. My favorite line from the 25 year old Brandy's speech was..."Leah has been my best friend for 12 years. It may not sound like long but for those of you that may be chronologically challenged, 12 years is like half of our lives. So it is a long time for us."

Very well put Brandy O!!

The recently married Ken and Leah (Zidon) Stroud, Hawk and Andrea (his date). March 3, 2007. Littleton, Colorado.

Secondary Title: Wow, Hawk, you actually don't look too bad when you clean up.

I was fortunate to be able to attend the wedding of my great friend Leah Zidon in early March in Colorado. Leah is currently working at NASA (a small startup firm, I think) in Houston, Texas. I've known Leah since 4th grade. The wedding was at a country club south of Denver which has a striking shear rock face that served as the background for the ceremony. It was really a cool setting. Also "cool" in the fact that the wedding was held outside in March in Colorado. A little chilly for the girls.

Why was the wedding in Colorado? Originally I thought it was planned to be in Colorado for my convenience. Then I found out that Ken had grown up in the Denver area. The latter is probably the real reason, although I felt pretty special back when I thought Leah was holding the wedding in a city near me for my convenience.

It was great to see the entire Zidon family and also fellow Bondu Class of '99 alum, Brandy Omundson at the wedding. Andrea and I sat at the table with Leah's cross country friends from Truman State, which was cool since we all had running in common. Leah and I covered a lot of miles together back in the day and she definitely played a huge part of my (admittedly amateurish) running career.

Basically the only thing I have against Leah at this point is that she is technically a Texan. Haha. Well, I guess at least she has a permanent address, unlike this nomadic, aspiring revolutionary.

Photographic note: I'm not sure why me and Leah seem to be glowing in our whitely colored dress. Maybe people from Bondurant put off an aura like that. Or maybe my camera has always overexposed whites.

Hawk (in all black) and Wes (not in all black) at the top of Dercum Peak at Keystone, Colorado, March 19, 2007. Lake Dillon and Buffalo Mountain in background. Elevation 11,640 feet.

I just got done with two solid days of snowboarding with some visitors to Summit County.

Avid skiier and childhood friend Wes Powell made the trip from Chicago (with his father Don [Iowa] and Don's college buddy Ben [Fort Collins]) to hit the mountains with America's favorite bus driver/snowboarder wannabe, yours truly.

Wes and I go way, way back. As far back as going to the same babysitter as toddlers while growing up in Bondurant, Iowa. We also lived one block away from each other, played baseball and basketball (and many hours of Mario Kart) together as well as living together in college for a year.

Turns out that Wes can more than hold his own on a pair of skis and it was a ton of fun to ride my mountain with a good friend. Don and Ben were fun as well and I really appreciated skiing with guys that are skilled skiiers, knew good mountain etiquette, and didn't fall getting off the lifts. We got in about 10 hours on Sunday and another 7 hours on Monday. That's a lot of riding, even for me, the local.

Random notes regarding my post...hey Mom, how do you like the use of the brackets inside the parentheses, huh? Is my memory of the hierarchy of the parentheses, brackets and braces sequence correct?