Nebraska Family Time

There is nothing better than returning to where you grew up!  I love going home - being with my family, seeing the places that were all so familiar at one point in my life!  We were lucky enough to go back for a week to Nebraska to spend it with my family.  Thankfully Tom was able to stay the whole time (he was supposed to fly out for work for part of the time), but unfortunately he did have to stick close to home for conference calls a few of the days while we did fun outings.  Here are the highlights in pictures from our August 15-25 trip:

Jackson wearing his bunny on the drive there.

Celebrating my Mom's retirement from the US Postal
Service!  Way to go Mom!!  You so deserve this!

Mason heading to work at DQ.

Uncle Greg getting in some snuggle time.

So glad we were able to see Aunt Dianne and Uncle Greg
while we were home... bummed Meg couldn't make it though.

Hard at work making breakfast!

Pretending to sleep.  :)

We had a case of the morning giggles!

Mom, the kids, and I spent one day in Sioux City.... a little shopping, a stop at Palmer Candy Co. (Yummy!), lunch at Milwaukee Wiener House (Double Yummy!), and a quick visit to my Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike's to see their new home.  A great day!

A day of fishing with Grandpa and Grandma at Powder Creek.  If I recall correctly, Dad caught 2 catfish, Jackson caught 1 catfish, and they all caught a handful of bluegill.  By quantity, Morgan won. By keep-able quantity, Dad won. By largest size, Jackson won.  A day of winners!  Later that day, I ran out of gas in Tom's car while I was heading to Vermillion to fill up.  Dad came to our rescue!!

Sleepy boys!

Dad had some work do do around the house, so he took the opportunity to teach the kids to drive the tractor!  Nervous momma, excited kiddos!!

Playing around the house... climbing the same clothesline
I used to climb.  Memories!

One day Tom was able to sneak away, so we drove out to Royal, Nebraska and visited Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park.  The kids loved it... I think Tom really enjoyed it too.  I had visited this place in elementary school, shortly after it had first opened... probably around 1992 or 1993.  It is amazing how much had changed in the 20+ years.  If you want to learn more about this one-of-a-kind archaeological dig site and its history, check out this link... http://ashfall.unl.edu/ashfallstory.html.

Photo bombed by Jackson.

Try again!

The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was so peacefully beautiful here.

The kids doing their own archaeological dig.

Jackson's souvenir from the day was his own dig site.
He dug out a bunch of different types of minerals and
stones from a composite and had to identify them.  He
really enjoyed it!  

We rounded out our trip with the annual Kneifl Family Campout.  My Mom's brothers and sisters, the cousins, the cousins' kids, and even now the cousins' kids' kids all gather for a weekend of camping and catching up.  Always love this weekend... great food, great company!  Love them all!  My nephew Jacob wasn't able to make it to the campout since he was headed back to college that weekend, but he did meet us for dinner before he left.  Where did we go?  The infamous, Bob's Bar in Martinsburgh.  The biggest dive you could imagine, with huge burgers and huge plates overflowing with fries and fried cheddars.  Yummy!  Just don't look too closely at your surroundings.

Snips and snails and puppy dogs' tails... Grandpa and
 Jackson took a hike and found a bunch of snails!

My cousin Jamie, her daughter Lily, her niece Carly, my
cousin Katie (also Jamie's sister), and Jamie's 2nd
daughter Charlotte.

2nd Cousins Charlotte and Noah

While we were there, we were challenged (via Facebook)
by our friend Laurie out in Snoqualmie to the ALS Ice
Bucket Challenge.  We were so close to getting by
without doing it.  But at least it was fun to do it while
we were camping with family.  

We spent an afternoon swimming at Ponca State Park while Tom, Dad, Mike,
Garret and Nolan went golfing.  It's always fun swimming with all the family
at the park.  Mason was so kind to play with Jackson and Morgan at the pool.

Our last evening at Grandma and Grandpa's... time to take a few more pictures!