Hair By Request

Ok some more pics were requested of the pink hair. I don't have time this week to get rid of it so I am taking a poll for next week. Does it stay or go?

Home Again

Our last couple of days in Omaha were pretty laid back. Aunt Peg, Kari and I went to do some shopping on Saturday while Mike and the boys played at Grandma Braska's house. That evening we finally made it to see Uncle Bill as well, it was good to go visit him. I lost Zaric that morning while getting ready and when I located him, this is what I found. I think he was ready to go home.


Our last night and family dinner time, I finally got Sam to play with me. He gave me weird looks most of the time. Maybe it was me or maybe it was the pink hair. I don't know but at least we finally had a little break thru.

We attempted to take some group photo's with the grandparents. Getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time and stop goofing off proved almost impossible.

We did manage a couple good ones in there. On Sunday we just packed up and hung out at Sue's while we waited for flight time and people stopped by to give us a warm send off. It was a nice visit overall.

Slidin in Omaha

Today we had big plans to do a lot of walking around downtown Omaha to the waterfront and the new pedestrian bridge they built and to Old Market. We started off by grabbing some lunch at Old Chicago (yum) then headed to the giant slides. We spent a lot of time there and took along some wax paper to make us go faster. I only went down once but Caleb went down several and was loving it, especially with the paper. Then he was racing his own paper down the slide.




After this we started walking toward the bridge and decided it was just too hot. The "feels like" temperature was 97 degrees with the humidity upwards 50%. The boys were flushed and we were sweating like crazy so we stopped short of the bridge and hung out in the shade while grandma and Mike went to get the cars. We totally whimped out on today's plans. But we all hung out at Sue's and let the boys play in the pool some more which they were loving and most of us even napped a little. It turned out to be an ok day overall, just a lot more low-key than we thought it would be.
2 more days to go!

Omaha Days 2 and 3

Days 2 and 3 of our trip brought more adventure. On day 2 we took a drive to Lincoln, NE to visit Morrill Hall- the natural history museum. Of course we would have to take Caleb to see dino's here too right? And all of the other fun stuff. He had a good time. The boys liked digging for bones at the end this time and that we let the out of the strollers to walk around with their backpacks. The funny part of the trip is that they had a giant display and info on the dino's that had all come from the Cleveland-LLoyd quarry down by where I grew up. I flew then drove all that way to see and learn about what was practically in my back yard all those years? Pretty funny. Not that Caleb minded one bit, but it struck me as pretty ironic. And Caleb got to walk over to the stadium and see where the Huskers (or Kari's as he calls them) play. After our return we let the boys play in the pool that they set up here for them and got soaked. Then it was another night of dinner and visiting with the fam.

On Day 3 we went out to Mahoney State Park. We weren't there as long as we were expecting but we got to Climb the giant outdoor tower and look over the park and Platt River. Then we went into the craft lodge and painted some ceramics. Caleb painted a fish, I painted a Grover and Mike was painting one of the Pokemon's. Aunt Kari started painting a small dragon as well. Then we had lunch at the big lodge. After that we decided it was too hot and sticky to stick around outside so we did some of my kind of relaxing-Shopping! We headed to the mall to walk around and pick up some more Husker stuff with Aunt Kari. We had a good time and found some good deals, even had to ship some stuff to Utah already because we couldn't pass up the prices. At night us "big kids" got to go to dinner together while the grown ups watched the babies and Caleb. And then we headed to the bar for a few drinks. It was nice to get away for a few hours. Thanks babysitters!

Day 1- Fun Plex

For our first full day in Omaha we went to the Fun Plex to enjoy some rides and swimming with Grandma Braska, Aunt Kari, Uncle Sean, Roberta and Sam. There Caleb got to ride some rides, we all took the longest carousel ride in history (seriously it would not stop), and us adults also got to enjoy a few rides given there were enough babysitters to go around. The highlights were the bumper boats and the kiddie pool where all of my kids went on in clothes and all. Caleb had a ball and even stayed there with Grandma Braska after we left to play in the water more. We came back to rest and let the babies nap then it was time to BBQ with the family. The babies entertained in their Batman and Superman PJ's and we had a good time visiting.

Punked for Omaha!

A conversation in the Ouren Household.
Me: Omaha next week huh? I should do something to spice it up
Mike: ha, like what?
Me: idk dye my hair pink
Mike: I'd pay you to do that, yeah right (I take this as a dare)
Me: Ok (dialing Holly's #) Lets get it set up

Wish I had a more exciting story for this little tid bit and my nuclear pink hair, but nope that's pretty much exactly how that occurred. Later that day we went to the mall to pick up some pink hair dye where Caleb then decides it would be fun for him to get some blue in his hair too. So we all got punked out to surprise Grandma Braska in the airport. Grandma laughed when she saw us. I got the wash out kind for them. Mine is more permanent. What do you think? Should I keep it or get rid of it quickly upon my return? More pics can be posted upon request to help you decide.

Moosehorn Lake

This weekend brought us another camping adventure. This time we went to the Uintah Mountains and camped at Moosehorn Lake. Some friends got a campsite right across from us so we got to play and visit and share yummy meals with them.
We got there on Friday and set up and played and visited and walked as far around the lake as we could. On Saturday morning, the boys got us up early enough to watch the sunrise (wasn't that sweet?) so I got to sit outside and drink some hot chocolate and do that. Then we went to the lake and took some pretty pictures of the mountains and trees reflecting off of it. Once our friends were up we had a big breakfast then headed to the Provo River Falls and took pictures and played there for a bit then they headed back to camp and we went to look around Mirror Lake some. Mike and Caleb found a dead fish to play with (much to my disagreement... disgusting) and then me and Caleb waded in the water a little bit. There was a log there that is made for kids to play with and the boys had a ball climbing through and playing on that. Then it was back to camp for some rest. We had another yummy dinner and played some games and threw around a football and played catch with some baseballs and just enjoyed being outside. I love camping!
This morning we had to head home right away to get ready for our next big adventure that starts tomorrow. Enjoy the pics.

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3 Days of Papa

Grandma Judi had some classes for work at the bank in Salt Lake this week, so Papa Ringo took some days off to come up with her and spend some time with me and the boys. The first 2 days have already gone by so quickly. Here's what we have done. On Tuesday we opened up the camp trailer and Papa helped me figure some stuff out in it (we are still learning to work it all). Then we went to the Man store (Harbor Freight) to look for a couple things but didn't find them then it was off to Lowe's for a couple of items. After that we stopped at Hires Big H for some lunch. We came home and rested for a while and let Papa and the babies nap. Once Grandma Judi was done with class and Dad got home from work we all went to Gardner Village and walked around some. We found some fun stuff in a couple of shops there and enjoyed the scenery. Then we had some dinner at the restaurant called Archiblads there. Where I enjoyed some yummy Prime Rib. Here's some pics of our Gardner Village fun.


Dad and Zaden taking a rest on a bench outside the furniture store

We found Papa a new camp trailer.

Caleb on one of the bridges checking out some fish

Papa and Zaric having a little walk over by the stables

Caleb loved this train car they had there because it was already decorated for Halloween for their Witches event.

And Caleb petting the painted on cow in the stables.

And onto day 2. My Nephew Taylor had another baseball tournament in Nephi so Grandma took their car with her to classes and me and the boys took Papa in our car and took a little road trip to watch. They lost the first game but we still had fun visiting and watching. Here's a few pics from that.

Caleb be-friended a mom of one of the other players and sat with her almost the entire game. Here he is holding her umbrella for her while she took some pictures.

Zaric wanted to know what he was doing with that umbrella too.

And Taylor at the plate.

Schydi and Zaden enjoying some snowcone.

After the game we drove back to Salt Lake and BBQed some burgers and porkchops and had some watermelon and chips while the boys played in the zebra pool. Then Papa and Grandma were nice enough to watch the boys and let Mom and Dad out for a bit (thanks again). We went to see the new Harry Potter movie. Mike loved it. I just thought it was ok.

We have had so much fun and we'll see what kind of fun we have today.

Doodle Does it

Zaden (or Doodle as Mom calls him) started following suit and walking on Friday. He'll still only do it if he's walking to one of us. But we'll take it. Here's a short video of him. Again, excuse the mess. We really do clean up once in a while and fix my hair, I promise.

P.S. also excuse the cleavage shot, Mike was in charge of the camera and well we all know how he is ;)

Hello Destiny Calling?

Is this destiny? Right after we got home from running a few errands today this ice cream truck broke down, right in front of our house! It's too good to be true. Caleb has been wanting and wanting to buy his first ice cream from the ice cream trucks that drive by here. But since we are right on the corner they rarely slow down enough for us to stop them. So he was enthralled when he got to go get a Sponge Bob shaped ice cream and I got a fudge bar for Mike. It's been here for a few hours now and the guy ended up coming to the door to use our phone. I think he should pay us in free ice cream for taking up our curb space. I mean, it's only fair.

Bumble Signing

You guessed it...another Bees game. One of the vendors Mike works with at his company hosted an event and invited our family. We got to go walk around and check out their headquarters, Mike finally got to meet his account rep and they fed us dinner there. Then it was off to the game where they gave us some vouchers for snacks and tickets to some seats. Who could pass that up? They gave Caleb a company ball cap and when we saw Bumble signing some autographs, we had to run down there and get one too. He's pretty proud of it.


The babies were restless again and I let Caleb run around and play for a while and go visit the playground, so we didn't see much of the game. They were losing by 4 most of it though so I don't think we missed much. It turned out to be a fun night overall. What a busy week this has been.

Spontaneous Swim

Yesterday afternoon we were searching for Caleb's 2nd swimsuit when we dug ours out. I decided it would be a good time to try it on since we are hoping to use it in Omaha soon. Once I tried it on, I decided I felt like going swimming. It didn't take much to convince the boys and off our little family went. Caleb was a total fish. He loved it and played and played. Even played a lot by himself without having to have Mom or Dad right there. His favorite thing was this slide. He must have went down it at least 20 times.

And here he is having fun at some other parts. He went out to the deeper water a couple of times with Mom and is really looking forward to getting back to swim lessons hopefully this fall. We have been too busy lately to keep going.

The babies liked it only for a few minutes then they got cold so Dad wrapped them up and waded in the water for a while.

They were happy crawling around the sidewalks and showing off their stylin SpongeBob Squarepants suits that Papa and Grandma bought them.

During one of the required breaks Caleb was sitting on the lawn and their were a couple seagulls that kept flying over us. He wanted one to land on his arm so here he is doing his best seagull call.

And here's Mr. Sexy. Sorry ladies....this skinny, white boy is taken :).