Vacation...Day #5

This week has flown by thanks to all the fun and adventures I've been having with my brother Kevin and his family: his wife Susan and their girls Suzanna, Abigail and Hillary. Unfortunately all the best times eventually come to an end.

Today the Moberg family would be hitting the road and going to Ames, IA to have lunch with a former colleague of Kevin's. From there they planned on driving to Minneapolis, MN to visit an Aunt and Uncle of Susan's. Then for the weekend, they would be going to Wisconsin to another Aunt and Uncle of Susan's, to stay at their cabin and see many other relatives on her side.

We rose this morning and ate cereal and fruit. Then they loaded up their van in preparation to leave. After getting and giving many hugs and kisses, I took a few more pictures of the girls and into the van they climbed. It was the best week I've had all summer and it passed all too soon...

Thanks, Moberg's, for driving to Omaha to visit and for all the other things throughout the week. I love you all! The visits seem to be too few and far between. Hopefully I'll see them again very soon......

Suzanna, Hillary and Abigail posing in the Children's Museum a few days prior.

Vacation...Day #4

Sadly, this is the last day I have to spend with Kevin and Susan's family before they leave to continue their travels. We had planned on going to a water park this week and today was the day. Fun-Plex is where we chose to go. Not only is it a water park with big water slides, a motion ocean, a lazy river and a kiddie pool, they also offer kids rides including a small roller coaster, a Ferris wheel, bumper boats and a go-cart race track....just to name a few! You really need to check out the web site to know how much there is. However, we had planned on only visiting the water park. It was a nice hot day for it and we stayed there for about 3 hours!
We ate the Panera bagels and fresh fruit including strawberries, grapes and bananas for breakfast early in the day. Then for lunch before going to the water park, I made Egg-cakes....a similar version to crepes and also known as Swedish Pancakes. It's a recipe from my Aunt Adeline whom lives in Wichita, KS. She made them for my family when I was a kid and we were traveling all over the place visiting many relatives! My own Mom had the recipe and now I have it. It's always a hit for us and it's something I don't make very often. So we indulged and remembered why we love them so much! We put butter and either syrup, brown sugar or white sugar on top. Then we roll them up and eat! Very yummy!

Then it was time to get into the swimming suits and lather up with sun screen. It was going to be another hot day (shocking!) in Omaha. However, the humidity gave us yet another break. At least I thought so.....considering what we had been dealing with the prior days and even the week before!
I didn't have my camera along with me to get any photos. But Susan took several to capture our best moments! Here is my brother Kevin's version of our day at the park! He has pictures included. Of course you can read his stories of the previous days and nights as well. (There is a link to his blog on the right side of my home page towards the bottom.)
After wearing ourselves out in the sun and water, we gathered our belongings from a rented locker and headed home to eat! Have you noticed a theme to our evenings? Food!!!
Tomorrow would be a sad day as they were leaving to round out their vacation with a visit in Ames, IA and then on to Minnesota and Wisconsin the following day.

Vacation...Day #3

Today after having eggs and bacon for breakfast, we decided it would be an ideal day for a museum. The weather forecast was calling for rain in the afternoon. It was already over cast and nice and cool compared to the other days we'd been out and about.

So we headed downtown to the Omaha Children's Museum. It's a large building with more than 45,000 square feet of many different scientific projects that have been lain out for kids to play in, play on, play with or just simply draw on or be drawn on with face paint! They can explore the many reasons why things work the way they work. It's 2 levels of pure chaotic madness to be perfectly honest! But the kids that are there seem to enjoy all it has to offer!

The Moberg's in front of the Omaha Children's Museum..Abigail, Susan, Hillary, Kevin and Suzanna. They are holding a copy of The Tioga Tribune from my home town......long story.
They had me pose in front of a tiny area...can you guess the reason why??!!???
The girls digging into the sand near the dinosaur exhibit...looking for fossils.
Giving me their best dinosaur impression....very good!
Hillary with the plastic balls looking for the ideal spot to insert them into a contraption that will eventually return the balls to a central location...only to be spilled out on the floor to do it all again!
Abigail giving it her best shot to get those plastic balls to move through the clear tubing.
Suzanna polishing her magic skills!
The girls are in the "grocery store" of the museum. They get to ring up the groceries and then re-shelf said items. There were many, many kids running around this area...making more of a mess than anything!

We wanted to roam around the downtown streets awhile and have a light lunch while we were there. We ate at Delice in the Old Market of Omaha. We didn't want to spoil our supper later in the evening which was already cooking at home! We spotted a Maggie Moo's and had some dessert there. It's very good for those of you that need a new place to try!

From there we walked around for awhile and browsed some of the stores. Then we drove to the west edge of Omaha very near my house and found Panera Bread. I had been going on and on about how delicious the bagels and cream cheese tastes. And Kevin and Susan had never eaten any of their food. So we decided it would be our breakfast the next day. Then it was over to the mall across the street, the Oakview Mall. We were on a mission to go to Bath and Body Works. All the hand soaps were on sale and boy did we stock up on supplies! Then the girls spotted a "Build-A-Bear" store. Needless to say, they were very anxious to go in there! They were each allowed to pick one bear and one outfit. Here are each of the girls with their own animals.

Abigail with her monkey, Suzanna and Hillary with their bears.

Their new babies!

Then it was off to my house to eat! I had home made BBQ ribs cooking in my slow cooker at home. We were going to eat frozen veggies, glorified rice and tossed salad along with it. Once we opened the door into the house, the wonderful smell of the ribs almost had us drooling! It made us all more hungry than we already were. It was another fun-filled day and we were all once again, pooped out!

Vacation...Day #2

For breakfast today, we ate leftover Country Breakfast Eggs from yesterday and also cereal, toast and fruit along with juice and coffee. We wanted to leave earlier enough to visit the Henry Doorly Zoo and Imax Theater before it got very hot for the day.

We thought we could see most of the outdoor animals while it was cooler and spend the latter part of the day inside the buildings where the air conditioning would be a welcome feeling! The humidity wasn't quite as bad as the prior day and we also had a little bit of wind to help us stay cooler. We each carried a bottle of water to tide us over until we had lunch.

Just inside the entrance to the zoo. Me, Suzanna, Hillary and Abigail

The Bongo pair is too hot to move.

Taking a break from all the walking.
The monkeys are "monkey-ing" around!

Rhino pair.

The sea lions keeping themselves cool in their pool!

Gazelle

One of the possible modes of transportation around the zoo.

One of the elephants.

"Meow!"

Ostrich and some zebras.

Unfortunately, my camera battery wasn't lasting very long due to it's age. So I wasn't able to get a lot of later pictures with it. I resorted to using the camera on my cell phone.

Polar bear swimming around.

The girls standing by a waterfall inside the Lied Jungle.

A Hippo (Lied Jungle)

A big tree (Lied Jungle)

Kevin and the girls posing behind a fence (Lied Jungle)

During the middle of the day, we attended a show at the IMAX, which is located just inside the entry gates of the zoo. We all were adjusting very well to the dark theatre and cool air. Needless to say, we missed bits and pieces of the show entitled, "Wild Ocean." I know that I had a very hard time keeping myself awake! It was also a 3D movie...our big glasses masked our weary eye lids!

The end of the day brought us into a new attraction at the zoo, the Butterfly and Insect Pavilion. People are instructed how to view this exhibit. "Watch where you step, don't touch the butterfly's, shake out your clothes before exiting the pavilion."

From there it was time to leave. We timed it so that we were done when the gates were closing for the day. We definitely got our exercise once again and had worked up an appetite. We left for home to cook supper....another great day in the books!

Vacation....Day #1...End of Day

My brother, Kevin, helping out at my house. It was still about 90* at 8:45PM when he went out to mow my grass. The only benefit was that the sun had pretty much gone down for the day!


Thanks for the help Kevin!

Vacation....Day #1

I rose early today and prepared a big breakfast for us all to enjoy. I wanted to make sure our day started on a full stomach! The meal consisted of hash browns, eggs, mild, green onions, shredded cheddar cheese, melted butter and cubed ham. This was all baked together for a dish called Country Breakfast Eggs....a recipe from my dearly departed Aunt Sharon G. We ate toast and bananas and grapes with it and drank juice and coffee.

Kevin and Susan and I then sat and made a schedule of what places we'd go to and which day, depending on when everything was open. Today we would visit Fontenelle Forest. I had never been there either so it was something I was looking forward to seeing myself. We decided after getting there, that we would walk on some trails in the forest that would take approximately one hour.

But first let me get you into the feel of our weather. It just happened to be one the hottest days we'd had in a few weeks. The humidity level was almost 100% and the temperature was roughly 90*. (if I remember right) The whole week was forecast to be in the 90's and very humid. They were correct!

Kevin and the girls before we headed out to the steamy outdoors!

So we had picked a very hot and sunny day to walk outdoors. Thankfully, we had the trees to shade us most of the time! Needless to say, we all had "I'm-sweating-in-places-I-didn't-know-I-could-sweat!" attitudes! We were all glistening....and sticky! Here are some pictures I captured of the gorgeous scenery. If you've never had the chance to go, you really must make time!

There is a small ravine at the bottom where the tree is laying on it's side...center of photo.

Which way do we go next?....I think it's "that way."

The trees were pretty when looking straight up towards the sky.

Looking north towards downtown Omaha.

They've Arrived!

Today was a day I was looking forward to for a long time. My brother, Kevin, and his family drove from Dickinson, ND to visit me. It was my first day of vacation as well. So I had the day to finish up my preparations for their arrival.
They drove up to the front of my house about 7:30 in the evening. The girls all came running in and gave me big hugs. It was so great to see them as I hadn't seen any of their family since October of last fall for my Dad's 70TH birthday.
I had been cooking a roast with vegetables in my slow cooker most of the day and thankfully, everyone was hungary enough to eat after settling in.

I had kind of made some tentative plans for activities that we would all like to do for the week. After discussing a few of them, we headed for bed and would be starting our exciting week of vacation for all of us! Stay tuned!

John Tesh in Concert

Yesterday I had the pleasure of witnessing an event that I never thought I would even have an interest in. John Tesh was in Omaha playing at Westside Church. Now, you may remember me talking about Westside Church before. Yes, I was recently there for this. Anyway, one of my friends had purchased tickets for her own Mom for Mother's Day, but really had no interest in going. So I went with her Mom instead! It was a great concert!

But this time, it was a different type of event than the last one that I attended at that church, and maybe a little more entertaining. John Tesh is a very accomplished pianist. His band consists of only 2 guitar players and one drummer. But he also has added a little more variety with a hip-hop dancer and a female vocalist. There is also a guy named Gib Gerard (John's step-son and son of and Gil Gerard from "Buck Rogers in the 25TH Century") that runs the techno lighting and video spots that play along with various songs. And when John is simply talking to the audience, Gib adds his own comments via computer that show up on the video screen back behind John. He is quite funny and John doesn't always know what's being written about him until the audience is laughing! He has to spin around to see the screen in which case he may or may not get a glimpse of, to see the comments before Gib deletes them! It's just something you would have to see yourself, to understand fully, the comedy behind it.

John Tesh plays the grand piano like no one I've ever known. He also has 3 other keyboards set up that he switches between depending on the songs that are being performed. His hip-hop dancer, Breeze Lee, owns and runs a dance studio for ballet and hip-hop along with his own Mother. John's own daughter attends this studio and after seeing what Breeze Lee can do, he had to approach him about being in his shows. Breeze can bend and contort his body in ways that makes one's own body ache just watching him! He interprets the music by the moves he makes, the same way a singer interprets music that they are singing. It's unbelievable!

There is a web site, http://www.tesh.com/ that you may also check out future concerts, available Cd's and DVDs. There is alot more to this web site--you just have to see for yourself! John has a radio show and he also counsels people on any issue that could possibly come up. But it's not overwhelming to listen to. He touches on subjects but doesn't try to force any issue on anyone. Here is a little bit more about John that may help jar the "I-can't-remember-where-I-heard-that-name-before" syndrome. The one thing that I remember most about him from years ago is that he used to co-host the "Entertainment Tonight" show. Here is a little more info on his background that you may remember.

And does anyone know or remember to whom John is married? Well, it's Connie Sellecca of course. There is actually a small photo of Connie at the bottom of John's home page of his web site. She was probably made famous by her role in the TV series "Hotel" which debuted in 1983. She is also the mother to Gib Gerard....have you figured out the ties between Gib and John yet?

So there you have it......John Tesh trivia. Who knew he was this good? I guess I didn't. A very pleasant surprise as well.

From Weeds to Wonderful!

Well, it's been a long wait. I've pretty much had the front yard directly in front of my porch ready to be spruced up since the early part of May. I have been waiting for one particular landscaping company to let me know when they would be here to get the job done that I hired them to do. After several phone calls to them and seldom any responses, I finally left one last message. Let me know if they will be doing the job, or I would hire someone else to do it. NEVER even received a phone call! Can any of you understand how a reputable company handles business in this fashion?

And so it went.........I hired someone else! Augusta Lawn and Landscape. The formerly hired landscapers can eat dirt!!! (sorry...bad pun!)

Yesterday, I arrived home and found most of the project completed. The guys doing the job weren't there but from what I could tell, there wasn't much left to do. A couple of plants still needed to be planted and then the brick edging had to be put in place. Otherwise, it looked great compared to what I'd been looking at since May! But I'll let you be the judge. Check it out for yourself.........

Here is the old look from last summer...

The old bushes and juniper plants that were not only boring but, um, boring!

A view from the side.

Today upon arriving home, I found that the other two plants and the brick edging had been added to finish up the look! And here it is.....

The view from the same direction as the photo above.

The view from the other end.

This is at the end of the porch. The plant on the left is a Variegated Hosta and one next to it is the Korean Lilac. The last one is a Dense Yew.

Don't you think this has a lot more curb appeal? I like the way the porch (which gives the house character if you ask me!) shows up now. The shrubs are called Dense Yews. They shouldn't grow very large and over take the porch. There are also Daylillies, Salvia, a Korean Lilac and a Hosta Variegated. Around all these plants I had them put down some river rock and mulch. And the small areas with just soil will be left open for me to plant annuals each spring. The edging is brick.

Next spring is when I'll be making the most of the areas of just soil by planting the flowers that I love to have! I won't have to use as many pots. I can't wait!

Kaden Curt Studer

Lisa and Scott Studer are the proud parents of a baby boy born on July 10TH. He arrived by cesarean. He joins an older 6 year old brother Logan and an older sister, Madison, whom is almost 2. Logan incidentally just turned 6 on the 4TH of July. Did you read this? I went to visit them at Methodist Hospital after work on Friday. It was nice because I was the only visitor there so I had full reign on holding baby Kaden! He resembles Logan quite a bit. He was the perfect weight...7 lbs 7 oz.

Congratulations to the Studer family!

I'm holding Kaden...what a perfect little guy!

He just had his diaper changed.....and feeling good!