Sunday snapshot #15~ Kansas!

I have always wanted to go on a vacation where you leave a don't really know where you will end up. With 2 young children I don't know how fun that would be though. Yesterday however, we tried it on a smaller scale. We initially had a destination of Guide Rock to visit Megan, Alan, and the kids. While we were there Brian found a new toy to play with.

 With 2 crossbows  in use and a turkey fryer heating up, I decided it was time to get the kids out of there for a while. This is where the excitement begins ;)

The goofy picture was much better than the posed picture :)

 Our first stop in Kansas was at the Center of the Conterminous United States. And I thought the world's largest ball of twine was the most pointless stop in Kansas!

The girls pretending to be excited

As if the first marker wasn't good enough, they also have this impressive one.

and this one... ;)

 After an interesting annoying trip through Lebanon, KS (which included almost getting stuck in the mud) we decided to head east on Hwy 36. After almost an hour a driving Camryn looked at me and in all seriousness said "so we drove all this way to do nothing?" At that point we decided we had better stop and let the girls get out again. Mankato, KS had a very nice little park right along the hwy so we stopped to enjoy the good weather.

Camryn wanted me to take her picture on EVERY part of the playground.

 Elody headed up this slide on her own, at this point she completely freaked out and wanted to come back down. After a little persuading forcing she finally made it down the slide.

This was mid-freak-out

 Of course at the bottom she decided it was the best slide ever and immediately wanted to go again.

After a couple trips down the slide she opted for something closer to the ground.

 Camryn continued her photo shoot on the wooden train. I had to take at least 2 pictures of her on each part of the train.

She decided this was for tall animals like giraffe's :)

I finally got Elody in one! She wouldn't slow down long enough to take pictures.

 After a quick stop at a gas station for a potty break and some bubble gum we headed to Lovewell Lake. It was pretty windy but we were able to find some birds for Camryn to watch and then headed back to Nebraska.

One more quick picture to celebrate. Even though we did drive a long way "to do nothing" I think the girls kind of enjoyed it. Maybe next time we will do a little planning before hand, and go somewhere other than Kansas....

Sunday (or should I say Monday, oops) Snapshot #14~ kinder-garden

On Friday Camryn's class planted a "Kinder-garden." I got to go help plant and also snapped a few pictures, this is one of the MANY reasons I am so glad I get to stay home with the girls.

waiting patiently to plant their sunflower house

getting ready to plant the garden

Camryn planting her sunflowers, she insisted on wearing her gardening gloves :)

On Saturday we visited Royal so the girls could see where Brian works. They have added on so much since Brian first started there and it is amazing to see everything they are doing now.

the girls standing in front of the HUGE water jet machine that Brian programs

Elody hanging out at Brian's messy desk. She was at little curious as to why daddy would have 3 monitors!

Sunday Snapshot #13~ Cranes and Easter, what more can you want?

Now that we had a couple days with better weather we were finally able to get out a do something worth taking pictures of!


Saturday morning we went to Rowe Sanctuary for the Crane Carnival. On the way we saw thousands of cranes many of which were very close to the road.

This group of cranes was doing their "crane dance"

 There were many activities for kids to do at Rowe. For some reason Camryn decided to be shy at first but finally loosened up and had a good time.

Elody isn't quite as big as this crane :)

Camryn will be as big as a crane soon!

Outside the girls got to put on crane wings and migrate from Mexico to Canada. With a stop along the Platte River of course.

 There was a nature walk with facts about different animals. It was so fun to let Camryn read the signs. I can't believe how smart she is!

Of course Camryn liked the Owl one.

Camryn playing opossum :)

My little cranes

Saturday afternoon was the Easter egg hunt in Hastings.

 Last year Camryn got the Golden Egg at the hunt and won a slightly larger egg because of it. This year Camryn got it again and wanted to give it to Elody, little did she know Elody would win this HUGE basket! Of course Elody is sharing her prize and Camryn handled it amazingly well!

While Brian and I were installing a new screen door we caught the girls reading a book by the tree out front.

Elody with her Easter Basket (and wet hair)

Camryn with her Easter Basket (also with wet hair)

Goofy girl!

anything Camryn does, Elody is sure to copy :)

Sunday Snapshot #12~ Playhouse/loft

 Well...we had another boring week so I guess I will have to share a couple pictures from last weekend. I have been waiting to share pictures of the girls' new playhouse/reading loft until we got it painted but it doesn't look like that will happening for a while still.

A few weeks ago we spent a day building the girls this reading loft with a playhouse underneath. We have built numerous things with plans from Ana White's website so of course I went there first to find plans for this project. I finally settled on these plans and we just scaled down to fit the crib mattress we had (we also made a few small changes for simplicity and cost).

It will be much cuter once it is painted and the trim pieces are added.

They spend a lot of time on the top!

Sunday Snapshot #11~ St. Patrick's Day

We had a very dull week this week which left me with very little to blog about. Yesterday Camryn made a leprechaun trap to try to catch a leprechaun but the sneaky little thing ate the lucky charms and got away leaving only a note and her tiny green footprints behind. Normally I would have taken pictures but the trap was less than attractive and Brian and I were headed out to dinner (without kids!) and I wasn't going to waste any more time on the leprechaun project than I had to.

Besides, the girls are much cuter :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

Elody managed to spill juice on her St. Pat's shirt so we had to find something else with green to wear.

Apparently she was feeling very princess-like today.

Sunday Snapshot #10 ~ "I git to go to a BiRDS Plas"

 Camryn was VERY excited to go back to the Crane Center, we made a couple trips last year and today we made our first trip this year. Today they had someone from Raptor Recovery doing a presentation. The girls didn't know that he would be there, I wish I would have got a picture of Camryn's face when he started taking out the birds.

"I git to go to a BiRDS Plas"

A type of falcon, falcons are not a favorite of Camryn's so I don't remember what kind...

A Great Horned Owl, my personal favorite!

Elody's enthusiasm only lasts so long :) At this point she was turned around backward.

Great Horned Owl again

A type of hawk

Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture again

 After we left the crane center we stopped at the river to see the cranes. There were thousands of cranes flying overhead. I don't have a good enough lens to get good pictures of the cranes but it was amazing to see (and hear) all of the cranes flying over.

Cranes! (and probably some geese too)

Sunday Snapshot #9~ New Looks!

Camryn's new glasses and haircut

Elody's first real haircut!!!

 Kearney Children's Museum 3/2/2013

Elody the receptionist

Camryn the dentist