nebraska...day two

we met this morning at cathy's office, and everyone was ready to go...

we decided to make a quick playground stop before lunch.

nicky is so stinking funny....and cute!

one of the MANY attempts at a group photo....

bauer enjoying the rocking turtle? (what is that thing?!)

and vivian and nat (no...i mean what is THAT thing...is she posing?)

when it was time to head to lunch, the boys made their mom's proud, safely holding hands. :) lunch was at valentino's where this cute couple met many years ago...but i'm sorry to say even as cute as they are...

undoubtedly, THIS in val's new spokesperson. HANDS DOWN!!

after a quick change of clothes we were off to the lincoln zoo.

the kids were too excited to pose before the butterfly exhibit...

where vivian held her first butterfly!

and bauer tried, too!

next it was on to the turtles, (vivian's look is an accurate interpretation of her mother's feelings about turtles in general, but i digress....)

luke and bauer preferred the smaller version.

the sea lion.

and of course, leo the paper eating lion.

at this point bauer needed a small break, which he took.
and the other children pretended to be birds in the "nest".

AND beautiful butterfly girls.

baby dinosaurs...AND

the perfect way to end every zoo visit...a ride on the train.

we made a quick stop by the rose garden...where if i do say so myself, we attained the BEST group shot of the trip!!!!

and the children ran wild through the maze....

and peered too closely into the fountain (for cathy's liking)...

and played follow the leader, and ran some more! what an AWESOME day!

nebraska...day three

now i ask, wouldn't you have traveled across the country to spend the day with these great kids? did i mention the kids' ages are 9, 7, 5, 3, 1? yeah, and we color coordinated, we were a sight!! :)

this day we headed to the state capitol...

the kids loved the "hall of heads"!

natalie and vivian were as thick as ever...

but didn't mind luke jumping onto their motorcycle at our next stop, the children's museum!

wait, there is one more cycle enthusiast!! :)

the "thingy"? (what do you call those things?) was a big hit, too!!

bauer did a bit of shopping...

and a bit of pizza delivery!

even the big kids checked things out!!

vivian explored her options for a future in farming...

or possibly medicine?

bauer just explored. ;)

nicky and vivian had a bit of a water war...

not quite sure who won, because it had to be broken up when they turned from guns to buckets! ;)

next, it was off to ivanna cone for a snack, and even though it began to rain...

i don't think these two noticed!

we decided indoor swimming might be the best way to end the evening. luckily, the kids weren't hard to convince! ;)

nebraska...day four

in no particular order....

the children build their own bird nest (the eggs are keeping warm under the leaves).

vivian gets up close and personal with some zebras.

the long (and oh so cute) walk to the eco-friendly museum.

not so excited about posing with the tiger.

attempt #972 at a group shot.

girls posing in front of their new friend.

uh-oh....big girl in the picture!

playing at being paleontologists.

boys DO love dinosaurs!!

bauer isn't quite sure about walking on these fossils....even if his big buddy, luke is there to help!

yes, we are southern. no, we have never see sledding ramps before. and YES, my kids slid down them like slides. so what?! ;)

leaving las lincoln...

oh, how the days did fly by...and before we knew it....it was sunday.

natalie had a softball game, cathy was coach, so we all headed out to cheer them on. i THINK, this is vivian doing her best cheerleader pose. pretty stinking good if you ask me!

and of course i HAD to get an action shot of miss natalie.

but look who else thinks they are a super slugger?

sometimes my husband's foresight is SO awesome. that morning (while mommy was getting dressed) i thought that he had the kids downstairs eating breakfast, but he really was across the street picking up a kiddie sized ball and bat. what a great dad! so the little one's played in the big field, just like the big kids!

afterwards, we all headed to another local park (yes, there is one on EVERY street corner, and they are all SUPER nice.) where clif went all "monster"...and all the kids LOVED it!!!!

uh-0h....somebody else decided to go all "monster".....scarrrryyyy!!! we spent the rest of the evening just chilling out. and then.....

it was monday. the day to leave. we took one last picture of our babies....

and one of us. and maybe....just maybe, two grown women, plus five little children...cried for the next thirty minutes straight. (thank goodness for clif, he could at least drive us safely back home.) and then it was over....the great nebraska expedition....or so we thought. 12 hours, 2 throw ups of straight mac-n-cheese, and 2 poo-through-the-diapers later we were home....let's just say there were a different kind of tears when we saw the front of our house! ;)

THE accident

as most all of you know by now, vivian had a very serious accident on july 5th. she crashed her bike, resulting in a depressed skull fracture (a VERY serious injury, with a normally very poor outcome.) if you need the details click here to read. but because we have been blessed by god, and enveloped in prayer....i am happy to announce that we are HOME!!! and are expected to recover with nothing more than a scar on our forehead!! miracles DO happen!

i thought because i cannot tell the story again, that i might instead add a few pics. he we our, just like every other family on the fourth. dressed in our red, white and blue, attempting a family photo, and only one of four people looking at the camera....yep, that's us....very normal folks! ;) this is about twelve hours post op.

in good spirits but swollen.

but with another 24 hours, she was ready to play with her new rapunzel barbie from her best friend, ruby (with dotdot's help of course)!!!

early wednesday morning we removed the bandage, while she played on the hospital touch screen computer, AND

wednesday afternoon she kindly posed for pictures with mariposa's wings and just a few of the MANY gifts and balloons!! can you say MIRACLE?!?! folks, i will never be able to tell you what all of your prayers, texts, cards, gifts, voicemails, etc. have meant to me. whenever doubt and fear would start to overwhelm me, i would pray and reread so many of your kind words. thank you, thank you, thank you.....please know that your words helped build a miracle. may god bless each and everyone of you!