1st Day of School

Today is the first day of school for all three kids. Normally it would just be a day for the freshmen at the high school, but the new upperclassmen have to go as well. Both of the boys headed off on a yellow school bus at 0715 this morning (they rode city buses in Norway and walked in Japan...so this was the first time riding a yellow school bus for Tim and it's been since 1st grade for Joe!) Bear with me...it's the first day of school...so there is a lot of reminiscing going on in my head! So the boys are off to high school...both of them. Yikes! Did I mention Joe has a driver's permit now? Egads! I am too young for all of this! (However, the experience of driving with him is quickly aging me!) :o)

About 15 minutes after the boys are picked up, Lily and I headed out the door for her 20 minute walk to her school. This is the first time she is on her own in her own school. Rich and I were thinking that if we end up staying here...she could go to school at that school for 7 years! Mind-boggling! Anyhow, luckily, Lily had a fantastic preschool teacher and she was ready and willing to take on kindergarten head-on. There weren't any tears or clinging hugs. Just a "I'll see you after school, Mom!" :o) Yay! I can't wait to hear about her day on the walk home!

After I dropped her in her classroom, there was a "boo-hoo" breakfast for parents of kindergarteners. Someone stood up and told us about kindergarten here at this school and about the school itself, which was really informative. I have volunteered to work in the library, so I hope that I'll be spending some time there. It very much reminds me of the elementary school I used to work at in Colorado Springs. Anyhow...here are some pictures of Lily on her first day of kindergarten. I'll let you know how things went!

The Omaha Royals

The Kansas City Royals have their farm team here in Omaha. They are the Omaha Royals. They currently play at Rosenblatt Stadium....which only has 17 games left before it is leveled and the land turned over to the Henry Doorly Zoo for expansion. Omaha is a baseball town...the college world series is held here every summer (at Rosenblatt). We had the chance to go to a game and jumped on it. It was Faith and Family night at Rosenblatt. We got to see a game (versus the Portland Beavers), see fireworks and then a free concert afterwards. Get this...the tickets were $2 a piece! It was really a no brainer. So we signed up with the Offutt Catholic Community Chapel and sat amongst fellow parishioners as we had a great night in Omaha. The Royals won...the weather was great (we were in the shade which made it even better!), the fireworks were fabulous and we all enjoyed the concert afterwards...an Australian Christian pop singer who is quite well known....Rebecca St. James. She had two of her brothers with her and they are starting off a singing career as well and showed us what they had to offer. It was really nice. Next year, there will be a new stadium downtown...but we will be able to say that we spent some time at Rosenblatt. :o)

Nana & Nano come for a visit

Rich was TDY to Spokane, WA for several days and he capped off his trip by flying to New England to suprise his brother at his 40th birthday party. :o) My father-in-law, God bless him, took a train to NY a few days prior to pick up our RAV4 that had been shipped from Norway. Rich planned on driving it back here to Nebraska. On a whim, he asked his parents if they would like to come with him to keep him company and also see our new digs. They were packed straight away and arrived late Tuesday night and stayed the rest of the week. We went to the zoo. They had a good time catching up with their grandkids. It had been over a year since they had seen them. They will be coming again for Thanksgiving. It was a nice visit.

We're Going to the Zoo..Zoo...Zoo..How 'bout You??

Say "Ahhh!"


Going into the rain forest....


Somewhere in the tropical jungle...


Rich having fun with the kids at the zoo...


Spending some time outside while at the zoo


Lily with a real giraffe! She was in the giraffe class in preschool and giraffes are her favorite! She had never seen a real one before!


Lily hitches a ride on the bronze baby giraffe near the giraffe house at the Henry Doorly Zoo.


The kids are getting ready to see the orangatans and the gorillas!



And they have lots of big cats as well!

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is AMAZING! We have been three times in three weeks. Pretty scary, huh? However, it is only a 20 minute drive from our house and we have a military family season pass that was pretty cheap. You don't even have to pay to park! There is this huge dome that is all desert landscape inside...and another building that is the tropical rain forest (my personal favorite). The gorilla house is fantastic and most of the sites are actually inside rather than outside in the elements. Anyhow, we love it and enjoy our time there!

We Have Arrived!!!

We are now in our new home! Yay! After five years overseas in Asia and Europe, we are finally back on American soil!

Where are we? We are right outside of Omaha, Nebraska! For all our Navy friends....that's inland...about as inland as you can get in the U.S.!

Seriously, we are LOVING Nebraska. The people are so incredibly friendly and helpful. We were trying to open a local checking account a few weeks ago and we not only walked away with that task done but also got a run down on the local schools, churches and best places to eat! I can totally see how this area is the Air Force's best kept secret. We wanted to come to the Midwest because we felt it would be a better transition for all of us after being away for so long. So far, so good!

Rich is stationed at Offutt AFB and will be flying one of the many reconnaissance aircraft based from there. He has been fortunate enough to be on casual status for the last 6-8 weeks just getting us settled and doing things around the house. He starts his official training tomorrow and should finish up in December, when he'll be placed into one of the local squadrons and start deploying again. He'll be very happy to be up flying again. Flying a desk was not his cup of tea. :o)

The boys are pretty excited about their new school. We arrived on a Monday afternoon and drove by their high school just to show it to them. The doors were open and people were going in and out so we peeked in and found basketball games going. Bonus! They met their new head basketball coach (there are 5 boys basketball teams from their high school alone and he was the big kahuna) and were invited to start training with him and the team the next morning. They have been at the school for 3 hours each morning for conditioning, weightlifting and pliometrics ever since. I can actually tell a difference in their builds...Joe has especially really beefed up with the lifting. Tim is also quite impressive with his workout regime and shooting schedule. It's still hard to believe he is only 13. This basketball program is run like most college programs so the boys are in heaven. School starts for them on Aug 16th and I think they are looking forward to getting back into a schedule. Because they are not in a fall sport, they are expected to do lifting, conditioning and shooting after school everyday to keep in shape. Yikes. Serious stuff here!

Lily will start kindergarten on the same day the boys start school. She is excited, I think. The classes will be much bigger than what she is used to, but I think she'll get used to it and enjoy being around kids her own age again. We have met a couple of potential classmates through our church. She's spent the summer bossing her boys around and running screaming when Joe and Tim have had enough and turn on her. :o)

Our house is in a lovely neighborhood and the house is just beautiful. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would have a house like this. I feel like I have to pinch myself every morning. We still have a lot of work to do, but I am trying to convince myself that it doesn't all have to be done right this instant. There is a lot of work to be done in the yard but the soaring temperatures and humidity to match have just totally put the kabosh on that. After freezing for 4 summers in Norway, living with a heat index of 110+ is just not working well for my system...let alone the rest of us. I hear by mid-September, the weather is perfect here. Can't wait. :o)

I have spent the last month getting settled and trying to see how many dental, orthodontic, medical and optometric appointments I can fit into the schedule. Playing catch up from 3 years in Norway has not been a cake walk. However, the kids have been given a clean bill of health and all necessary paperwork has been done for them to start school.

We are really enjoying getting to know the area. More posts on that later. :o) So as the saying always goes (and we truly truly mean it...) if you are ever going through Omaha, please stop in and visit! We would love to have you! (We have already had visitors...so we are ready!)

A Trip to Tromsø

Some of the Sami people in their traditional dress.

Lily on main street of the town.

We ended up making a snow family. Two older couples from Florida saw our snow man and made him a wife. Lily and I felt they needed a child as well. The snow ended up getting so high that the snow plow pushed our snow family into the ocean (they were on the edge).

Lily loves the snow!

Lily is not a fan of trolls...no matter the size. This was in the Sola airport.

There was almost no snow when we arrived...we were shocked because you just kind of imagine there being plenty of snow in the Arctic Circle. It started snowing the night we arrived and never stopped. We got over a half a meter that night and the following day. It was great. We decided a snow man was in order.

This is the cable car up to the top of the mountain overlooking Tromsø. It was a nice ride and a pretty view.

Here we are overlooking Tromsø from the top of the tram ride. It was mighty chilly up there! Who rode in the tram with us? A family visiting from Houston!

Random winter images from Stavanger

Here are just a few random pictures from the coldest, snowiest winter in over 50 years here in Stavanger, Norway. All kids brought sledges with them to school...many people were cross country skiing to work. The lakes and fjords were frozen solid for the first time in over 20 years....for weeks....the middle school actually cancelled classes one afternoon to all go out on a nearby lake for some skating and hockey. Pretty cool! I, for one, have enjoyed the snowy winter. It made the winter that is so dark and long here seem a little brighter. :o) We had a huge snowfall on Dec 18th and now, three months later, it is finally melting away. This is unheard of in this part of the country where there is such a warm water current running along the coastline here.