Hoppin'

This morning I shocked the majority of my family by showing up with Kaylee for breakfast. In previous years it was always Steve who made it to breakfast with Kaylee with the family while I stayed in bed then got ready after they left. So when I got up to the breakfast table, there weren't even any seats available--nobody expected me to make it. Fooled 'em. ;) We had the breakfast buffet, then Kaylee and I walked down to the paddle boat area. We didn't know for sure where they were or what time they opened for the morning, but we found our way there, to see that we had about a 45 minute wait. It was an overcast morning, fairly cool, so we sat out on the deck, watched the geese, relaxed and waited. When it was time, Aunt Cindy and myself got on the back of a 4-seater while Kaylee and Uncle Rick were the paddlers. On another boat Uncle Kevin and Uncle Christopher took 2-year-old Jasmine. We all wandered around the lake, then stopped up on the opposite shore where Grandpa & Virlene's trailer are, loaded up on cold drinks, and hit the lake again until our time was up. Kaylee did a good job paddling, and it was early enough that with the sun under the clouds we didn't even get hot.

Lunch was at the campground, Runzas, which are something that people not from Nebraska have no idea of. We sat at the campground for a little while, but not long, as the sun had broken through and the humidity and heat were cranking up and I decided I wasn't going to do a repeat of last night's sweating. I wasn't the only one. So we grabbed our stuff and then went to the Strategic Air Command Air & Space Museum. I took pictures of Kaylee next to the "SAC" patch/signs, because it reminds me so much of when Mom used to take me to the SAC Museum by Omaha. My first printed version of "High Flight" came from there, as did some patches and posters I had, and pictures of me and Stephanie on the wings of a little plane sitting outside. I don't even know what it was off-hand, but it didn't matter, it was an airplane. ;) The museum here is pretty good. They have a Holocaust "medical" section, talking about the things that the doctors did at death camps, experiments, sterilization, what children were determined to be not worthy, etc. More in line with aviation itself they have a Korean War section, Vietnam, WWII, etc. and two large hangars filled with planes...of course!

When we left there, we went right to a "Kids' Activity Center", which is like a McDonald's PlayLand on steroids. Huge, huge play area, several levels, different activities all inside this maze. Several ball pits in there, big slides and crawling things and hiding places and nets and just all sorts of stuff. Indoors, air conditioned and inexpensive. SOLD! Kaylee and Jasmine had a great time. It took Kaylee a whole 3 minutes to find a friend her age there to go play with, and we saw very little of her until it was time to go, and she showed up sweaty, red-faced, hair falling out of her ponytail, and happy.

Dinnertime. We ladies decided we did not want to go back to the campsite and eat a hot dog, so we all piled into the cars and drove out to a "Smokehouse" place. Uncle Rick's phone GPS led us down a gravel road and then said "You are Here". There was...nothing there. So we called the place, got better directions, and had way too much food for not very much money.

Back to the hotel where Kaylee and I hung out at the gift shop, went up to Aunt Cindy's balcony and watched the fireflies start to come out in the grass below, rode the elevators up and down for awhile, went to the black light room in a full white skirt and white blouse so that adults in the room came out and said Kaylee looked like an angel standing there, and finally came back to the room where I'm catching up on the internet and Kaylee is jumping around the room like she's eaten nothing but sugar for hours. That girl is bouncing off the walls! Me, I'm sleepy and it's only 10 p.m. local time, but tomorrow will be another busy day, so if I can get her settled down, it's time to get some rest...