Nebraska!

I've been meaning to write about our trip to nebraska since we've gotten back, but life keeps me busy! I finally have a moment while Matt is putting Jeremiah to bed.

So we left for Nebraska on July 2nd, leaving our house at 5:30am. We got the car packed the night before so all we had to do was wake up, get dressed and head out. We let Jeremiah sleep right until we walked out the door and I just left him in his pjs. He was awake for awhile but fell asleep quickly. We got to my mom's house and dropped off our dog Bella, and one of the cat's Malachi. We were back on the road shortly. We drove for about 3 hours and stopped in Dubuque for breakfast. Then drove 4 more hours, had lunch at a rest area, and then we made it into Lincoln by 4pm. We got checked into our hotel and hit the pool for a bit. Jeremiah is half fish, so he of course loved it. That evening, we had time to kill so we went to The Sunken Gardens. I had always wanted to go and we had a good time strolling through the park. Jeremiah loved watching the huge koi fish in the ponds.

That night we crashed in the hotel. In the morning we met up with Matt's cousin Monte for a little bit. We had a nice little visit. It wasn't long enough though! After leaving Monte's, we drove to Elm Creek, Nebraska and met up with Matt's Aunt Von and his cousin Sandy. Again, we had a nice little visit. A trip to Aunt Von's is never complete without ice cream, so we all sat around the table and enjoyed cupcakes and ice cream. We left after a couple hours and finally got to the ranch that evening.

The next few days we just kinda bummed around. Matt's dad put him to work trimming trees and chopping wood. We didn't really do to much. On the 4th, we went to Arnold and enjoyed a little fireworks display there. Jeremiah did so great! He watched them for awhile and then promptly fell asleep! I forgot my camera at the ranch so I didn't get any pictures! Before we left for nebraska, Jeremiah and I made a onesie for him. We made the flag out of his hand and footprints. His hand was blue and in the corner and then his feet were the red stripes. It was cute! The next day, we sat around waiting for Angela and the kids to arrive. They got to the ranch around 8pm so we let Jeremiah stay up late so he could finally meet his aunt and cousins! I don't really remember what took place when. The days were filled with hard work for the guys and Shyanne helped too. We did take a few rides out to a pasture by a windmill. The stock tank was filled with tadpoles. We had fun playing with them. I even rescued a snake out of the water. If it would have just been me, I'd let the dumb thing drown (I HATE snakes) but the kids were there and trying really hard to catch it. It finally came over by me and I quickly reached in, pulled it out and promptly threw it. The kids caught up with it and put it in some tall grass.

On the sunday we were there, we went to church. I was a little nervous since Jeremiah is a chatter bug and they don't have a nursery program. He did okay until he started to get tired. Luckily, they had a little nursery/cry room and I was able to rock Jeremiah to sleep back there. Everybody ooh'd and ahhh'd at him, since he was the youngest one there...and a lot of the church members knew Matt since he was a kid. After church, we went to walmart (never a quick trip with the whole gang), grabbed lunch from KFC's, took it to a park and then went swimming in the pool at North Platte. It was a great way to cool down and have fun! We spent the majority of the afternoon in the pool. After swimming, we all grabbed ice cream and then headed back home.

Nick flew into Grand Island on the 9th and we were all anxiously waiting for him to arrive. They didn't get back to the ranch till later in the evening so we let Jeremiah stay up again. By this point, his schedule and routine was shot, so it was starting to get stressful for us...not to mention the crazy heat...100+ outside and 80+ in the house.

It was also neat to look at all the stuff that was saved from Angela and Matt's childhood. Angela found a book Matt wrote when he was in 1st or 2nd grade. It was about a boy and his pet dragon Thunder. It was adorable! We also looked at some of the things that Matt's dad had from his Uncle Don. We didn't know what most of it was or where it came from but it was still interesting.

Our nights were filled with fun and we did manage to play a few games. We forgot to play sardines though. On the last night there, we did a potato gun war. That was a lot of fun! Then we did some fireworks and had a camp fire.

By Thursday night, Jeremiah and I had had enough of the heat. We were both extremely cranky. My mood always shadows his and vise versa. I don't really remember what had happened, but I remember Jeremiah was having a tough time sleeping. I snapped at Matt and then went to the camper and just cried for quite awhile by myself while holding Jeremiah. If there would have been a hotel near by, I would have packed up and went. Friday night, it was really hot in the camper and Jeremiah just wasn't having it. I was up with him screaming for 2 hours. I finally had him down to his diaper and right in front of a fan. It was really rough. And we had to drive home the next day!

Our drive home was super rough. Jeremiah was tired, cranky and wanted to be out of the car seat. We stopped quite often just to let him calm down and stretch out. One of us always had to be in the back with him or he would scream bloody murder. I think he finally passed out for the night at 10pm. Matt and I were finally able to ride up front together around 11pm. We arrived at home at 1:45am Sunday and passed out. Even Jeremiah stayed asleep the whole night!

Even though tempers flared at times, and we all bugged each other at some point or another (I blame the stupid heat), it was a good time and a lot of memories were made. It was a reality check when somebody pointed out that it would be the last time we'd all be at the ranch since Alex is moving on to the Air Force after graduation.

Just 10 more months and we will be on our way to Florida for Alex's graduation...crazy!!

All the cousins