One nice day.

So Caleb, Noah, Mark, and I had a really great day on Sunday. We needed to finish up our Spring Safari list (we had 4 left) so we went on a Safari sprint! We actually only got 3 of them done, but the last one for Spring is on the way to Omaha, sort of, so we figure we can pick that one up pretty easily.


We went to the Pfizer Saline Wetlands, Bowling Lake, and the Whitehead Saline Wetlands. The Whitehead Saline Wetlands were a bit of a letdown--lots of birds, but it was just a pier that you stand on and look out over the wetlands. Mark said there was supposed to be a trail but he couldn't find it. Bowling lake was all right, but Mark and I aren't big fishing people, so we just kinda walked a bit--but we'd already walked at the Pfizer Saline Wetlands, so we were kinda bored with that. The Pfizer Saline Wetlands we did first--that was rather neat. There were lots of different plants to look at, and some ducks and other birds. It was a good time. Here are some pics of the Pfizer Saline wetlands.
We walked onto this dock that was a good 2-3 feet higher than the top of the water in the marsh, and the grass was taller than Caleb! Which means the grass was really taller than all of us, probably!
Caleb and Noah received a wagon from Grandma and Grandpa Hammi for their birthdays. It made doing safaris much easier--the stroller would have been kind of annoying over the rough terrain.

Then we decided to go to the Children's museum; it had been a while and we were eager to see the newly renovated theatre area. Caleb and Noah had a great time! Caleb did a little bit of everything at the museum, but spent the most time enjoying some of the new costumes!

See the sweet Caleb fish!

And the not-so-sweet Caleb dragon!

Noah really liked the laser button on the sound/lights board, and climbing in the infant area. Noah is my master climber--I think we may find him at the top of a bookcase or on top of the table, someday! Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the climbing--Caleb and Mark had gone upstairs and I couldn't take pictures because I had to move fast to keep Noah from falling.

Noah repeatedly hit the laser button, making a shooting laser sound (think sci fi movie). After a while, I asked Noah "Do you like that sound?" and a woman sitting near us said, "Oh, that's him doing it!" Too funny. In other news, Noah has an official first word (cause Dada doesn't count--he doesn't know it means daddy). Noah can say hi. It comes out "ai!" but he says it. And if you ask him to say hi, sometimes he says, "ai" and other times he will wave. So he does know what it means, we think.

Lincoln Safari!

Last year Kathie frequently saw pictures of Caleb's cousins as they participated in the Lincoln Safari Program--it's a free program intended to get families spending time outside together. Because Kathie thought it looked like Brian and Jenna (Caleb's cousins) had a lot of fun, we decided to try it out this year. On January 24, we braved the cold (because we were worried it would be our last chance to see snow--there hasn't been a whole lot this year) and went to our first Safari location, Arnold Heights Park. It was reputed to be one of the best sledding locations in Lincoln, so we brought our sled. The hill was definitely a great sledding hill, plus you could see Lincoln's skyline from the top of the hill. However, it was so cold that Kathie stayed with Noah, who was sleeping in the car, and Caleb and Mark only went down the whole hill once (and down part of the hill 3 times). Prior to the sledding, Kathie went out with Caleb to find the Safari post and make the rubbing in our Safari book.

We are very excited to do some more Safari trips, hopefully when it's a bit warmer! That same day, earlier in the morning, we went to Marcus theatres' first Frosty Flick of the year. Frosty Flicks are 10am Saturday morning movies intended for families; $2.50 gets you admission and a free popcorn. We had received a voucher for 2 free admissions/popcorn and we had a $5 gift card, so we all went--except when we got there they had sold out! However, because there was so much interest (when it sold out there were 3-4 full lines of people waiting, including us) they opened a noon showing, and we went to that. We saw Madagascar 2, and both Caleb and Noah had a great time! It was really nice because there were so many kids and babies, so taking Noah was no big deal.