Free Omaha with kids

  Kenefick Park shares the parking lot with Lauretzen Gardens.  Features 2 huge locomotive engines.  the Centennial and the Big Boy (black). Keeping with our free theme… we went into Lauritzen Gardens to use the restrooms. Heartland of America Park is on 9th and Farnam.  Metered parking on the street.  Note to self: bring some bread to share with the wildlife.   We walked around the whole park avoiding landmines where possible  and were able to see some eggs! What a treat.  We were going to walk along the river front to the pedestrian bridge but were short on time, tired, and not wanting to miss the slides…. we backtracked….. will do that another time.   The visitors center is across the street from the slides on the corner of Farnam and 10th with restrooms we used 2 times.  We brought wax paper and the kids slid down like bullets.  1 hour is a great amount of time. We were glad we had water bottles.  Of course we shared  our waxed paper with the other participants.

 

  across 10th is Conagra Foods with the lucky Chef Boyardee.  We made sure to touch his hat for good luck. make sure you bring change for the meters. 75 cents an hour.

Simon Peter Anderson is blessed byCaleb Anderson

letter to Janell from Kay

 "We just blessed Caleb's baby Simon Peter Anderson. The audience laughed a little when they heard his name would be Simon Peter.  Not many names get a reaction from people.  Simon is cute and a good baby. everybody likes to hold him.

the blessing was simple, heartfelt, loving and spiritual.  Caleb put me in charge of the binky.  Simon was fussing a little before we started then calmed down as soon as we started.  I opened my eyes during the blessing to see how he was doing and Simon was wide eyed and starring at Caleb.  His stare was so intense that I wondered if it was intentional or just random and would he lose interest and look around at all the others holding him or have his attention drawn to the binky, which was no longer in his mouth.  I was amazed to watch as Simon stayed wide eyed and completely focused on Caleb the entire time. His eyes never left Caleb's face until the blessing was finished."  Dad, Kay

Janae - Bishop Steele was watching from the stand and was amazed at Simon staring at his daddy the whold time, all during the blessing.

cruising

 

We had to stay overnight to hope the water went down, it did and we scraped the bridge going under.  I guess the boat of Americans thought we weren’t allowed on top but all we had to do is promise to duck, it was  crazy up there.

Last day in Prague

We moved hotels to join our group tour.  We are at the Hilton, which is very expensive if you are not on a tour and the internet costs $!  It is free in the lobby (kind of them) so the posts have not been as regular.

We took a tour of the city of Prague with our group visiting the Castle, Charles Bridge and Old Town Square.

After the tour we went to Lennon wall where you can write whatever you want, inspired by John Lennon who never visited Prague.

Then we found the lover’s bridge and put our locks on to “lock our love”  ours had a key so we had to throw it in the river.

After that quickly bought some “take away” hamburgers… Ben’s was a Tower burger (notice the tower behind him) we met Vida, our guide from a few days before and went on a Jewish Quarter tour with Lauren and Ben.

They were having tour fatigue, so insisted we go back to the hotel for an hour to use the sauna.

We took the underground metro and Tram 22 to the fun cafe we found before and spent our remaining money there   .  We were running late so this is snarfing down some yummy crepes.  We left all our Czech money on the table.  The waitress said it was too much but we insisted we needed to get rid of it.  We ended the night at a recommended traditional Black light theater production……. Kay had his apple strudel (flat), flattened when Kay sat on it but I guess it was fine! Very busy day.  Off to Nuremburg Germany!

Monday Terezin with the Hardy’s

We picked up our car and with the bad map, and somehow made it to the airport.  No really, we were in towns we had no clue about, going under one way small overpasses and all of the sudden we see a sign for the airport!  We found Lauren and Ben waiting “not too long”  I went in and bought an expensive map.  We went to Terezin, a Concentration camp that was a holding camp and model concentration camp. the best conditions of all camps.  it was sobering what a few bad men are capable of.

We ate lunch there and drove back to Prague. Our goal was to keep Lauren and Ben awake so we showed them the city by foot, the best way to see Prague.

goulash.   Schnitzel- breaded fried meat.