Long Weekend Fun

This year we had Monday/Tuesday off for the Labor Day weekend....remember, we started school August 14th. We've already had homecoming and conferences are in 2 weeks! Anyways, the Skubics roadtripped down for the weekend. We could not WAIT for their arrival Friday night.

Saturday we just hung around the 'hood. CC went out with Chris and Tony to harvest some goodies from our garden.

CC enjoyed helping out and eating what she picked. We took long walks to the playground and just enjoyed hanging out together.

After Chris grilled steaks on the new weber, we all gathered for an evening fire. Celia was SO patient waiting for everyone to come outside for Smores.

Of course you can eat marshmallows while you're waiting Celia...we won't tell your mom!

Uncle Jeff shows us how it's done!

The girls strike a pose while enjoying the beautiful late summer evening. Notice the Minnesotan in a tank top and the Nebraskan in polar fleece.

Sunday we thought would be a perfect day to visit the zoo.....WRONG!!!! We had never seen so many cars in our 5 yrs. of visiting the zoo. I swear they were going to have to start hanging cars from trees there were so many. So, we changed our game plan and stopped at Zesto - an Omaha favorite - for a quick lunch.

We visited the Fontenelle Forest instead and enjoyed a traveling Dinosaur exhibit. If you think back a bit....this is the place we got REALLY REALLY REALLY lost last year. This time we stayed on the boardwalk and everyone carried a map. Lesson learned.

Tony really enjoyed the awesome, life-like dinosaurs and of course knew the names of every one. I think we ALL really enjoyed the shady, quiet woods and all the wonderful places for kids and adults to explore.

Celia REALLY enjoyed the giant xylophone....Grandma's, are you taking notes for Christmas???

All three kids had fun climbing the giant tree house. What do you see CC???

What a nice looking bunch hey?

True colors.

After an afternoon in the forest, Uncle Chris talked everyone into one more hike to a marsh overlook on the backside of Fontenelle. Tony really enjoyed checking out the water lilies. They were huge!!!!

And they were beautiful. Celia wasn't impressed with the green, scummy water. She declared that "A mommy or daddy needs to vacuum it up and put clean water in there!" Can't imagine where she gets that from!!?!?!?!!?

A summer snowflake....plus, I just like playing with my zoom.

This is my favorite picture. Celia really warmed up to Uncle Chris this weekend. She followed him around the yard while he picked up dog poop. Too cute.

One final bowl of "yucky charms" before the Skubics headed for home. (don't look at my cluttered kitchen please) We are so glad they made the long trip and we had a lot of fun just being together! Plus, we discovered that Uncle Jeff is a FORCE playing Boggle. Can't wait for a RE-MATCH!!!!!

Yesterday, Tony spied a GIANT praying mantis on our neighbor's house. Chris got it down with a net and we could not believe the size of that thing! I had Chris put his hand next to it so you can get an idea.

Amazing creature....fall is near!!!