A Busy Month

We've had a busy month with visits to both sides of the family, a big outing to Science City with Rachel and Tracy and the kids, Easter, and mostly with just waiting, waiting, waiting to find out what's going to happen with Jim's job.

We went out to Grandma and Grandpa O's at the beginning of the month to help celebrate Clara's birthday. It was the first time we'd been out since they have been in their new house. While it's very nice, it's so sad to think of what they've been through. We got to visit with More Grandma Silvia a few times, Jack got to look for fossils with his grandpa and dad, and most importantly to him, he got to help feed the cats and the cows on the farm.



The next weekend, we all piled into Rachel and Tracy's van and headed to Kansas City for a day of fun. First, we went to Science City and had a blast looking at and playing with all the fun stuff there.









That last picture makes me think of when we took Allison and Mike to Science City and Allison wonked me in the face with the golf club! It makes my eyes water -- from remembering that it hurt, and also from realizing how fast time has flown by!

After Science City, we walked over to Crown Center to see the waterfall and have dinner at Fritz's -- a restaurant in which you order on a telephone and your food comes on an overhead train! It was a fun atmosphere, but the food was far from great.





'Twas a wonderfully fun day, and I thank Rachel and Tracy for being willing to drive.

For spring break, Jack and I headed to Lincoln for a long stay so that Jim could have a lot of study time during his week off. I was grateful to Tracy and to Jim and Diane for making sure that Jim got out some while we were gone, and had something special to do on his birthday on Friday.

While we were all dressed up from church, I thought I'd try to take some pictures.





It was a nice visit, and we got lots accomplished, but I'm pretty sure Mom and Dad were ready for us to leave. Stan helped us out by driving us halfway to meet Jim on Saturday.

And Sunday was Easter! Rachel and Tracy and the kids came over and we all hunted for the toys, candy and eggs that the Easter bunny had hidden in the yard. Katie was toooo cute for words toddling around, and ended up with more rocks in her basket than eggs! And the boys were very good about making sure they each got the things with their names on them, and with helping each other find their goodies!



For me, the most fun thing about going through the old blogs is reading the parts about what Jack is doing and saying. So let's see if I can give a brief synopsis of what's going on with him right now.

He's still into dinosaurs, dinosaurs, dinosaurs. In fact, he's watching a dino movie as I'm typing all this. He's really starting to get the hang of sounding words out and seems to enjoy the challenge to beginning to read and spell. His math skills continue to surprise me, and he seems to have some fairly abstract concepts figured out. For example, he told his dad the other day that if two 5s were 10, then four 5s must be 20.

He's been taking several classes through Parks and Rec that he's enjoyed -- tumbling, dance, and he's just started an art class. He works on drawing and other art projects almost continuously, and his art is becoming more and more detailed every day. He loves anything Winnie the Pooh, and he loves Miss Steph and the Little Red Schoolhouse more than just about anything.

He's decided what he wants to be when he grows up. He'll be a paleontologist two days a week, a meteorologist two days a week, and he'll be with Mom and Dad on the other three days a week -- but if I miss him on the days he's working, I can watch him do the weather on tv, or visit his website at dinosaurJack.org. He's a funny guy.

Five is a fun age, I think, but I'm not quite sure about 44!