Marie Ross

Neal's Grandmother (Charles' Mother) passed away this morning about 2:30AM.  Please keep the family in your prayers.

(This photo was taken last year in August by my Dad, Clippercut, at Faye's birthday party.)

   We took a short trip to Omaha Thursday to Saturday of last week.  We had a lot of fun.  The kids had a blast.  I thought I'd share some of my favorite pictures from the trip.  We headed out from home and took the "scenic route" to go visit Neal's Grandma Ross who is in the hospital in northwestern Missouri.  Along the way we saw more interesting sites than I ever knew existed in NWMO.  We were in awe of the huge wind turbines.  Then we drove through Conception Junction and drove through the parking lot of the Abbey there.  All the while, Alex is in the backseat with a plethora of questions and advice like "When are we going to be at our trip?" and "Daddy, you are just wasting gas."  We finally figured out after a full day of these comments that Alex doesn't believe you are on a trip until you have officially checked into a hotel. 

I took this photo as we began our walk on the trail at the Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City...our first stop after driving through the scenic hills of NWMO.  According to Alex, we still were not officially on a trip yet.    The kids really enjoyed the farm.  If you haven't been there, I highly suggest it.  The kids are carrying their trail guides.  They got to find punch stations at different areas on the trail.  The trail is set up with all kinds of learning stations for animal tracks, smells of the forest, sounds of the forest, trees, and areas with treehouses and bridges over streams.  The walk is a little over a mile, but the kids never got bored with it or tired.  At the end of the trail is a nature classroom with different stations like building blocks from wood, xylophones made from wood, a stage, treehouse, nature art area, and a stream to play in.  Fun was had by all.  We also got to look in the greenhouses where they grow all those little tiny tree sprouts they send out for Arbor Day.  The kids very favorite part was getting to pick out their own Colorado Blue Spruce Trees to bring home.

This is the end of our tour, and Faye is holding her "baby tree."

Here are the kids on Day 2 at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.  It's a great zoo...our zoo can't even begin to compare.  The kids are standing in front of a jellyfish exhibit in the aquarium there.  We are finally officially on our trip in this photo...we had spent a whole night in the hotel at this point. 

Alex in his natural habitiat...among the fishies.  He has future plans of building an aquarium near his home with housing attached so that he and all his family including his grandparents can all live there.  I'm looking forward to that!

We went to see an IMAX film, Wild Ocean, at the zoo and the kids cracked Neal and I up in their HUGE 3D glasses.

After a day at the zoo, we went to the Omaha Royals game.  Rosenblatt Stadium just happens to be right next door to the zoo...literally...they share a parking lot.  They had a double-header due to the previous night's rained out game so we went directly over to the game meaning we were pretty tired.  We left in the top of the 5th inning (they only played 7 per game) to go back to the hotel and relax and swim.  The home team was already down by 3 or 4 runs at that point.  It was fun though, and we got the ballgame experience.  We were on the very front row behind the umpire.

Here's Faye enjoying the game.  She actually enjoyed pushing the seat down and letting go to watch it flop back up more than she did the game.  She was so excited to leave so we could go swim, but it was 7PM and she fell asleep in the van on the way back to the hotel and slept on through the night until after 8AM the next morning.  Neal and Alex went swimming without us that night.  We got up and went again first thing the next morning before checking out.  The kids had a ball.  They LOVE the water.  I think they might be part fish. 

In Omaha, they have turned their old beautiful Union Station into the Durham Western Heritage Museum.  We weren't that overly impressed with the museum, but it was fun.  They have old trains that you can go through and artifacts of Omaha's history.  It was interesting to go through the trains and think about how that was the way to travel in our country years ago.  Here's Neal with the engine of the train that included passenger cars, a first class lounge car, and a caboose.  The real reason we were drawn to the museum in the first place was a special exhibit called "Amazon Voyage: Vicious Fishes and other Riches."

Alex is inspecting an aquarium in the exhibit from the inside.  He highly approved and was taking notes for his aquarium plans.

We had a good time and wonderful weather while we were there, but we were glad to get home safe and sound.

Song for a Fifth Child
         
Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
 
Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
 
The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton