Christmas Eve Excitement

Everyone has arrived safe & sound for Christmas before the weather set in. We have Nana and Gramma & Grampa P here with us. I'm off work for four days and I received a good grade in my class @ UNL. I am ready to relax.

The boys made a Bethlehem diorama, but it quickly took on their sense of realism with tanks & infantry.

We loaded up our old swingset into a u-haul trailer hitched to G&G P's Buick. It's ready for the trip to Mississippi to be planted in cousin MB's yard. It was 20 with no wind when we got the trailer this morning. In the hour it took us to load it, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. We are now at 16 °F with blowing snow and 28 mph sustained winds with gusts expected up to 50 mph. I'm glad we are all here and have nowhere to go today or tomorrow.

Snow Days

The urban legend at school is that if you wear your pajamas inside out and put a spoon under your pillow, we will have a snow day the next day. The boys must have some powerful mojo, as their trick worked before they even went to bed. They were off Tuesday when it started snowing and also today as the city dug out from all the drifts.

When I left for work yesterday, I told CP that there would be some money for him if he were to shovel the driveway. He did it twice during the day, and I did it again when I got home. The boys spent the day sledding and snowboarding on the little hill at the bottom of our street.

We even had to shovel a path for the dog so she would go out.

Be Careful What You Wish For

All we need is a little snow, and it will start to feel like the holidays... We went from 60° last weekend to single digits, 8" of snow, and 40 mph winds. At least it's pretty, and now it really feels like the holidays.

We got 8" of snow yesterday during the day, and then just like the weather guy said, the wind kicked in at 9 pm. It blew and blew and blew all night. The snow we got during the storm is now down in Missouri, and the stuff we have now came from Wyoming. We had some blinding sundogs all morning as a result of all the snow in the air.

CP looked out the window when he came downstairs this morning and was disappointed to see bare grass in the front yard. "Aww, all the snow melted!" It took a while to explain that the bare grass was due to the wind. It took the 5-foot drifts in our neighbors' back yard and a reading of 12° to convince him that the snow did not melt overnight.

Thanksgiving

We had not only Nana here, but also our neighbors from a tropical island. As usual, we ate too much and pledged to eat better the day after.

The weather was spectacular (60° and NO WIND), so we hung the lights and put up the outdoor decorations. We spent a couple hours debugging the lights on our tree and ended up replacing about 50 bulbs that had burned out over the last few years. All we need now is some snow and it will feel like the holidays.

Star Trek Party

Last night we went to the neighbor's to watch the newest Star Trek movie that just came out this week. We spent the day working on props: a scale model of the USS Hood (a Galaxy class starship), a phaser, and JP's science scanner box.

CG went all out as came as a really spooky looking Borg. I was very impressed.

We watched the first half of the Husker - KSU game, and then turned up the volume and watched Star Trek. The home theatre was even better than the movie theatre. 114" of pure HD blue-ray excitement. Wow!

Halloween

This year, CP carved his own jack-o-lantern from start to finish. He wasn't thrilled about scooping out the guts, but he got through it.

Easy mowing at last

We took advantage of a beautiful fall day and dismantled the swingset. Gramma & Grampa said they would haul it down to Mississippi for MB. The boys have enjoyed it and now it's time to give someone else a turn. I can't wait to not mow around it next summer.

Hey, This Water's Salty!

I was excited that the boys got to finally see the ocean for the first time in their lives.

Jellyfish! After watching several thousand hours of Spongebob, you would think that the boys would have the sense to stay away from jellyfish. Not so. GP got tangled up in one while swimming. They are not impressed with the ocean. It has dangerous creatures, and it's salty. Yuk. Swimming pools are much better.

WW-II Naval Museum

The boys got to check out a WW-II sub and destroyer in Galveston. Both were fully hands-on exhibits.

Our old neighbors

The T's pools features a huge zero-depth sun deck. Wow.

Last time I saw AT, she was just a baby. Now she's cruising around helping out with housework.

Here's one proud kid: He's got his NASA shirt and his very own lizard.

Johnson Space Center

While in Houston, JP & the boys hit the Johnson Space Center. It looks like the weather map shows a big cloud of hair-curling humidity over the Texas gulf coast.

The boys got to go in the space shuttle, the space station, a command module, and the pressed every button and threw every lever in sight. They ended up spending the entire day.

It looks like CP is now a couple inches taller than MT.

Fall Trip to TX

The boys had the last week of October off of school, so JP put them in the van and hauled them down to TX to see our old neighbors, the T's. The spent the night at S&RK's and saw their cousins.

Swimmin' pools and palm trees. The boys lost no time in finding the water. They were in the pool every free minute of the week.

GP found a tree frog, and later a lizard.

THOR Scout Launch

We hit the 2009 Pack 15 Cub Scout rocket launch with some rockets from years past. I tried to get the boys fired up to build something new, but they are very content with their old models. Come on, guys! This is a great excuse to go to Hobby Town!!!

Despite 50 over-sugared boys running around, the THOR folks were able to concentrate and put up some serious rockets. We did not see any hybrids this year, but there were lots of high-impulse H's with roaring flames and black rubber smoke. Nothing like leaving skidmarks in the sky.

All of our rockets made successful flights, which was nice for a change. One kid in the pack was not so lucky - the range officials had to break out the fire extinguisher to snuff out his rocket on the pad after it suffered a misfire and burned up on the pad. How exciting!

It was comforting to see the boys do everything themselves. I remember the first year we did this when I was able to carry both boys on my shoulders when we went downrange searching for our missiles. Speaking of missiles, we picked up a "Callisto" from Public Missiles, Ltd. It has a 38 mm motor mount and is capable of reaching nearly 5,000 ft. More to come...

First Snow

GP built Katrina a nesting box by the TV. She's in it all the time.

We got our first snow of the season last night. It's only an inch or two, but three hours away in North Platte, they got 16".

The boys put on their long underwear and hit the slopes with their snowboards. They are wishing we had received the 16" here.