Long Weekend at Home

We had a four day Labor Day weekend at home this year! Saturday we took the kids to the Durham Museum, downtown Omaha. They had an "Amazon" exhibit that Tony has been bugging us to see for MONTHS! This was the last weekend and a perfect time to go. The Durham is an old art-deco train depot that features the history of Omaha and has many railway exhibits. They have a nice schedule of rotating exhibits, such as the "Amazon" and we always enjoy our visits. It's a beautiful place! Being in the depot and touring some old-fashioned passenger/sleeper cars inspired us to travel by train. We are in the early planning stages of taking the Amtrak to Denver over Thanksgiving break....what fun!

I love pictures like these because they truly capture the personalities of our two kids. No additional words needed here.

My favorite part of the exhibit was the artwork by Ray Troll. Stunning.

The "interactive" aquarium was a hit with the kids.

Where's Tony? Watching a video on water conservation of course.

After the museum we wandered down to the Old Market area of Omaha. This is always one of our favorite places to meander on a nice evening. We got lucky and happened upon a parade of Art Cars. By the time we figured out what was going on I missed capturing some of the best ones. However, these were still pretty cool. Above is a bread truck painted to be a giant chalkboard.

The Yellow Submarine, complete with appropriate Beatle's song over a loud speaker. Livie loved this one!

Chris' favorite was the "Circuit Board" van. What a goofy but fun hobby. They had license plates from all over the U.S.

On Sunday we just hung around home and got caught up on laundry, yard work, etc... Chris finished building our new composter! One more step on our journey to being "green." He really did a nice job considering he used scrap wood he found in the garage attic. The project cost nothing other than one bag of screws! The kids had fun helping put a coat of primer on and I may get it painted today....or tomorrow.....

We enjoyed weather in the 90's all weekend. Luckily the humidity is gone and a nice breeze kept it rather pleasant. Monday we decided to pack a picnic and "go somewhere we've never been before." We found Two Rivers State Park a mere 45 minutes southwest of us. Tony is getting almost as tall as Olivia, but in this picture you see that Liv's waist is nearly to his armpits!

Two Rivers has several nice campgrounds and 7 little "lakes" (I use the term LOOSELY). But the kids had fun just playing in the Platte River. It was hot and the water was warm. They sure have a blast on the sandbars. Chris is such a trooper and good about spending hours out there with them. They built a replica of "Venice" in the sand. Too bad I was too far away on shore reading a magazine to snap a picture. :)

No Maras outing would be complete without someone finding a turtle! I knew something exciting had happened when they all came running back to shore. The kids thought this little sand turtle was cute, but I thought it was pretty nasty looking. Wierd hey?

Good thing we brought a bucket along. That little turtle kept them busy for quite a while. We all had a fun day and were good and tired after a long day in the water and sun. It's 8:30 a.m. and all is still quiet upstairs.

The kids and I are off today for a teacher in-service day. A cold front came through last night and we now have temps in the 70's and rain. Today I think we will take a trip to the library. Liv is going through withdrawals as she finished Harry Potter #6 on Sunday!

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL to all our family and friends in MINNESOTA!