There is no place like Nebraska...Madison & Pierce

On Friday Ryan & I headed to Aunt Donna & Uncle Den's for supper before heading to the Madison County Fair.  Kayla and Andrew were home for the weekend so after supper the four of us headed to Madison.  The Madison County Fair is "The Best Week in July" and inlcudes three nights of rodeo action and two nights of concerts.  Mom & Dad purchased the fun pack which included tickets for all these events.  They were kind enough to let us use their tickets on Friday and Saturday. 

I wish I could show amazing rodeo photos to you, but I didn't take my big camera to the rodeo.  I frequently do this...I think, oh, it's too bulky, then when I get home I wish I would have just taken the dumb thing with me.  The rodeo was fun, though not the best rodeo I've been too.  Many of the cowboys and cowgirls just couldn't get it together.  Many calves went unroped, bucking broncos & bulls unrode.  Sad day.

Saturday we put on our swimsuits and headed to Pierce with the A. Donna, U. Den, Kayla and Andrew.  We were off for a day of boating (tubing and skiing).  It was a fantastic time!  I did take my big camera for this experience.  There were so many great pictures that I decided to make a collage of them so it wouldn't take so long to load them on here.  You can click the picture and it will make it bigger.

None of these photos have been edited, just put into a collage.  Here are my two favorites of the day...

Saturday night ended in a Josh Turner concert.  I had never heard of him before the concert, but did enjoy his voice.  It was super deep most of the time.  I might have to download a few of his songs now. 

Today we drove back to Denver, it was a nice drive and Tank slept about 5 of the 8 hours and as I type this blog he's laying on the floor snoring...must be ruff.

There is no place like Nebraska...OMAHA

When one leaves Denver for a week in Nebraska the question that enters many people's minds is

"What are you going to do for a week in Nebraska?!" 

This was the question I asked myself on the second day we were here!  We made plans to go to the Madison County Fair at the end of the week, but what about the beginning?  Well, I jumped on Facebook and sent my cousin a message that said something to this effect:  we're going to be in NE for a WEEK.  We'll need something to do...we're thinking Omaha and visiting you!

My original thought for Omaha was the Henry Doorly Zoo!  If you find yourself in Nebraska for a week, make a trip to Omaha for this place!  The last time I was there was in 6th grade and it was pretty great then and I know they've made many changes since then!  They have an indoor rain forest!  Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the zoo:

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is nationally renowned for its leadership in animal conservation and research. Evolving from the public Riverview Park Zoo established in 1894, today the Zoo includes several notable exhibits. It features the largest cat complex in  "Kingdoms of the Night" is the world's largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor swamp; the Lied Jungle is one of the world's largest indoor rainforest, and the "Desert Dome" is the world's largest indoor desert,as well as the largest glazed geodesic dome in the world The Zoo is Nebraska’s number one paid attendance attraction and has welcomed more than 25 million visitors over the past 40 years.

Pretty cool, right?  Well here's what I didn't think about...in July, in Nebraska, during the day, it's HOT!  My husband, he does not really like being hot.  The fact was simply this:  If we go to the zoo, we're going to sweat and be hot and probably border on being miserable.  So the zoo didn't seem like the best idea.

So here's what we did.  We left my parents about noon (I thought it was earlier because my computer was (and is) still on MST).  We got to Omaha about 2 PM and still didn't have a plan.  I had suggested the SAC Museum--a place I had been on my senior class trip.  Ryan decided that the museum would be great.  Ryan got out his phone and checked Google Maps for directions.  It's actually located in Ashland, NE, a suburb outside of Omaha.  I want to say it's on the South, maybe Southwest side?  It's on I-80 between Lincoln & Omaha.

The SAC Museum focuses on USAF paraphernalia as well as educational information about the planes, missiles and spacecraft.  It includes two large hangars and a traveling display.  It has one of the top collections of strategic aircrafts.  Not a lot has changed since I was last there, ahem 11 years ago, but it was fun to see again.

Outside the SAC Museum (which I know has been renamed since I was there my Senior year, but Strategic Air and Space Museum doesn't have a cool acronym like Strategic Air Command Museum does...) there are three rockets.  Above is the largest of the three.  Upon entering you are greeted by this:

Ryan knew right away what it was--SR-71A built by Lockheed.  I thought it was an airplane.  Turns out it's really a spy plane.  The admission to get into the Museum was $12 per person.  We paid our fee and headed over to Hangar A.

Hangar A featured many plans that were flown during the WWII era.  There was a section of the hangar that discussed Nebraskans involvement in the Doolittle Raid (not sure what that is, watch Pearl Harbor, it's not 100% historically accurate, but they talk about the Doolittle Raid-- it was the first air raid by the US after the attack on Pearl Harbor.)  Below are some pictures of Ryan with various planes and parts of planes.

As you can see they had a few child friendly areas that you could sit in and push buttons and be cool.  Ryan took full advantage of that.  After Hangar A we headed to Hangar B.  Hangar B is where they have more of the space stuff.  They have a few more planes but also some rocket stuff and information about the various spaceships that have headed into outer space. 

*As a side note, I'm a little sad that the space exploration program is ending*

Ryan continued to wander and look much longer than I did.  We skipped the traveling exhibit--John Wayne.  Not sure that he really fits into Air and Space, but whatever.

After our time at the SAC Museum we headed to the Old Market--another place I went on my Senior Class Trip.  The Old Market is only a block and a half long.  We stumbled into a junk antique shop.  This shop had ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you could imagine.  My favorite part of the shop was the area with stuff from my childhood.  Remember when Pizza Hut used to give away glasses?  Well this shop had them all, including Popple AND Care Bear ones!  I wanted to get the Popple one that matches the Popple that I still have...

but I didn't get it.  Now I kind of wish I had.  Oh well, I least I have the real Popple!  They also had Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Bright, Ninja Turtles, and CALIFORNIA RAISINS!  They also had a section dedicated to toys you got in kids meals from various restaurants--you know, when the toys were good!

After a walk through the Old Market and Ryan being uncomfortable because he was hot (good thing we didn't go to the zoo), we headed to meet Kayla and Andrew for supper at Andrew's house.  They made grilled burgers, pasta salad, beans, and french fries.  Kayla even went all out and brought strawberries, sugar, and cookies for dessert. :-)  We sat around the table and chatted with them for about 3 hours before we packed it up and headed back to the big MG!

Tomorrow's Agenda:  Madison County Fair!

There is no place like Nebraska...

Saturday Ryan and I packed up El Tank-o and headed East.  Our destination: The ONE and ONLY, Meadow Grove, NE.  This was Tank's first long car ride with us and we weren't sure how he would do.  He was a rockstar!  We had put towels all over in the backseat in case travel didn't agree with him.  For the first four hours I drove and he alternated between the back seat and having his front paws up on the the counsel and back legs on the back seat.  From North Platte to Kearney he slept in my lap.  Then he was the co-pilot the rest of the way home. 

This trip has been about firsts...first time Tank meets the family and his "cousin" Fred (the horse! (Adam & Ashley's chocolate lab)), first time Ryan get's to buy and shoot off fireworks, first time Ryan rides a 4-wheeler, etc. 

Fred--He's HUGE!

Fred & Tank playing fetch.

Half the Fireworks...

Ryan with all the fireworks.

True story:  We went to the firework place (one of MANY) and we saw fireworks that had 340 shots.  The cost? $79.95  Estimated duration? 43 seconds.  One could LITERALLY blow $80 in less than a minute!  Needless to say we did not purchase that.  We did get a lot of "buy 1 get 3" deals.  We also got some pointless ones simply because I remember doing them when I was younger...

- Smoke Balls:  They don't even do anything cool...just leak colored smoke

- Parachutes:  Light it, a parachute pops out, catch it...over

- Tanks: waste of fifty cents...they light, the MIGHT move, then they spark, over.  We bought two so we could race them...

Mine won!  Ryan's didn't even move!  

See the blue smoke?  (Sorry Ryan's so blurry)

Yay! He caught the parachute.

Lighting a flower-spinner thing.

We lit the big boomers at Adam's.  I like how Adam looks like a ghost in this picture.

Some in Colorado asked Ryan if the corn was really "knee high".  Here's Ryan, on July 4th (note him holding up four fingers) in a corn field in which the corn is clearly taller than his knee (see how he's pointing at it).  So yes, for those who are wondering, the corn here really was "Knee high by the Fourth of July".

Adam owns a 4-wheeler, because he's a farmer...they need  them to check pivots.  So on Sunday he told Ryan and I we could ride it.  I was leery, it's been about 10 years since I've been on one.  I remember having to shift and everything and thought it might be too difficult.  Turns out 4-wheelers are nicer than they once were.  Put the brake on, push a button, go.  We took it from his house back to town--approximately 3 miles on gravel.  Then we took it to the shop (a big chunk of land with a shop on it that my parents own) and rode around there.  Then we took it out to the river and on gravel roads.  We tried to get down to the river, but everywhere we tried the bank was too high and we couldn't actually get to the water.  Then we took it to a sand pit, then back to the shop.  we had a good time with it.  We might go get it again.  :)

Ah, Nebraska......the GOOD LIFE!

1 Year of Wedded Bliss!

Hip, hip, hooray!  Today is our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!  This past year has been fantastic.  We have done so much and have truly been blessed beyond belief!

When talking about what to do for our first anniversary, Ryan suggested we take a honeymoon.  I reminded him that we did that and it's usually done right after the wedding.  He said it would be an anniversary honeymoon.  So Thursday we left town.

We drove to Pagosa Springs, Colorado on Thursday.  This was my suggestion.  When I suggested it, I thought it was a 2 hour drive.  Turns out it's more of a 6 hour drive!  (Those of you who know me well know how much I HATE driving!)  We left about 11 AM.  Ryan drove most of it and I read, talked his ear off, and snoozed.

We arrived about 6 PM.  We are staying at a studio apartment we found on Homeaway.com.  I first hear about this website when I went to Arizona with Ryan's family for Aunt Julie's wedding.  His mom had rented us a fantastic house through Home Away.  The apartment is great.  It's so close to everything!  We went and ate dinner at the Pagosa Brewery.

 When we got there we were told we couldn't order food yet because the kitchen was really backed up.  So we enjoyed some drinks and looked around and decided exactly what we wanted as we would be the first to order when the kitchen was open again.

We headed back to our cute little apartment and watched a little TV and sat on the porch.
Friday we planned a pretty relaxing, easy day.  We slept in and got up and headed to The Rose Restaurant for "brunch".  Our apartment was right downtown and we could walk to just about everything.  We walked from our brunch to The Springs Spa and Resort.  Once we got there we headed to the spa.  We had made reservations for the "Romance Package" [fancy words for a massage, with both of us in the same room].  It was a glorious 60 minutes!  As we were checking our we learned that our Spa package included vouchers for the hot springs!  Huzzah! The lady told us though that once we were there, if we left we were out of luck.  So we headed back to the apartment--stopping at the little shops along the way.  We hung out in the apartment for a little bit and eventually headed to Kips Mexican for some dinner.  After dinner we changed into our suits and walked back to the hot springs where we learned that we were VIP and we COULD have come and gone all day long.  Silly lady in the spa! 

 Also with our VIP-ness we got access to the five adult only pools!  (A $5 value per person!)  We stayed at the springs for about 2 hours.  Turns out it's a little bit boring......
   

  Saturday was our hiking day!  We left late and headed to Subway to have some lunch.  From there we went to Treasure Falls.  A 15 mile drive east of Pagosa Springs and a 1/2 mile hike once you get there.  

The hike was fairly simple, but I was a bit disappointed about how cold it was once we got to the top.  We couldn't get very close to the fall because the water was spraying us and it was cold.  We took a quick picture and then hiked back down

  After hiking Treasure Falls we headed to Sliver Falls.  We read that there might be water across the road in places.  Well we ran into some water but were able to easily cross it...until the very end.  It was there that we hit swiftly moving water that was pretty deep.  We figured we were pretty close to the Falls, but we weren't sure how close.  We contemplated taking our shoes off, crossing, putting them back on and then hiking until we found it.  However we were doubtful as to where we were going.  As we were turning around, a man in a red pickup was coming through the water.  He offered to take us to the falls.  We got in with him and found out that we were about 25 yards from the trailhead, but we didn't know we were that close...  I'm glad we got in with him, because it was BEAUTIFUL!

After Silver Falls we got back in the car to head to Opal Lake.  This was a longer hike--about 40 minutes in to get to the lake and then another 40 minutes out.  We hiked through the most amazing Aspen forest.  I had never seen Aspens so tall!  I took a ton of pictures of them!  They made the hike.  The lake was pretty, but I think the Aspens were more amazing.

After heading back to our apartment we ordered in some Pizza Hut and watched a lot of the Duggers on TLC!  It was great. :) 

Sunday we had planned to go look at the shops, walk around a bit and maybe go to the hot springs again at another place.  However it seems that everything is closed on Sundays.  So we walked around looking for the open shops and going in when we could.  It was much cooler on Sunday than it had been the other three days, so we headed back to the apartment for a Sunday afternoon nap.  GLORIOUS!  We got up and headed to Tequila's for dinner.  It was a nice.  We sat near the windows that overlooked the San Juan River as well as The Springs Spa and Resort. 

Today we packed up and headed home.  We arrived to find a dirty dog in our kitchen!  We quickly decided that El Tank-o needed a bath...bad!  We discussed whether or not we wanted to attempt to bathe him in our bathtub.  Then I remembered that sometimes they have bathe your own dog places. We found one, Bark N Wash.  We loaded Tank up in the car and headed over there.  He looked so sad and pathetic when he was all wet, but man, oh, man did he look so much more handsome when he was done.  When we got back home I also went to work sewing holes that our lovely fido friend put in his bed.  Three larger holes to be exact.  I restuffed one hole, because I thought there were only two, and then I found the third, but had already sewed the stuffing into what I thought was the biggest hole.  Oh well, he's sleeping in his bed now, so it must be okay.