First Garden

Pioneers Park + Halloween Pics

We spent the afternoon today at Pioneers Park soaking up some of the gorgeous wild and windy fall weather.

It was so much fun! I can't believe I've never been there before - probably because I'm not really much of a nature girl at heart - but we'll definitely be going back...often! The girls were in heaven. Iris is always at her best when she can roam and explore and seek little adventures. And she's really into wild life at the moment, although we didn't actually see any except for one ginormous moose (elk?), and him only from afar poised majestically on a hill. The park also houses a small number of buffalo, but sadly, much to Lydia's disappointment, we didn't get to see any. She was hoping to meet some of Buffy's (her stuffed buffalo) relatives. I think she got over it pretty quickly, though, because there was so much else to see and do!

Iris demonstrating her "chinese" jump!

And in other news...Halloween was a success! Our neighborhood is so awesome - I wish I had remembered to take some pictures of some of the houses. A few of our neighbors go all out with decorating, and it really makes trick or treating so much more interesting and fun. I'll have to remember that for next year.

Todd took this picture before Iris' elementary school's costume parade. I love how they're all doing their own thing. Thanks Em for the boot covers! So much better than the spray painted boots I was going to do...

The elusive smile! We usually have to resort to tricky and devious means to get it, but it's worth it!

Isn't she a sweet flower princess? And I wish you could have seen her and her little friend Miriam bopping from door to door in their costumes. The cutest thing EVER!

Summer Vacation

Back in June we took a two week vacation extravaganza, our first ever BIG vacation as a family, and I thought that, seeing how it's now August, I should probably get around to posting about it. I will warn you, though, it's picture overload. We crammed a lot into those two weeks! I apologize if some of the pictures aren't that great. We had to use Todd's iPhone because in the mad packing rush we forgot to actually pack the camera!

Here goes...

Vail:

We kicked off the trip with a four day Acts 29 pastors/wives retreat in Vail. Lovely place - although I got altitude sickness which wasn't so lovely. I've never had that experience before, and it was a little disconcerting. But, we got to stay in a super amazing resort/hotel and listen to great speakers and meet/hang out with other church planters, so it was worth it. AND we got to spend some extra time on the front and back end with my sister Em, since she so graciously offered to watch the girlies. I don't think they even missed us!

Guernsey State Park, Wyoming:

After Colorado, we headed up into Wyoming to Guernsey State Park for the first of our camping segments. Guernsey is basically a huge reservoir carved out of the Platte River. Our little camping spot was nice and only a few steps from the lake which the girls loved! That's basically where we spent most of our time. We were a smidgen worried when we first arrived and saw how close the campsites were together, but our fellow campers were thoughtful and did their partying elsewhere.

We also did some sightseeing while we were there. Register Rock (below) is a huge bluff the westward trekking pioneers would carve their names upon as a means of marking their existence along the trail. The girlies enjoyed climbing around.

We also got to see some Oregon Trail ruts. How amazing that they are still visible after all these years!

After Guernsey, we stopped at Scottsbluff....

....and then drove north into the Ogallala grasslands. My dad had heard mentioned that this was one of the most scenic routes in America, so we thought we'd give it a try on our way into the Black Hills. Oh. My. Goodness. SO hauntingly beautiful. In fact, we were so flabbergasted by it's sheer beauty that we didn't even take any pictures - we were too busy looking out the window for fear we'd miss something. I had to filch this one off the internet. Fellow Nebraskans, totally a drive worth taking! I'm so glad we did!

Black Hills, South Dakota:

This was definitely the most touristy part of our trip. There is SO much to see and do here, we couldn't possibly have done everything, so we had to kind of pick and choose some highlights.

Mount Rushmore, of course....

....and Jewel Cave. This was Iris' favorite part of the whole trip, I think. We may have a budding spelunker on our hands!

The Cosmos. I think we're still trying to figure out if this is a scam or not....

.....and Bear Country. The girls LOVED this. It's like a drive through zoo where all the animals are sort of just roaming wherever they please....

....and Needles Scenic Highway. The fun part about this is that we could park and walk up onto the rocks. We spent some time climbing and exploring. Both girls are quite the climbers!

We also got to spend some good quality time just relaxing at the campsite. Iris and Todd did some short hikes together while Lydia and I snoozed, and we visited the best (according to the girls - they're still talking about it) ice cream parlor ever, The Purple Palace.

On the way to the Niobrara River, the last leg of our trip, we stopped off at Wall Drug - the biggest souvenir shop EVER! We ran out of time to do too much here, but it was fun to look around and browse through all the stores. Lydia found her new love, Buffy the Buffalo, and Iris got some cool rocks and a pink diamond the size of Texas. There is so much just silly stuff here - we could have stayed all day!

Still on the way to the Niobrara, after Wall Drug, we took a slight detour onto the Badlands Scenic Highway. Also some of the most incredible scenery I have ever seen! We were able to get out and climb around a bit here too.

The Niobrara:

We ended our trip here with a family reunion of sorts. My whole family met up for a few days of hanging out and tubing down the river - so fun! Iris and Lydia loved, Loved, LOVED tubing and just the river in general so much we may have to make this an annual trip. It was so nice to hang out with my family, to hear my dad and mom sing and play the banjo, and to watch the cousins play. And to cap off all the fun, a few of us stayed an extra night so that we could see the local Demolition Derby. The girls have never seen one - it was exciting! Todd's pick actually won...

The trip was AMAZING - I'm so glad we decided to do it! I was a bit worried about all the camping involved, but the girls were great little troopers, and for me, it helped a ton that the trip ended up breaking down into nice three or four day chunks with a nice sister's house/hotel night break in between each chunk.

So that's it! Now summer's almost over, and it's on to school...