My firstborn and I just recently completed an exciting trip to the amazing land of... yep, Nebraska! Filled with such wonders as: no hills, lots of wind, chaff, and rock roads! State motto: "Get in, get out--as fast as you can!"
One of my good friends from college (the legalistic one, not the "liberal" one!), Chris "Shuf" Rohrbaugh and his family live out there [wife Jhoanna, son Willy (7), daughter Katie (4), and daughter Charlotte Ann (1.5).]
Shuf lives on a nice 3 acre spread with a beautiful 40x40 shop w/ concrete floor. The family actually lives in the house, though! Shuf runs an organic farm with his dad, Paul. They are also both leaders in their local Baptist church. They live entirely off custom processing chickens and steers. They also sell at the farmer's markets in Omaha and Lincoln. (They live about 1 hour south of both outside the "town" of Steineur.) Though they don't make much, they still have a great way of life.
I had this week off from work, so I decided to take my "Scoop" (Josiah) with me on a 8 hour trip to NE. Josiah did remarkably well and really enjoyed the one on one with his Daddy. I am amazed at his vocabulary and "maturity" for a 3 year old. He was extremely well behaved and just loved going to the farm. His favorite things that we did were feeding the chickens, chasing the roosters, and riding the 4 wheeler.
One of the projects he helped with was getting some salvage lumber at an abandoned farm. Josiah was very helpful and made sure all the brambles were whacked down for us with his stick sword. Scoop also enjoyed playing with his "cousins" and his goofy "Uncle Shuf."
We also had the opportunity to go to a circus in Lincoln. Josiah missed his nap and was a bit cranky at the circus until... the "Amazing Bears!" One bear rode a ridiculously tall bike, a motorcycle, walked on his hands, and many other cool tricks. There was also some well-trained tigers and one rather bulgy lion. The big ol' lion was not having any of the "leaping for the audience" stuff. He did, however, run AROUND the fences much to everyone's great amusement. This circus also featured elephants which did rather neat tricks. Their large elephant is actually the largest elephant in North America to balance its entire weight on a solid rubber ball. To be honest it looked impossible! Josiah did not really appreciate any of the human elements of the circus (trapeze, heights, "jumping around") except the one where the humans balanced on balls and went up a 3 part ramp and then back down. It looked quite difficult. Josiah got a really cool light-up, noisemaking sword. (For the very low price of $5...) But he immensely enjoys it. Another thing that he enjoyed were snowcones (2), popcorn (1), rootbeer (2), and cotton candy (1). Needless to say he was rather sticky by the conclusion of the evening!
Both of us managed to get a sinus infection while we were out there. Much to my chagrin, I believe my 3 year old is tougher than his 28 year-old dad!
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2 comments:
What a great time ya'll must have had! Isn't it nice to spend some one-on-one time with your kids? Breanna and I went down to Atlanta for the weekend for my mum's 50th BD, and it was great fun to be just "us girls". I did miss Peter (and Andy:), but the little excursion was a nice break.
Are we going to see you soon? Haven't heard anything definite . .
Hope ya'll are doing well! I can't wait to see the newest Leverton!
Well...!
I'm glad that some people can find amusement watching those poor animals have to perform for a piece of rotten fish and stale cracker! I mean, hasn't anybody watched the new Al Gore computer generated movie where the zoo animals get so tired of performing and long to escape to the great wilderness? Bears on bikes? Elephants on balls! Well, I never!
Gotta run - I need to head up to the hen house and take all the eggs and pick out a fat rooster for supper!
Glad you had a good trip!
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