Busy Monday, June 20

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Peter - Work
• Myself & kids - Vacation

Menu

• For myself & kids
• Chili Mac
• Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
• Dinner with Family
• Spaghetti
• For Peter
• Whatever he makes himself

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Peter - work & play with friends
• Myself & the girls
• Go to the park
• Thursday - Painting activity at the Public Library

Last Week

So last week I worked M-Th and the girls were home and of course Peter worked. It was a very strange week and it felt like I was doing all sorts of running around though I can't tell you what it was all for. 
Brielle babysat Tu-Th last week a 9 year old. This 9 year old who is a friend of the family was going to a day camp but it ended at 2pm which of course her mom & dad and pretty much everyone else is at work at those times of the day so Brielle was hired to go pick up the kid at camp using the public bus every day.
Brielle had never used the public bus system so Monday Peter got off work and took Brielle on the bus to show her how to use it and what stops she was going to need.
Brielle did very well on the bus and one day I called her and told her the library was doing a special Star Wars event and that if they wanted to try and take the public bus down there that day that was fine with me (after I checked with the other kids mother and got the okay). Well turns out that day was extremely stormy and strong down pours and Brielle had only bought two rain ponchos that day so Katherine got soaked but at least the other girls were alright. I had rushed out of work to try and get down to them since they couldn't hear their phones over the rain but by time I got down to the station they were just loading their last bus so I let them finish up their adventure. 
All of us parents were very impressed with how the kids handled themselves.
I will be looking at getting both my girls bus passes for the rest of the summer so they can do things like go down to the public  library instead of being stuck at home while I'm at work. 

Friday the girls and I left at about 6-6:30 am. I wanted to leave by 5 am but that just didn't happen. We started our trip to South Dakota. Our first day we pushed all the way to Omaha and stayed there. The girls slept pretty much the whole trip.

About an hour outside of Omaha we got a phone call from the hotel asking if they could exchange our room for the same price. See the College National Baseball stuff was going on and finding a room in Omaha was a chore! We did have a 2 queen sized bed room reserved but I agreed and they moved us into a suite with a king sized bed and a couch that converted into a bed. 2 bathrooms and a jet tub. The girls were ecstatic. 

Saturday, before we started on the road again I made plans to go to the Lewis and Clark Welcome Center there in Omaha and then was going to go to the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs because someone said the National Park one was this little hallway and it would only take 30 minutes. 

I will tell you right now that is a joke! If you go in there with kids and do the junior ranger program it is easy to spend nearly 3 hours in there like we did so needless to say we did not go to the other museum. I have pictures of it but I forgot all my cables to transfer that stuff from my actual camera so I will have to post something else later. I will say that the Lewis & Clark stop does look small it is just one hallway but everything is replicas so you are able to interact with everything and there is a movie to watch about the expedition and that alone is nearly 30 minutes. The kids found it very informational and completed their junior ranger program and they had them say the oath and they got their certificates, badges and even patches. Many of the National Parks are doing something special because this is the centennial of the creation of the National Parks system. 

Little bit of a late post today but we are out visiting my grandfather, the kids great-grandfather and so timing on things is always a little weird right now but hey I got it done!