Halloween

CP's den did "Boo @ the Zoo" at the Lincoln Children's Zoo. We've been here over two years now, and I still have not been to the kids zoo. CP is Boba Fett from the Empire Strikes Back. He was quite a hit with the over-30 crowd.

GP, being the modern man he is, chose a character from the new Star Wars trilogy and went as Anakin Skywalker. He played the part better than whoever did it in the movie. As you can see by the Blue Lightsaber, he was the Good Anakin.

We trick-or-treated around our neighborhood and it was a perfect night out of a movie: clear sky, 45°, NO WIND, and all the houses were beautifully lit. The kids gathered several pounds of sucrose-based snacks that will go over well at work.

Mississippi Palisades Color

After getting all the work done to the Grammas' house, I took the boys for a walk out at the Palisades. I really miss that place. JP & I used to go there nearly every weekend before the boys. Sometimes we would arrive with grand plans to climb, hike, etc. only to be overtaken with extreme relaxation once the tent was pitched.
We parked at the Amphitheatre and walked down to Bob Upton's cave. The Amphitheatre used to be a hot climbing spot until a very large part of the cliff decided it had hung around long enough. Now the place is overgrown and off-limits. The sign to the cave is gone and the trail is rotting into the jungle. The boys enjoyed the cave once we finally made it after a grueling 1/4 mile walk.

I have been hiking all over the park for the last 15 years and never saw any ticks until this trip. I had a normal one on my hand, and JP found a tiny deer tick on GP's leg. Maybe the tick problem we have here in Nebraska is part of a giant midwest epidemic...

As we approached Illinois, we were amazed at the fall colors. In Nebraska, leaves go from green to brown, with no fluorescent reds, yellows or oranges in between. The afternoon at the Palisades was drizzly, which really brought out the colors. I had the boys get out of the car near the campground and search for the biggest Sycamore leaves they could find. At first they were moaning, but when they saw how many huge leaves had been blown into drifts, they started having fun.
I really miss the Palisades; I should have brought my tent and taken another day off of work. Maybe I'll do it when we go back for Thanksgiving...

Den 11

I volunteered to be a den leader for GP this year. At our first pack meeting, all the boys got their Bobcat badge and were surprisingly well behaved throughout the entire meeting. JP planned the after-meeting activity: pumkin relay races with brooms. Fun.

Our first field trip was to Pioneers Park where we did leaf rubbings on the downed leaves. The snake lady was home and we all got to see her pets.

We have 5 boys in Den 11 and are looking forward to an exciting year.

Trip to Illinois

The kids are off of school this week, so we loaded up the minivan and went back to Illinois for a long weekend. We saw Walter, Brad's cat that looks a lot like Worf did, but about 20 lbs lighter.

We went in to Woodstock and saw Mary's new house. Lunch at the Pub on the Square was excellent as usual and then it was in to Deer Park to hit JP's favorite stores. Restoration Hardware has a new color for our living room. JP picked up a sample and is ready to start repainting.

I took some tools (not enough) and took care of the Grammas' todo list. We installed a dimmer for their kitchen table, a new humidifier on the furnace, hung fresh wallpaper in the powder room and then put up some crown molding and a chair rail. It looks very nice.

Katrina Sleeps

Katrina is taking a nap. She's tired from running around with the Grammas and the dogs. She found a nice spot on top of the piano where she can crack an eye open to see if whatever the dogs are barking at is worth her full attention.

The public B-Day Party

We had the public GP & CP B-Day extravaganza at the new Lincoln skating rink. Everyone had a good time skating and eating cupcakes.

The Grammas came out for the party and had fun.

Lightning

We had an awesome lightning storm the other night. It was one of those where the thunder never stops - it just keeps rumbling on and on. Before the rain started, I sat out on the front porch with my camera and caught some of the light show. This strike was truly impressive. I was using ISO 200 with the lens stopped down to f/13, and it still washed out 1/2 of the frame. Who needs to be a storm chaser when living here?

1st Scout Campout

After the new scout day, we went on our first scouting camp out with the pack. It was at Wagontrain Lake, where we spent the summer swimming with the boys. The campground is a nice grassy hollow under huge cottonwood and sycamore trees.

The pack went for a nature hike to look at trees. We ended up looking at bugs. Big bugs. Big meat-eating bugs.
For some reason, the orb spiders were out in force in the prairie grass. Between every two tall grass stems there was at least one large spider in his/her web. These are the big black and yellow striped ones. They weren't as big as the ones in Florida, but they were big enough to be creepy and keep everyone on the trail. The boys had fun throwing grass hoppers into the webs and watching the spiders quickly wrap up their dinner.

The highlight of the campground was a four foot deep gully behind our tents. Every kid in the campground was in it running and hollering. Between the gully and the spiders, no one had to worry about any escapees.
Two of the dads made cobbler in their dutch ovens; JP was very impressed and finally conceded to my request to buy one.

New Scout Day

Last weekend we attended the new scout day at the boy scout outdoor education center (OEC), east of town. The event was for the entire council, and there must have been 500 new scouts and their families there. The OEC is the council HQ. They have quite a bit of property, some camping areas, a scout store, and a nice outdoor amphitheatre.

Let the Holiday Season Begin

GP's birthday marks the beginning of the Holiday Season at our house. Between the two boys, they have 5 or 6 birthday parties: one each at home on their actual birthdays, one each at school, one combined party with their friends, and another if there are any Grandparents in the area. This year they had a bonus Birthday event at the KC Airshow last month.

Two Cub Scouts

This year, we have two Cub Scouts.

GP is fired up to finally be a scout. I volunteered to be his den leader, so we will be very busy for the next 5 nears. I've figured out that there are two types of leaders (in scouts and business) - those that want a flashy title, and those that are sick of the first type not being real leaders and just want to get stuff done. I'm in the latter group.

CP is a Bear Cub this year. JP has had him busy earning patches, belt loops, and pins. This weekend started the popcorn selling fundraiser. Guess what everyone will be getting for X-Mas...

September is Busy Month

September has been a busy month for us...

It started with a back yard drive-in movie at our neighbors' house one night. He projected a movie onto the back of his house, complete with surround sound, popcorn, and snacks (and beverages from Gary, the Budweiser guy). The kids watched the movie and the grownup kids played on Sean's awesome MAME arcade machine. My project (one of my projects) for this winter is to build my own MAME machine. It looks like a real arcade video game unit, but it has a PC inside and can run thousands of games. Sean really did a nice job on his and went as far as putting real graphics on the sides and a coin slot on the front. If he doesn't like you, he'll make you use the your own quarters.

The day after the drive-in movie, we watched the Huskers beat Wake Forrest with some neighbors. It's funny - when we lived in Illinois, we never paid any attention to college football; why would we? We had the Bears, Packers, Vikings, and Lions to watch. Now that we have become Husker fans, Sundays drift on by without a thought about the NFL.

CP recently finished up the Rufe (A Zero on floats) and added it to the balsa WW-II airforce. He's getting to be quite a painter.

State Fair

Garry, the Budweiser guy, gave us some complimentary tickets to the Nebraska State Fair. We have been here two years and have never made it to the fair and wanted to see it before it is moved.

We saw the Budweiser Clydesdales (in their cages), the Cabela's Dock Dog exhibition (where dogs jump 25+ feet off a dock), baby pigs, baby chickens, dairy cows, beef cows (amazingly beautiful!), horses, pigs, sheep, etc. It was another perfect weather day.

GP & JP rode this ride forwards and backwards. JP has a bruise on her shoulder from it.

CP & GP braved the mini-coaster. CP is helping his brother stay in the seat with a neck restraint. CP is a miniature version of me - terrified of roller coasters, heights, new things, etc. It will be interesting to see him get over his fears. GP, on the other hand, is Mr. Nofear.

The boys rode these rides and also did bumper cars. The small roller coaster was 3 tickets each, the fast ride was 5 tickets each, and bumper cars were another 5 each. Each ticket cost $1.25, so we ended up spending $32.50 for three rides. What a bargain. By the time we left, we were so tired of being overcharged for everything, we decided to skip eating lunch there and hit McD's on the way home.

Game Day in Style

When our neighbors asked if we would be interested in going to the Husker's season opener, we jumped up and down and cried tears of joy. Not only would it be our first Husker game, but we would be going in style: primo seats on the Club Level and tailgating at the Budweiser tent in Champion's Park with Maurica & Garry (the Budweiser rep). I feel like we have finally become Nebraskans.

Our seats were the top row under the big wall of glass in the west stands. We had real seats - not bleachers, and we were in the shade all afternoon. The club level is really cool - it has its own snack bars, clean restrooms, indoor seats, and a spectacular view.

The tailgate party in Champion's Park was awesome. It was directly across the street from the stadium and we were able to run out at halftime for a quick cold one.

P.S. - We pounded Nevada: 52 to 10.

Tora Tora Tora

Last weekend Gramma & Grampa flew in so that we could drive down to K.C. for the airshow. The highlight of the show was the Commemorative Air Force's reenactment of the attack on Pearl Harbor. They had Zeros, Kates, and a Val bomb the airport while a P-51 stayed on a zero's 6 o'clock and flew around. I've been to a lot of airshows, and I have to say, this was the best.

The boys are absolutely crazy about WW-II planes. We have our own airforce of miniature planes all over the house. CP is particularly interested in Japanese planes, ships, and culture. I'm not sure how it started, but it has not slowed down.

All of the Japanese planes were parked away from the main show and we were not able to get close to them. We asked the ramp boss if there was some way we could get close and explained that CP is a WW-II nut, and he let JP & CP in for a closer look.

The airshow was perfect. The weather was perfect. After weeks of hot & muggy, we had a beautiful day of low humidity and sunshine. We parked at a high school and took a shuttle bus to the airport. We were a bit apprehensive about making it there, but whoever was in charge did a fantastic job of organizing everything.

Between our two cameras, we shot close to 700 photos. I have uploaded some of the better ones to our web album. If you like airplanes - click on the picture below and check it out.

2007-08-25_KCAirshow

One of the highlights for me was having JP witness Shock Wave, the 375 mph 3-engine jet truck. I've seen jet cars run the 1/4 mile before, but this jet truck was awesome! He was not limited to the 300 mph speed limit that the drag strips have and was able to go zero to 375 in 5 seconds. JP kinda freaked out - it's unnatural seeing something that big accelerate so quickly. Hopefully now JP will be fired up to go to the new Lincoln drag strip (if it is ever built).