I know it’s summer and technically, this IS my vacation, but I thought I’d resurrect my escapism tendencies for the benefit of those of us who don’t really get a summer vacation 
In the spirit of fun summer travel, we’re going to Cedar Point! I’ve never been, but I love roller coasters and theme parks, so perhaps some day it will be a destination.
Hope you had fun!
noneIt has been warm here over the past week, and then it snowed today. Boohoo. I want spring!
Since spring seems to still be a few days away for us here in Iowa, we’ve got another week of Virtual Vacation, and this week we’re going to Hawaii! I’ve never been to Hawaii, but I’d love to go. Censational Girl posted a couple of days ago about missing Hawaii, so I was inspired. Go over there and check out some of her beautiful photos, and enjoy a few here as well.
One last sunset…
This weeks Virtual Vacation, we’re going to Italy! I’ve never been to Italy, but I’ve always wanted to visit. For some reason, I’ve always been fascinated by Venice. Enjoy a little vacation this weekend – maybe it will distract all of us from this never ending winter!
Exploring the canals and bridges of Venice.
Lunch at an outdoor cafe – sounds lovely!
Perhaps some shopping?
One more romantic gondola ride…
A nice warm sunset…
Ahhhh, that feels better…
An atypical winter vacation – today we’re going to Alaska. I’ve always wanted to visit and everyone says it is BEAUTIFUL. Here’s a little virtual vacation for you! Enjoy.
I found a few little places to relax in the midst of your weekend hustle and bustle.
Jade Mountain
Ladera
Ahhhhh. I feel so much better
I have:
It’s good to be home again.
oneWe were supposed to go to the zoo on Saturday during vacation, but the line of soccer-mom vans waiting to get in clued us into the fact that we’d be surrounded by whiny 8 year olds stuffed should to shoulder all day long. Not our cup of tea.
So we pushed that back to Tuesday, and flip flopped – ended up wandering around Old Market in Omaha for a couple of hours enjoying a beautiful Saturday afternoon.
I loved all these cool painted signs on the side of the brick buildings in Old Market.
Inside Old Market – this was one of the indoor walkways.
This whole space was like a giant atrium – the ceiling was glass and it would have formerly been “out doors”.
A fancy French restaurant that DH’s dad worked at many years ago.
Where’s Waldo? Haha – can you find DH? We stopped at a used bookstore that had MOUNTAINS of books. DH ended up finding a computer science book that he was looking for. The store owner actually handed it right to him as he was sorting inventory and said, “Heres a few more that just came in.” Nice timing!
Thanks for a lovely afternoon, Omaha!
2 comWell, we’re back from our little get away – we had a great time! Here’s a few pictures from our last day when we went to the Omaha Zoo. We were supposed to go the first day, but the line of cars to get in clued us in that spending the day at a zoo on a Saturday wasn’t our cup of tea. So we flip flopped our plans. We had a blast checking out all the animals and walking a bazillion miles! Here’s a few of my favorite photos from the day.
I have no idea what this little guy is, but he was the first animal we saw – so cute!
These little Lemurs were all snuggled up for a nice nap.
We saw a ton of Mackaws – they are a noisy bunch, that is for sure.
I thought this guy looked like my nephew when he’s pouting.
Giraffes! I was very excited to see these because I never had before. They were HUGE!
And elephants!
This gorilla was hysterical – he had his back right up against the glass with his arms folded. Either he’s one irritated/grumpy gorilla, or he’s REALLY enjoying a nap. Either way, this kid was a bit, shall we say…enthusiastic.
There were peacocks roaming all over the place. We probably saw at least 50 of them.
This might be my favorite picture from the day. Beautiful peacock!
The Omaha Zoo has one of the largest facilities for cats in the country – it was huge. This Jaguar (I think…) was enjoying a nice afternoon nap in the shade.
This lioness seemed eager to get outside – I have to say, it was a bit strange to see some of these animals in large display rooms that were sort of like concrete cages with windows. A few of them were outside too. In particular, when you consider that female lions are the hunters for the pride, it’s just odd that all their food is handed right to them.
If I didn’t think this guy could gnaw my arm off, I’d give it a nice pat on the head for looking so adorable.
One last close up…
We also saw zebras and rhinos and cheetahs and bats and many creepy-crawly things. Fun times
It’s been a busy month! December flew by quickly with so much going on. Jerod went to Florida for a conference one week, I went to the Ozarks in Missouri for a conference the following week. Then, after dodging a crazy blizzard, we drove out to Nebraska for a week over Christmas. It was a wonderful week full of many new things for me – the biggest by far was my first hunting outing!
Now, don’t freak out, I wasn’t allowed to shoot anything because I don’t have a license, but I did walk some fields with Jerod, his dad, and some of his dad’s friends. Parts of it were torturously boring and it was incredibly cold, but it was also really exciting when I saw Jerod shoot a pheasant. I did have the chance to shoot at a cow pie with a shot fun. The kickback nearly gave me a bruise on my arm! I’m such a wimp.
There were a few other new things – driving off road in a truck, eating pheasant, driving across Nebraska for the first time in 12 years (not the most exciting thing ever, but a really good way to get lots of knitting done!) – overall, it was a great week. We played lots of Wii, which is seriously QUITE the workout, enjoyed the hot tub, and hung out with the family lots. It was a very nice relaxing week – just what we needed.
Now that I’m back, I’m busy finishing my album layouts since my trial version of photoshop expires in like 4 days. Eeeeeeek! I’m also preparing for the spring semester – I’ve got to finish planning two retreats, work ahead on our Bible study planning, and a few other things. Yikes, I’ve got lots to do.
This week will be exciting for two main reasons – today, Jerod and I both have eye doctor appointments. Now, I know this sounds mundane and boring, but it’s very exciting because, you see, Jerod has had the same style of glasses for like 10 years or something crazy like that. And during grad school he broke them or lost them or something, and just ordered the same ones, but one size too big – so they are HUGE. Hehe. So, not only will it be good for him to get an updated prescription (he complains of not being able to see everything) but an updated style will be nice as well. For me, I probably will get new lenses in my funky black rimmed glasses and a new pair of other glasses since my second pair is completely stretched out and scratched.
The other exciting thing is we’re going to hopefully get one of our Christmas presents this week! Jerod’s dad and stepmom pooled together their Christmas and wedding gifts to us and asked us what we wanted. After much debate, we decided we wanted a grill – so here’s what we’re getting: 
It’s called the Big Green Egg. It looks ridiculous, but apparently it’s a pretty awesome ceramic grill that maintains moisture real well and conserves heat too. It is technically a charcoal grill, which at first I wasn’t too thrilled about. But Jerod pointed out that we can also smoke things with this, cook overnight, and make many varieties of yummy things. After reading some websites and reviews, we were sold! So we’re hoping to run out to a hardware store in Brooklyn to buy ours, and then Jerod is going to make a table for it. Woohoo, winter grilling, here we come!
There’s a lot more to share, including new years resolutions, pictures of current fun projects (I’m making my first pair of mittens!) and other fun things, but that’s all for now. I need to get working on those album pages…
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