last thursday we went to the omaha children's museum. i ended up buying a family membership, because there is a huge list of hundreds of museums and planetariums that we can get into free, including the ones in chicago-- yea! i didn't take any pictures while we were inside, because it was c.r.a.z.y busy. hundreds of kids running all over the place. i plan on going back a few times while we're here.
today was our five year anniversary. i wish that i could show you a wedding picture along with today's picture, but they're all at home. since we're out of town, we weren't able to go anywhere without the kids, so we all went down to the omaha summer arts festival. it was nice, but we both think that st. joe's art festival is bigger.
the kids enjoyed their new "ride", the combi twin sport double stroller. this was the first time we've used it, and it worked great!
the city of porttsmouth, which is were we're staying, was nice enough to supply us with fireworks for our anniversary. the picture above is us huddling in the car waiting for the rain to stop and the fireworks to start.
it was a great show, and i got some great pictures-- i discovered a special "fireworks" setting on my camera. i think it has a special setting for everything! ruby was not a fan of the fireworks. it wasn't the noise that scared her as much as the brightness of them. we were only about a half a mile away from where they were set off, so they were pretty bright. it was a pretty laid back day, and we hope to have more of the same tomorrow. omaha had some pretty bad storms pass through yesterday, so john isn't able to work this weekend. that means lots of fun family time. tomorrow we are headed to the zoo.
yep, i did it-- i finally cut my hair. i hadn't cut it since 6 weeks before ruby was born, last october! i think it was almost a foot of hair. my friend, shannon, cut it and did a great job. i only have to spend about 5 minutes blow-drying it-- not much more work than a ponytail!
here are a few pics of the new rv-- if you click on the picture, you'll be able to see it much larger. the side on the left pops out. jack is sitting at the kitchen table, and i'm taking the pictures from the couch. the couch pulls out-- jack has been sleeping here. he gets a kick out of sleeping in the kitchen. emma is standing by the bathroom door. it's small, of course, but luckily it has a tub so that the kids can take a bath. if you squint, you can see the bedroom in the back. it has a queen-sized bed and lots of storage. on the right, you can see a little computer table in front of the door. there are armchairs on each side of the desk that you can't really see in the picture. luckily, the chairs rock-- that's a must have for putting ruby to sleep.
here's a (really bright) picture of the kitchen. it's a lot bigger than i expected-- enough room for cooking all of our meals!
and here's some cute ruby. recovered from her fever. and reaching for the dangling lens cap, of course.
so, we've done a bit of driving the past few days. we drove from michigan to st. louis on saturday, then to wichita on sunday. from there we picked up the rv, then drove to omaha on monday. phew, that was a lot of driving.
the time spent in the car was made worse by a 7-month old with a fever and a 3-year old who just needed to stretch his legs. oh yeah, and a mom who just couldn't deal with the crying any longer. it wasn't the most beautiful drive, either. mostly a lot of flat grassland.
thank goodness for the dvd player. and baby motrin. and superman costumes. more posts to come from our visit in omaha.
we had a great trip to the potawatami zoo this week. perfect weather and lots of fun animals. ruby even enjoyed the animals-- she likes to talk to them, especially the monkeys and chimps.
we had another beautiful trip up north, this time to indian river. we stayed at a friend's parents' cabin on burt lake. we had a great time watching the beautiful sunsets and storms rolling in.
i was even lucky enough to catch a picture of lightening. it was a busy 3 1/2 days-- 4 moms and 5 kids. ruby was the youngest and jack was the oldest. a lot of fun, but a lot of work! we decided that next year we'll be bringing dads with us. by then there will be 7 kids!
here's jack and grampa at lake michigan, right across the street from our cabin in onekama. jack learned how to make a sandcastle.
ruby and alex were very happy most of the time. the exception for alex was riding in the car-- picture screaming, screaming, and more screaming. and for ruby the exception was her constipation. i'll spare you the details, but there was a lot of sad crying involved.
even with all the fighting, screaming, and pooping (or lack of), we all had a great time that we hope to repeat year after year.
we rented a cabin in onekama, which is about 3 hours north of st. joseph. the cabin was just across a dirt road from lake michigan. it was a very short walk to the beach, where we did a lot of sand castle building. we were surrounded by woods, which was great for deer spotting. jack had a lot of fun searching for deer tracks in the sand.
we're actually leaving tomorrow to go up north again, this time with 3 friends and their 3 little ones. i'll post more pictures of our onekama vacation over the next few days.
