Offutt Air Show

Last weekend, we took Gampa to the Offutt AFB airshow in Omaha. We saw every cent I've ever paid in taxes, and then some.

My favorite plane was the A-10, which did a straifing demo. There's just something about big guns that fire 6,000 rounds per minute...

We saw 3 P-51's, a couple Zero's, a B-25, A-26, and a B-17 all in the sky at once. GP remarked that they were taking things a little too seriously when they started the straifing and bombing.

GP's New UW Camera

The Grammas bought GP an underwater digital camera.

I had it all set up before our hard drive died. I finally found the driver CD and got it reinstalled the other day.

JP Gets Up on Waterskis

JP tried and tried and tried and finally got up on skis for the first time.

SCB also tried & tried until the skin on his hands fell off, and he also got up on skis for the first time.

Both of the boys got up, but all we have is video that will have to wait until I feel like plugging in the video camera...

MB showed us all how to do it, including getting up on a slalom after taking a break for 10+ years.

Cousin

We celebrated second MB's b-day at the lake.

She was a trooper the entire week. Whether in the boat, pool, or lake, she was having fun.

The boys latched onto their little cousin.

Ha-Ha Tonka Spring

This is the sinkhole/canyon underneath the ruins. It has a big natural bridge with trails under and over it.

The spring emits beautiful 54 degree water year-round. On the day we were there, it would have been nice to dive in.

There are 316 wooden steps on the trail to/from the spring.

Ha-Ha Tonka Ruins

These are the ruins of a 1900's castle on Lake of the Ozarks. The guy that built it was killed in 1906 before it was complete. He was one of the first auto fatalities in Kansas city.

The castle was eventually finished, but it later burned down and is now part of the state park.

The castle sits on top of a bluff that overlooks a spring that feeds into the lake. I can't imagine how cool it must have been before the lake filled in. Fortunately, the spring is still above lake level.

Lake of the Ozarks Cave

What do you get when you mix peleozoic carbonates with groundwater? Caves!

We walked through the Lake of the Ozarks cave in the state park. It was small and fun.

I never realized that the ozark limestone & dolomites are nearly the same as the rocks we climbed on at the palisades in Illinois.

MB had a good time and managed to find some cave mud.

Lake of the Ozarks

We spent a week with family down at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. We stayed at Gramma & Grampa's timeshare condo. The property was directly on the lake with a boat dock & swimming area. Grampa brought his boat and we enjoyed tubing & skiing.

We spent a fair amount of time in and around the water. I worked on my tan most of the time.

The other side of the lake by us was Lake of the Ozarks State Park. It was nice to look out onto green trees from our room.

Small dog has smaller puppies

Our neighbor's tiny dog had two miniscule puppies. After a couple of weeks, they were still the size of hamsters.

This picture is of a storm down by Kansas city half an hour after sunset.

Fun w/Family Campout

In July, GP & I did the Fun With Family campout at Camp Cornhusker. It was just a one-nighter to introduce younger scouts to camping.

We did a little bit of everything: swimming, canoeing, rowing, archery, bb-guns, etc. GP turned out to be a natural at archery.

The days before the camp were in the high 90's, but a cold front came through a few hours before we arrived, so we had blue skies and a cool night. We were able to see our breath when we went to bed.