Gone Fishing

Evelyn went fishing with Uncle Matt this morning at Hansen Lake, near Plattsmouth, Nebraska. When I asked Evelyn how many fish she caught, she couldn't tell me. She caught too many fish to remember the number! But she did remember the four different kinds of fish she caught - blue gill (pictured below), catfish, drum and bass. Not too shabby for an hour and a half of fishing!

Evelyn's Hair Donation

Today was the day! Evelyn has been wanting to donate her hair for almost a year, and it was finally long enough to do so. We headed over to John Edwards' Salon for the appointment with Evelyn's stylist. We decided to go with Pantene Beautiful Lengths for the hair donation, which requires hair to be at least eight inches long.

First, Evelyn's hair was braided into two sections.Then, each braided pigtail was cut.
Evelyn couldn't resist swishing her hair after nine inches were cut off.

Finally, Evelyn's stylist washed her hair, evened out the back and blended the (almost grown-out) bangs. Voila! It's a new Evelyn!

Old Stomping Grounds

This afternoon, on our drive from Holdrege to Bellevue, we stopped in Lincoln. Our main destination was the Nebraska Bookstore so we could stock up on some Husker shirts. We had fun in the store, letting the girls try on different hats. Here's Julia with a monster cowboy hat - when she put it on, it fell right over her head and landed on her shoulders.
Evelyn looks all decked out and ready for a Husker football game with a corn head and foamy finger. We didn't buy any of these humungous souvenirs, but it was fun to play.

Since we were right there at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we took a walk around the main campus. The best photo-op was in front of Memorial Stadium, where Troy and I saw many a football game during our college years.

Farm Fun

We went out to Aunt Leann's and Uncle Tim's farm this evening, and the girls had SO much fun. There are eight-week-old kittens out there, and Evelyn was completely smitten by them. The only time she wasn't playing with the kittens was when we forced her to come inside to eat supper. Would you believe she passed up chocolate cake so she could have more time to play with the kittens?!
Whereas Evelyn was very gentle when handling the kittens, Julia was quite the opposite. Shortly after I took this picture, Julia cuddled the gray kitten to her chest and then dropped it on the ground - ouch!

We then encouraged Julia to play with the kittens in the grass, where it wouldn't hurt as much if she dropped them.

As the sun was beginning to set, Uncle Tim asked Evelyn if she wanted to collect eggs with him. She had no problem getting eggs from the empty nests, but Uncle Tim had to get any eggs that were hiding under chickens. Check out the colors of the eggs - most are brown, but some are light green. That's the color of eggs a certain chicken lays (I can't remember the name of the breed). Wild!

Ah, yes, but back to the kittens. Before posing with her collected eggs, Evelyn had to grab a kitten.

Zoo Time!

If you have ever been to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, you know how enormous it is. We girls headed to the zoo this morning and got there right when it opened at 9:00. We knew we could only stay until lunch, which allowed us three hours. Evelyn's priorities were the Desert Dome and the cats. Since those two exhibits are fairly close to each other, Evelyn's agenda was very do-able.

We trekked through the Desert Dome first, checking out all the critters and creatures. Here's a picture of Julia, trying to be brave to get a close-up view of a bird.
Next, we headed over to the cats. Evelyn loved looking at the tigers, lions, fishing cats, jaguars and pumas. Big or small, wild or tame, cats are Evelyn's favorite animals.

The polar bear was swimming 'round and 'round his private pool, hamming it up for the crowd. I just love how the expression on his face is like, "Hey, what's up?"

After seeing the Desert Dome, the cats and the bears, we took a train ride. This always puts Julia in a mellow mood, and today was no different. She's just chillin', snacking on Goldfish and watching the scenery go by. After the train ride, it was time to go . . . but I'm sure we'll be back one more time before heading home to Maryland.

Guess Where . . . ?

Guess where Evelyn lost her second tooth? At the Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Last night, as we were waiting to board our plane to Nebraska, the girls were snacking on a muffin. Evelyn stopped for a moment to ask me if her tooth was bleeding. I confirmed that yes, her tooth was bleeding. The next thing I knew, Evelyn bent her head over her hand and out fell her tooth! She was so excited - she kept saying, "I've never lost my tooth in an airport before!"

Lake House 4th of July

This year we headed to our friends' lake house near Solomons, Maryland, for the 4th of July. Solomons is on the west side of the Chesapeake Bay, and the lake house was just a 5-minute canoe ride (or 10-minute walk) to the beach.

Evelyn went on two canoe rides, and she was fortunate to see bald eagles soaring along the coastline both times. She had a lot of fun at the beach . . . until a jellyfish stung her. Aside from the nasty stinging that lasted several minutes, she was fine.
Julia headed over to the beach after her nap, but she was too drowsy for any swimming. She just wanted to check out the water while staying on land.

Here's our Peanut, ready to paddle back to the lake house from the beach.

After eating supper, we lit some small fireworks and sparklers in the driveway. Sparklers always bring smiles to kids' faces, don't they?This picture sums up Julia's opinion of fireworks this year: