A Week in Nebraska

We're back home again. Our trip to see my family in Nebraska was a lot of fun. Let me tell you about it.
This is a picture of my Mom and Dad meeting Winnie for the first time.


Some moments weren't as exciting, like last Saturday when we had a 4.5 hour wait to get through the last 7 kms at the border in Sarnia. The holiday weekend traffic was awful. We had been sitting there for two hours when poor little Winnie needed to be fed, so we had to pull over do that. I watched a box truck that had been right beside us when we pulled over. It made it about .5 km while I was feeding the baby. So I didn't feel like we had really lost much ground by stopping. By the time we reached the duty free shop the older girls were getting really squirrely and we had to take another break to get them some food and let them blow off some steam. I fed Winnie again and we finally made it over the border. That first night we only made it to Kalamazoo, Michigan instead of past Chicago like we had planned. So Sunday we had to go all the way from Kalamazoo to Lincoln. It was a long haul.

After we finally arrived things were much better! The first few days were spent at Platte River State Park with my extended family. It was great to see all our relatives. Some of my cousins had never met Dennis. We stayed in cabins at the park. There were 13 little kids running all around, and all but two of them were my own or my brothers' kids. The kids played in the water fountain and on a merry-go-round (the old fashioned kind) that was right next to our picnic shelter.

It was quite a hot week so on Tuesday my sister-in-law Sarah and I went swimming in the nice pool during the afternoon. Most everyone went swimming in a nearby lake that evening. For lunch on the 4th of July we all went to the restaurant at the park and had their buffet. The restaurant was right next to a high observation tower. Surprisingly, Squeaky loved the tower and wasn't frightened at all. She climbed up and down in twice right before lunch. Dennis went with her, and I stayed at the bottom with Button and Winnie. I would have liked to go up as well, but I didn't think carrying the girls up was much of an option. :)
All the girls wore their 4th of July outfits! And Dennis wore his Nationals shirt. :)
The rest of the week was spent in Lincoln. We stayed with my parents and had lots of fun with them and with Matthew and Sarah and their kids. On the 4th of July we all set off fireworks. A few days the kids went swimming in the kiddie pool in my parent's yard. The older boys were into getting sprayed directly by the hose, but Squeaky and her cousin Timmy were not very excited about that.

We left for home last Sunday. The trip back was really good and the kids pretty well behaved. We made good time on the first day and went all the way to Benton Harbor, Michigan. We got there in time to have a nice supper and get to bed at a decent hour. We made it home around 7pm on Monday night. The girls and Dennis all have a cold now, but I seem to be holding out. :) The visit was wonderful, and we're glad to be home to unwind now.

I'll try to add a few more pictures later.