Nebraska Vacation

I've now crossed the Mississippi four times in my life! Some people were teasing me about how I wanted Mom to drive so I could really look at the River when I should be used to big bodies of water (Great Lakes, anyone?) but a river is just different and this is a very iconic river!

I also have now been in Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. The latter two are much hillier than I would have expected and there are a TON of windmills (sorry, wind turbines) along the way.

You might be wondering, "why Nebraska for a vacation?" My answer is, "friends and commitments."

My friend Mary lives in Nebraska and I am godmother to her two daughters. The older daughter was born and baptized here in Michigan but I missed her first birthday because they had moved. The second daughter was born in Nebraska and I missed seeing her as a newborn and I missed her baptism. I really wanted to be there around her first birthday. I knew she wouldn't know or care, but it was important to me.

Where they live in Nebraska is eleven hours away, without stops. I can't drive that far by myself; I don't have the endurance. So my mom agreed to go with me. Six days with little kids sounded like fun to her and she loves them too.

We stayed the first night with some Candle In The Window friends in Iowa and then went on to Nebraska. Our friends came to see us last August but the kids have changed a lot in that time. Oliver is talking so much more (mostly about dinosaurs and Godzilla), Opal is talking too, but most of what she says is not understandable. "No way!" is about the clearest thing she says :) Esther had changed most. Her hair was much lighter and she is walking!!! But she's still a snuggley baby and she fell asleep in my arms twice!

The kids were sick part of the time (I'm a little bit sick now) but we still had a good time. When the kids were sleeping, the four adults played some games, including a new one to me called Code Names. We're planning to get it now because it was really fun.

My journal is full of fun and cute things that the kids did or said and funny events that happened. However, the cutest thing was this - Oliver took Opal by the hand and said, "Come on, Sissy. Let's go to the park." Off they went down the hallway, hand in hand. About halfway down, he stops and says, "Stop, Sissy. We need to look for cars." When it was "safe" they continued on their way to the "park". It was the cutest, sweetest thing! He can be quite rough with her so to see him being so caring was nice.

Another fun thing I got to do in Nebraska was meet an Instagram friend in real life! I was super excited to meet Cara Bressette-Yates. We've been in a group on IG for maybe a year now and she was just the same IRL as she is online. We had a nice lunch at Pitch Pizzeria and talked about all kinds of things. Photography, obviously, but also family and passions and faith. She was kind and genuine and I hope we can see each other when I'm back in Nebraska again.

It was a really nice trip. I'm glad we did it and it went well. Here are a few photos. I took my DSLR but didn't really use it. Most of these are iPhone photos because I was trying hard to be present with the kids.

This is the first picture we have with each other and we've known each other three years!

He knows all the dinosaur names and has a big book of 300 "dinosaurs" that he wants read!!

He constantly is arranging his herd of dinos :)