Our first family camping outing

We went to Two Rivers to camp on Friday last week and had a great time. We cooked our dinner, smores, and breakfast over an open fire, played, ran around like crazies and slept in a tent. The kids had a blast and so did we. We hope to get a few more trips in this fall as we prefer camping in the chillier weather. We took our monarch tagging supplies and even tagged a female monarch there, so hopefully we will get a certificate from Mexico once she makes her way down there. We had to get the fire going in the morning and the kids were hungry. I had meant to buy doughnuts for such an occassion as this, but forgot. So, since they waited so patiently to eat, we all got to have smores after our breakfast. One of my best ideas yet!

Two Wheeling It

It was only a few months ago that I was blogging about how Skyler learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. Well, here I am letting you know about Lily's triumph over the training wheels. Hers came three years earlier than her brother's, but there are a few reasons for that. Lily is quite a daredevil and not so scared to try new things. She doesn't stop with failure, she keeps at it until she has it, she will not give up. And, she had no choice if she wanted to ride her bike because her training wheel broke and we refused to replace it. So, there you have it in a nutshell. She loves to ride her bike. She wants to do it all day long, everyday!

Monarch Tagging

We had quite an exciting experience this weekend. We went to Hitchcock Nature Center in Iowa to participate in their annual Monarch Tagging event. They have a nice little presentation about monarchs and their migration patterns and then they let you loose in the forest with butterfly nets to try to catch some monarchs to help them tag them so that their migration patterns can be studied. This is all part of Monarch Watch a program run by the University of Kansas. We were fortunate enough to help both Skyler and Lily catch monarchs. We took them in and they each got to put the tag on them and then we let them loose. If they are found in Mexico by a tagger, they will receive a certificate of appreciation for helping the Monarch Watch program. We were also given more tags so that we could tag some at home. We were able to tag one, as we found a nice place along the creek where about a
hundred monarchs live. We still have four more tags to place, but we are waiting on our butterfly net, because it is almost impossible without one! We had a blast and the kids learned a lot about monarchs!

The Airshow

Ever since I was a little girl, one of the things I looked forward to every year was the Offutt Air Show. It was always so thrilling to see all of the different planes flying above the house. We would just watch them all weekend long. A few times we went to the base to watch it, but most of the time when I was young we would watch it from the back yard. Back then, there were no houses or trees blocking the view of the base. Now, I actually live in the neighborhood that blocks the view of the base from my parents' house. Sad, I know. But, we get to go to the base and sit on the flightline and enjoy the show. Everyone had a blast and we were lucky enough to be able to watch the show four times, since they started on Thursday!

Dear Mr. Construction Guy

Dear Mr. Construction Guy,

First, I want to thank you for all of your hard work down at the creek. I am not sure what you are doing, but it looks like you know what you are doing, so we'll just go with that. We are hoping that your work is for the benefit of our trail and park, but so far we are not seeing that. What we are seeing is the paths blocked with no warning, our beloved frogs and other wildlife missing, and lots of dirt, mud and noise. Now don't get me wrong, I am sure what you are doing is a good thing (right?)

What I don't appreciate though, is you deciding you must urinate on a tree in our park in front of us. I mean really. You couldn't wait until we weren't there? You've been working at our creek everyday for the last month. Who do you work for? They couldn't spring for a portable toilet for you guys? Unbelievable! Do they just figure that since you are out in nature you could take care of the call of nature in nature? I don't know, but I am hoping you will be done soon; that our frogs will still have a home when you are done; and that we don't have to witness you peeing on a tree again.

Thank you kindly,
A Mom