Curtain closes on YBHA II – Thank Goodness

Reunited

The epic that included tours through 5 European countries finally closes after a 13-day run.

Amy’s European Adventure ended Thursday afternoon with her airplane touching down just after 1230p in Moline at the Quad City International Airport.

Her journey was a wild one that I’ve documented here. I’ll do a recap on another day, but a little bit on the end of this adventure.

Amy started the day in Spain, flying on the Deere corporate jet with a direct flight. Some 250 Deere employees were stranded by the volcano is Iceland in various places.

Amy’s boss Gary and other travel companion left Thursday as well on a commercial flight that went from Madrid to Washington, D.C., and then to Chicago and Des Moines. So, they were going to have a long day.

Touchdown in Moline. Photo by Michael Graham.

Amy landed in Moline and Chef Mike became chauffeur Mike. The best friend a guy could have, drove from Iowa City to Moline to pick up Amy. Huge thanks to him. He even played photographer for the moment, capturing this picture of plane taxiing into the hanger.

The wife of one of the pilot’s was stuck in Europe. She too, was stuck with the KWQC-TV6 viewer trip to France.

So, Noah’s birthday party will happen on Sunday. We will be going to the Kindermusik family fun night and all sorts of other stuff together.

Again, thank you all for the concerns, thoughts and prayers about Amy’s travel. Her story was just one of the many. We gave a ride back to DM to someone from another DM area Deere facility. He had been in India. Got a flight to Italy, couldn’t get off the plane because there was no hotel rooms, eventually landed in Germany. Then to get to Madrid to catch a plane, he and almost 2 dozen others rode on a bus for 22 hours. He was glad to be home.

Thank you again for thinking of us in our situation.

Day 13 Look What I Found

Noah, Levi and Amy back home April 22, 2010.

Recognize her?

The boys sure do.

Amy arrived in Moline at 1230p today.

There’s a lot of good stories to tell, but for now, we’re just hanging out and having fun.

We are now back in Ankeny.

More to follow later tonight.

Day 12 – Awaiting Confirmation

I hope by the time I write again to you here, Amy will be fast asleep after a big day of traveling. There’s a good chance she will be on a plane by the time I wake up Thursday morning. Today Amy, Robert and Gary made the trip from France to Spain with hopes of flying back to the states today.

Levi is at attention to see his Mommy again.

It has meant a lot to receive all your wonderful comments about our family and Amy’s trip adventure. I don’t think she fully realizes how many people are hoping for a safe return and happy ending. Thank you so much.

We’ve also had some great help from everyone making these last 12 days go so well. Also, thanks to Levi for sleeping through the night last night. That is always a winner, winner chicken dinner.

Tonight while feeding Levi before bed it gave me a chance to reflect. I have really enjoyed this time with my boys. It has just been us, with huge amounts of help, to hang out and have fun. I’ve gotten to spend time with them and be there for them. That being said, it is even more fun to share that with Amy. I love being a dad. This is the greatest job I’ve ever had. And I can’t wait to see us together again.

Noah holds up his treat.

Ok, back to the nice things others have done for us and speaking of good things to eat, a big thanks to Chef Mike for the random package he sent yesterday. He had sent a picture earlier in the week. Then we get a package sent to the Yeager Boys. Noah holds the loot. He also tells Mike thanks in this video. Always good to have Cardinals peanuts.

And more with the video talk… Levi really is developing into the talker. Imagine that. I’m really not sure where that comes from. He really gets going about 35 seconds in.

Here’s a little fun video to just listen to. It makes me happy.

Also thanks to everyone’s friend Romelle and this nice post he wrote on The (Convoluted) Mind of a Single Man. Give it a look. Thanks Romelle.

Finally, this European Vacation for Amy (really, don’t you think it feels like “look kids, Big Ben, Parliament,”) has been some fun. She’s been in 5 countries in the last 6 days. Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and now Spain. Not bad for a work trip that was only to last 6 days. Now I’m just hoping she can make it 6 countries real soon.

Day 11 – Little Boy’s Prayer

Noah and Levi have been dressed each day for school in clean clothes.

Noah finally gave me a weak moment tonight when he prayed for the volcano to stop so Mommy can come home.

Up until this point, I’ve not had Noah break down and that just about did it tonight for both of us. He has been a great little boy this entire ordeal, even if he doesn’t know exactly what is going on with Amy’s trip home from Holland.

Amy, Levi’s hair will look blond to you when you get back. Plus he’s really good at sitting up by himself and his laugh is contagious as always. Tonight I took the boys to Culver’s for supper like in Day 1 and to Target to get a few things. Thanks to Tammy for remembering us and the staff for being helpful.

Here’s what happened today. The image is from the BBC and shows flight patterns around the ash cloud. Impressive to say the least.

Ash, flight patterns and plans in the air. Image from BBC.

Amy, Gary and Robert loaded up in their rental car and headed south through France with a goal of Madrid, Spain. There were headed to Bordeaux tonight with the last 6-7 hour drive Wednesday to Spain. She says traffic wasn’t that heavy. We’re still hoping for a Thursday flight home.

Our story of travel trouble is not unique. Countless people are impacted by this volcano’s ash. As people try to get home to or from Europe, we just hope for a safe ending for all parties.

This has been called the worst air travel issues since 9-11. My friend Scott Harves reminded me of his story from that week in September. Scott was a segment producer for ESPN’s College Game Day. The schedule usually included travel to a college campus on Monday or Tuesday, shoot the story on Tuesday or early Wednesday and get back to Bristol to cram a story together for Saturday. That week in 2001, Scott was in Tallahassee, Florida and the campus of Florida State University. Scott was on the ground and already on campus when the attacks happened. Scott posted this note to me:

You reminded me of the time I got stuck in Florida for 9-11, spoke with Bobby Bowden for two days, games got postponed, ended up driving home Thursday/Friday that week.  That was creepy.

Again, everyone has a story now of where they were and where they were trying to get to.

Levi. I just wanted to put in another picture of Levi for fun. So, here you go.

We did get our story told in the Des Moines Register. Here is the link.. There’s an interesting line about how we’re learning as parents on this one. Marc Hansen wrote the story. Also in that story is Ryan Becker’s tale.

I also talked to WHO-TV 13. That story has yet to post, which means it probably won’t. I’ve got here on DVD, but won’t get that posted tonight. I’m wiped as Levi decided to wake up a couple of times overnight.

My old college professor Liz is also in Europe. She and her husband plus another couple are trying to get home as well. Liz reminded me to keep on top of the laundry. That is done. Liz is in Madrid and hopes to fly home Thursday.

By the way, this blog hasn’t had this much traffic since the posts about Ali Farokhmanesh or the TV Reporter wearing hats posts.

And the link fest wouldn’t be complete without a post from Kristin as she visited the farm over the weekend. Kristin starts with a reference to Noah’s joke telling ability.

By the way, here’s what is on the Iowa Journal this week.

10 is Not Enough

Levi, Amy and Noah posing prior to Amy's trip to Brazil back in February.

Another day, another set of twists and turns in the get-Mom-home-from-Europe drama, or as it has been called before on this blog, Yeager Boys Home Alone II.

We’ve had relative calm here in Ankeny as Amy tries to get out of Holland and Amsterdam after her work trip for John Deere. She and some 250 other Deere employes are stuck on either side of the pond and affected by the volcanic ash in Iceland.

Sunday brought some realization that Amy has no idea when she’ll be able to fly. She admitted to me today that she’s intentionally avoided reading the latest news about the volcano. She’s living it, no need to see how bad it really is. You know, thousands of flights cancelled, even more stranded in the airport.

Monday morning Amy and her boss, Gary, and Robert, the third member of their traveling party, headed to the Amsterdam airport to just see if they could get a stand by ticket on a KLM flight home. Amy said the ticket staff wasn’t the most cordial and said with no flights on the horizon, no stand by tickets were going to be issued.

So, now back to the plan of driving 17-18 hours to Spain. That idea picked up steam on advisement from the travel department. Amy, Gary and Robert are planning on leaving for Spain early Tuesday, drive through France, try to get to the southern part of the country, get a hotel, then drive Wednesday into Madrid with hopes of getting on a plane Thursday, Friday or Saturday. There’s a chance Amy may make it out Thursday, but likely Saturday.

However, with the UK lifting some travel bans and revising others, by the time the ink is dry on this post, they may stay in the Netherlands and try to fly from there.

Today I actually got to talk to Amy on the phone. That was the first real conversation since she left on Day 1 of her adventure. Her company issued Black berry for the trip finally worked, but not sure if that will happen again before she returns.

So, we’re in a holding pattern, but you can see more on the WHO-TV 13 News in a story or likely in the Des Moines Register on Tuesday. I did interviews for both groups about our situation. The DMR will hopefully devote time to the Ryan Becker story. Becker, the JHS Alum of 1992, is scheduled to get married in the states on May 7. His mother Joyce’s concern now is if Ryan will make it back in time. Joyce shared that story with me Sunday at ALC in Jesup.

Noah and Levi posing. It was PJ day at school for Noah and not that I don't know how to dress him.

Noah finally asked this morning when Mom was coming home. I’ve tried to keep him distracted enough to keep his mind off Mommy and wondering when was she going to come home. I’d say Levi was wondering when Mom was coming home, but he was more interested in a bottle from 4-5 AM today. He and I are really getting to know each other.

Again HUGE thanks to Grandma Paula for picking up the boys from daycare today and feeding us all. Wil came over to the house later as I was mowing the lawn. So, at least that’s done for the week and we can just focus on eating, sleeping and getting out the door in a reasonable amount of time.

Also a big thanks to all who’ve offered to something for us, watch the boys, go shopping, get us St. Louis Cardinal season tickets, (ok maybe no offers like that). It means a lot.

We just want Amy home safely. When, is not up to us. Her safety is the most important thing.

Day 9 – Indefinite Ending

We are now in a holding pattern.

Amy is another Iowan stuck in Europe because of the Iceland volcano. And it looks like it will stay that way for a while. Sunday was an emotional day as we all found out Amy will be staying in Holland for an indefinite amount of time. Her Monday flight is already cancelled and then it looked like a Thursday departure from Spain after a 17 hour car ride. Now that’s on hold with a slight chance of who knows when she’ll return. She’s on Uncle John’s dime, so they are paying for all of this financially and I think the rest of us are paying emotionally. Deere’s got a few other there now, so Amy’s not alone. Here traveling party is 3. They will head back to Horst and begin another week.

We have a calm week on the docket here. But, a week from today is Noah’s 4th birthday.

Levi and Noah return from church with all smiles.

Sunday was filled of fun in Jesup including a trip to American Lutheran Church. Pastor Dawn is so good at remembering the names of children. Noah has likely been in my home church 6 times over his 4 years of life. But she remembers Noah’s name without prompting each time. A gift for the congregation indeed. We got to see a few people who knew me as a kid and see how Noah is the same as his father. Both boys were well-behaved, so that was a relief.

Then we came home to the farm and packed up all the stuff we travel with. I took my time as my Aunt Lynda, cousin Laura and friend Kristin were making the trip from Jefferson. The three of them were headed to (Great) Aunt Eve’s house for a little exploring of the stuff in there. Kristin has fun looking for hidden treasures. Here’s a look at what she likes to do as chronicled on her blog.

Noah is ready to hit the ball out of the park.

Noah and I got a little one on one time to play some baseball. He likes to play and is getting better. A little running around gets his blood going and hopefully worn out quicker. Plus Levi needed to spend time inside charming everyone again.

Noah’s throwing has improved and he was cracking dad up with his ability to shake off the catcher’s signals with a nod of the head ‘no’ and ‘yes’. Then Dad recited the story of how I created Busch and Yeager Stadium in the backyard when I was a kid. Complete with the detail of the backstop I made, painted disc blades for bases and even a pitcher’s mound. That was a great field. Third base was always exciting, that’s usually where the bee hive was in the grass.

Levi and Noah sleep on the trip home.

As the three of them will explored, the boys and I hit the road. By La Porte City, Levi was out and Noah was all but asleep. Levi slept the entire 2 hour trip home. Good for him to nap that long, bad that he stayed up until almost 9 tonight. Noah’s nap also extended his day until nearly 830. It is ok, we just have fun together while awake.

And the Yeager Boys Home Alone II continues.

Day 8 – And Now, Week 2

Day 7 was to be the end of Yeager Boys Home Alone II. Amy’s 7-day trip to Holland was to end for her boss Gary. The trip had gone smooth, very smooth, the two remarked at dinner Wednesday night while in Germany. You can do that in Europe, run to another country and come back and not think twice about it.

That changed overnight Wednesday as a volcano in Iceland created the worst air travel conditions since 9-11. Virtually every flight west from Europe has been cancelled going on 3 days.

The comments this blog has received included, “really, stuck in Europe, on the company dime?” “Ah, too bad.” Or, “I can think of worse places to be stuck than in Amsterdam.” All respect to Coffeyville, Kansas, but being stuck in Amsterdam is better than being stuck in Coffeyville.

Right now, she’s scheduled to take a flight Monday from Amsterdam. I’m not holding my breath. Her travelling party will likely go back to the factory for a few days of work if Monday doesn’t work to fly home.

That doesn’t make it any easier for Amy when she wants to be home. So do the 2 others she’s travelling with and the 3 more added today, also trying to get back to Des Moines.

Levi and Noah hanging at Grandma's.

She wants to see these two.

We are fine. We’ve survived Day 3, when blood came running out of Noah’s nose (story on Day 4), to Days 1, 2, and 5 when Levi decided sleeping wasn’t for him.

We’ve taken this show’s encore on the road. I guess Whitesnake couldn’t make the weekend show, so we’re being held over.

Sunset over Shady Grove

The travelling road show is in Shady Grove for a few days. If you’re a burglar reading this, the garage code is 1234. My address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Oh, and the dog only took 4 arms last year. He must be getting milder since I adopted him from Michael Vick.

Levi slept the entire way north, so he was nowhere close to going to bed. Noah was just excited to be wound up by Farmer Papa. When the finally went to sleep, the boys did well.

Noah tries on Lawrence's Army hat.

Our day was full of distractions, including a trip to Aunt Eve’s place in Fairbank. The soon to be 97-year-old left the farm in the fall of 2009 and now we’re sorting through the house. Actually, my mother is sorting, pitching, burning, finding and discovering what living in the same house since 1947 looks like. Mom and Aunt Lynda think they’ve spent at least 6 weeks working in that house. Mom has done countless other things to get Eve to doctors, specialists and now her new living arrangements in Independence.

Noah and Farmer Papa talk farming. Kent gives no bull. Yeah. Right.

Dad started planting corn Friday, so he was back in the field Saturday. So Noah got to see Farmer Papa in action.

And during the afternoon we got to watch the St. Louis Cardinals play the New York Mets. We started watching and Dad came in for a bit and left about the 5th inning. He went out to plant some corn. He came back around 8 and had planted 35 acres with his little 8-row planter. The game was still not over.

The near 7 hour contest is finally done. For the record, the flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis is 9 hours. She would be almost home in that time.

Day 6 rains down volcanic ash on our fun

Who knew that a volcano in Iceland would lead to a lot more fun for us here in Ankeny?

This is what happens when you sleep, Levi.

After a great night of sleep by the smiling gentleman pictured at left, following Day 5, which didn’t happen on Day 4, I turned on the news in the morning to see that volcanic ash is shutting down airports all over Europe. Including Amsterdam. That’s where Amy was to fly out late Thursday. Emphasis on the word was.

That has changed our plans a bit. Amy will get a couple of extra days in Europe and I get a couple of extra days with the boys by myself in the YBHAII.

Now we have to make alternate plans, but that will be the fun part.

Where to go? Plenty of nice offers from friends and family to help out, but we may make another trip to Grandma Honey’s house. That was hit in the first round of fun back in February.

Noah and Levi still smiling after a few days with their dad.

After another bit of help from Wil and Paula, the boys and I will head north to Jesup and Shady Grove. Farmer Papa just had a birthday, now Noah can now say Happy Birthday in person, instead of in this video. Dad is in the field, so maybe Noah can enjoy a tractor ride or something. Today, though, it was Papa Fish and not Farmer Papa.

Another great day to be at Principal Park in Des Moines and the I-Cubs.

I declared today in the name of Ferris Bueller and took the day off. The Memphis Redbirds only come to Des Moines twice a year and today was the last game of the homestand. I enjoy seeing the future of the St. Louis Cardinals organization. The regulars were not in Section 10, so I sat next to Uncle Jerry Grady. Jerry will be retiring from IPTV in a little over a month after close to 35 years in the production department. More on Jerry as we get closer to the big day.

Before the game started, I ran into former Wartburg football player Mark Hargrafen. Harv as he was known at Wartburg is now a cardiac nurse in Des Moines. Turns out, Harv is good friends with a friend of Jerry’s, so we sat and chatted for most of the game.

It is a small world afterall.

By the way, Cardinal fans, Rich Hill, now pitching for Memphis, did not look good. Rough outing for Rich.

Time to start packing and getting ready for the trip north. We’ll see what new adventures Day 7 brings us.

Levi shows signs he’s a Yeager in Day 5

Why is Levi smiling? He knows he doesn't like to sleep.

My branch of the Yeager Family Tree likes to stay up late. They don’t get up early, they don’t blink when the clock strikes 2am. Maybe we got that from our mother and all those years she worked overnights.

So it should be no surprise that Levi likes to be up in the middle of the night. Levi and I spent some quality time together overnight. Around 245 he decided to wake up and stay up until 4. During that time, I was able to send a couple of emails back forth with Amy. The Netherlands is 7 hours ahead of us here. I sent her a note while waiting for Levi to calm down a bit as holding him didn’t seem to do the trick. She was in the middle of her work day’s morning, so she was a bit surprised to get a note at 3a our time.

I found out things are going well during her work trip. We’ll see her on Friday.

I also updated her later in the morning to say how the rest of the night went and she told me she was maybe going to try to slip over to Germany for the evening. We’ll see if that materialized. You have to do that when you get the chance. And this is her chance.

The day was a good one, no blood like in Day 4 of the Yeager Boys Home Alone II or YBHA II.

Levi gets a little dinner from Grandma Paula while Wil heads out to the grill.

A big thanks to the Wil and Paula Cafe for serving us tonight. Always appreciated. Wil showed me a trick with a pork loin for the grill. I think we may have to try that one this summer.

Normally the evening routine has been to start Levi with his bath, Noah gets to watch a little TV, have a snack, Levi is fed, falls asleep and then it is Noah’s turn for a bath and bed.

Yeah.

About that.

Not tonight.

Levi was wide-eyed while feeding and had no interest in going to bed. So instead of fighting it, I just took Levi out of bed and took him into Noah’s room.

Story time. Levi is starting to get a little grabby of everything.

So, he got to hear stories with Noah. Maybe this will help Levi sleep later. Or it will push him into a no-sleep night.

What’s your thought? Me too.

See you around 2 AM.

Good knight.

Finally some blood in Day 4 of YBHA

Noah gets a little ice cream after supper.

Just about 3 minutes I after I hit publish on the account of Day 3 saying we’d had no blood, Noah started crying.

He had a bloody nose.

He’d been asleep for about 2 hours when he woke up somewhat scared and bleeding. He got through it and we made it to the morning with no more bloody noses.

I’d say we had a few other things go our way, but I won’t jinx myself by writing what those things are.

Levi was wearing his Cardinal shirt for the first and probably only time.

Levi slept until 545, so that was a good thing to not have to get up with him several times overnight. But, tonight will be a new adventure, I’m sure. It already was a challenge in getting him to sleep tonight. That means I better get a move on this post to get finished.

Levi was all smiles this morning as we found in this video. Also, Noah decides to tell his joke as well while eating breakfast. Hopefully he’s got his Grandpa Yeager’s joke telling ability. By the way, today is Kent Yeager’s birthday. Here’s a birthday greeting to Farmer Papa in this link. Below is the fun times this morning in the Yeager household.

This video is almost a response to the first time he told it on camera which is seen here.

During Easter dinner, my father didn’t hear Noah telling the joke. So, he asked Noah to repeat it. Noah did and recited the lines very slowly. Classic. That was almost funnier than the original.

Principal Park, Memphis Redbirds at Iowa Cubs. April 13, 2010.

Anyway, I got the lawn mowed and a couple of things done before heading to Principal Park to see the Memphis Redbirds play the Iowa Cubs. The Memphis team is the AAA affiliate of your St. Louis Cardinals, so that is the one series I try to make it to all the games. A few co-workers made the trip, so that was fun. Jay even made the network some money while were there eating up some vacation hours.

Good night and we’re almost half-way home to having Mama back in the house.