We had some rain in the forecast this weekend, which prompted us to push back our camping trip about a week, but we still had some fun outside when there wasn’t cold, rainy drizzle soaking the Omaha area.
On Friday night, we took the kids down to Ditmar’s Orchard to see an outdoor movie. We’d wanted to pick apples as well, but they’re now charging $10 per person for the privilege (on top of charging for the apples), so we decided it wasn’t worth it. The kids still got to play on the playground, though, and we also got to visit with the goats in the goat pen, who seemed very happy for the attention.
The kids spent some time on a couple of the roller slides, and Vivian took a look at the flowers before the sun went down and the movie started. The movie for the evening was The Sandlot, which the kids had never seen and I hadn’t actually watched it years. It was fun to see it again, particularly with Aaron cracking up at various parts. I also had some apple wine and some apple cider donuts before we headed home for the evening.
On Saturday, I took Hannah down to Prairie Queen Recreation Area for a bit of a bike ride around he lake there. She’d visited with her school for a couple nature walks over the past year, and she got to show me some of the “houses” she and her friend Glorious made with some of the rocks along one of the embankments. After we were done riding, we stopped by the Costco up the street to buy a couple things, and I got Hannah an ice cream sundae before heading home.
Then on Sunday, we had another soccer practice in the afternoon, and this time Hannah got to participate. She’d felt bad about being left out, so we signed her up to go through some of the same soccer exercises an scrimmage game that Aaron had. It was fun watching the two of them playing together out in the sunshine for a bit, and then we got some ice cream on the way home.
On Monday, I stopped by Ahmad’s Persian Cuisine for one last Pachyderm Luncheon there before the events moves to its new home at the German American Society. John Sieler had a couple gifts for Ahmad as partying gifts. Then we got to hear from Mark Christian, founder of the Global Faith Institute, talk about American/Islamic relations, particularly things going on in Saudi Arabia.
Later that afternoon, I dropped by the Westwood Plaza for the opening of an NRCC field office. Don Bacon was there with a bunch of his volunteers and a handful of Omaha city council members (as well as Kathleen Kauth). I got to chat with Bacon a bit about a pending government shutdown and talk with a few of the NRCC reps about things like ballot harvesting before heading out.
Next up: a crazy, busy week with a pair of birthdays and loads of other stuff!