Spring Break Trip 2009

Yes, the camera was packed! Was it ever used? NO!
We left a day later than originally planned because our friends got sick, but thankfully God saw the big picture and knew that our computer was coming that day instead.
We had beautiful weather the whole time. It was never too hot or cold. We got out of town by 11am Saturday and made it to Bellevue, NE around 3:30pm. Gwen, Josh, and Jewels their dog were there to greet us, Mandi and Kim were busy and Brian was out of the country. Gwen gave us a tour of the house and John helped Josh with his science project of building a balloon popper with so many gears and levers. It was working when we left on Sunday evening at 5pm. Sunday we went to church with everyone and then Gwen drove us around for a tour of Bellevue and the Air force Base including the chapel where she is the wedding coordinator. We made it to North Platte, NE that night and stayed at a Super 8 before getting on the road around 10:30am to finish our trip to Castle Rock, CO. It was so much fun to see mountains again (that is one thing Elizabeth misses in California). We arrived before supper time and rush hour. Nick, Alyce, and Jackson were all there to greet us Abby came home a little later from school and showed us the Wii and Wii fit. We couldn't believe how much the kids had grown since we were last there on our trip home from California as newly weds back in 2006 and just like before they immediately attached themselves to John. :) Just like us, Nick and Alyce like to play games so we spent a lot of our time there doing just that while we were there. On St. Patrick's day we wore our matching kelly green Old Navy t-shirts and visited a game store which also contained a little magic corner much to John's delight and walked through a Whole Foods to reminisce when Elizabeth grocery shopped there at least once a week back in California when she nannied (we don't have one in Iowa) and best of all they had a See's Candies in town and we were able to use a gift card Elizabeth's sister Tammy and husband Jesse gave us for Christmas. YUMMY! (Thank you Tammy and Jesse!) We dropped the kids off with an aunt and uncle so they could eat and go to AWANAS and then the rest of us went out to eat a Baja Fresh (something else we don't have in Iowa) and back to Nick and Alyce's for more game playing. Wednesday Nick took the whole day off so we went to Focus On the Family and Garden of the Gods, both attractions were free except for the gas it took to get there and back and any thing you might want to buy in their gift shops or cafes. Thursday we left around 7:30am for the 8-10 hour drive back to Omaha, NE to stay with John's sister's family and celebrate Uncle Bill's birthday. Friday Elizabeth and Jane took the kids to the zoo while Stephen worked and John hung out in Old town Omaha. Saturday we stopped at good friends Peter and Donna's for a visit and a delicious lunch. We also included a walk to see a neat looking tree that had fallen down before heading the rest of the way home. We made it safely home a little before 9pm.
We have done pretty good getting back into the swing of things and even though we had a very fun trip and wish we could have stayed longer to visit with friends and family it is so nice to be back in our own home and bed at night.

We Got Our Tax Refund Back and Bought a New Computer!

We are finally back on the Internet from our own basement! And out computer came just in time because we leave tomorrow for our Spring Break trip to visit friends and family in Bellevue, Nebraska, Castle Rock, Colorado, Omaha, Nebraska, and Carbon, Iowa. It was sure fun to catch up on emails and blogs. We better go pack the camera so that we can put some pictures on this blog for a change and then get to bed so that Elizabeth can be a safe driver tomorrow.