Omaha

The second leg of our fall trip took us to Omaha to revisit our siblings and cousins who met us in Minneapolis. One day we went to the children's museum to plant some crops and do some plumbing.

Caleb pretended to be born again.

There was also a big section with balls. We spent a lot of time there. Balo couldn't believe this part of the ball section was included in the price of admission and spent a great deal of time here shooting this ball cannon into a nearly impossible target.

Here they all are in jail in the haunted portion of the museum.

The kids also got to paint their own faces.

Sabrina decided she would like to have her birthday party in Omaha with her cousins, so we threw her a little party. (Not sure why she looks so bored in these pictures.) One thing about this trip is that the kids all had a had a fever that got passed around. It came on fast, but only lasted a day, and they each got in on a different day. Sabrina had it the day before her party, then Clara got it the day of her party, which is why she isn't in the party pictures. (she actually arranged,  through a minor febrile seizure,  to have an ambulance and fire truck come to Sabrina's party and a fireman gave everyone stickers.  Thanks, Clara!)

After the cake and presents came the glow dance party in the basement. And here's the birthday girl sitting for a portrait.

The little roller coaster also gets plenty of use anytime they go into the basement.

Each time we took a picture, Sabrina would prepare by putting on all her glow bracelets, then start dancing and go crazy, so all the bracelets would fly off. This one catches a bracelet in mid air, several feet behind her.

We also went to an orchard somewhere over in Iowa for some fall festivities and delicious, fresh-pressed apple cider slushies.

They had corn in their sandbox instead of sand.

We took what might be termed a hayride through the apple orchard, except we weren't sitting on hay.

There was also a corn maze, with a cowbell to ring at the end.

And since we're on topic, we'll include the Halloween pictures. We were back home in Alaska for Halloween, and it was unusually warm, so we didn't need to bundle up quite as much as usual.

The girls drew the faces on their pumpkins. Celia's has a bow, and Sabrina's "looks suh-pwized."

The next morning after Halloween the girls sorted their candy. They had some system they set up on the stairs.

Minneapolis

Back in October, we took our annual trip to Minneapolis so Marel could spend a few days working in her office. As usual we stayed in the Embassy Suites, and the Omaha cousins all came up to spend the weekend with us. The kids were up to their usual antics.

Elena was a hide and seek champ.

There's often at least one kid crying in a group picture.

We do pretty much the same things every time we go. Of course we went to the sculpture garden before having dinner at Dancing Ganesha (not pictured). The focal point of the sculpture garden of course is the giant cherry on a spoon.

Everyone chose a pose for this one.

Here are the annual jump like a bunny pictures.

Celia and Balo couldn't quite get coordinated.

The brick wall always makes for some nice photos.

Some nice cousin time on the way to the blue snowman.

One of the sculptures is a swing.

Once the crowd cleared away from the cherry the kids fed each other.

And we managed to get a decent family photo.

And this one we took after going to sacrament meeting before the Omaha folks went back home. It turned out surprisingly well for a spur-of-the-moment, set-the-camera-on-top-of-the-car group shot.

While Marel worked, the kids and I found some things to do. We ended up at a little children's museum, where Sabrina put herself in jail, and then broke out.

And we took some time for self-reflection.

We also went back to the sculpture garden because we spent most of our time the first time taking pictures of the Omaha crowd, so the kids and I went back on our own.

We also went to a playground and enjoyed the swings.

After Marel was done in the office, we headed for Omaha to spend the following weekend.
More on that to follow...