Omaha mural

Found some information today online at www.omahamuralproject.org about this large mural that was located just north of the Old Mattress Factory in Omaha. Very impressive, and something that we could easily make out from the pedestrian bridge over the river, which was easily a couple hundred yards away.

Energy Systems Company
The 70-foot tall, 328-foot long east wall of the Energy Systems building at 13th and Webster Streets is the canvas for Fertile Ground. "It almost never happens that someone comes to tell you that they want to enhance your property with no strings attached," Energy Systems senior vice president Dan Markham explained. "And all we had to do was step back and allow them room to work so that our building could become the center of attention in a major civic project that will mean so much to the NoDo area and to the rest of Omaha. Energy Systems is proud to be the home of Fertile Ground.”

Stops along the way

Some of the stops on our anniversary weekend included restaurants Aunt B's Kitchen, where we ate lunch Saturday in Walnut, and the Old Mattress Factory, where we ate dinner in Omaha. Inspired by our brief Freedom Rock history lesson during our time in Casey, we stopped there on our way to mom and dad's, and just before we finished our trip we stopped by the old gas station in Menlo and took a couple of pictures of the 12-foot-tall waving sign.

Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge

I mentioned the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge in the 'Anniversary Weekend' post, so here are a few photos. It's an impressive structure that spans more than 2,200 feet and connects Council Bluffs with Omaha.

Recently city leaders hired a surveyor to find out exactly where the border between Iowa and Nebraska was and they had someone sand blast the line with 'Iowa' on one side and 'Nebraska' on the other. (Yes, that's Natalie giving a thumbs up to Iowa.)

After seeing the bridge in the newspaper it helped make up our mind to continue our anniversary roadtrip west to Council Bluffs. We're glad we did because the bridge was a cool stop and we had a nice dinner at the Old Mattress Factory.

Gotta wear shades

Found this photo of Jasper during Syd's preschool graduation in May and thought it was funny. He won't wear the Cars the movie kiddie sunglasses I bought him last week but he'll wear heart glasses in the Menlo gym? Something isn't right here.

Anniversary weekend

Nat and I celebrated our fourth anniversary Thursday night with a nice dinner at Claxon's in Altoona and an antique tour of western Iowa on Saturday.

We set off early Saturday morning, with our first stop being Casey. It just so happened to be Casey Fun Days but they weren't quite as fun as billed, so we hit a couple of shops, saw a fainting goat someone was leading around town by a rope (yes, it's wearing a neckerchief), and had a very friendly shop owner give us a history lesson on the Freedom Rock near Greenfield. The same man that paints the rock every year with a military team has murals in a cafe in Casey and a large one just outside the cafe. According to a press release I received Monday, Ray Sorensen, the painter of the Freedom Rock, will soon be giving the Iowa Lottery use of some of his art for lotto tickets. You know you've arrived when your art is on a lotto ticket.

From Casey we headed straight to Walnut, Iowa's Antique City.

We found our biggest buy - a red pie safe we have in our kitchen (pictured) at the first stop we made, Kelly Reed Antiques, but didn't pull the trigger until the end of the day. We scoured each shop for nothing in particular, stopping at Aunt B's Cafe for lunch and Roberts Bakery Treats & Treasurers for ice cream and pie.

We didn't end up buying much - Nat grabbed an old scale and I bought a vintage Sports Illustrated with Mark 'The Bird' Fidrych posing with Big Bird from 1977.

With our backseat filled by this pie safe we debated whether we should continue our weekend or head home to unload. We proceeded west, as the early settlers did, to Council Bluffs, where we were headed to the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge that connects CB with Omaha. (See separate post for photos, etc.)

We crossed the Muddy Missouri on the impressive bridge and found a restaurant — The Old Mattress Factory — where we had dinner of pizza (Nat) and fish 'n chips (me) before heading to Menlo to stay the night with mom and dad.

Great time!

4th of July ... a week late (No. 2)

The Wilders came to Waukee to watch the parade with us and celebrate the holiday with Nat's side of the family at Junior & Sandy Swallow's house. It wasn't your typical Iowa 4th of July; with temps in the 70s and gray skies, you saw FAR more people than normal with long sleeve shirts and pants on. But it wasn't too chilly for a parade ... and water balloon fight!

Jasper loved the parade. He 'ooohed' at the loud sirens and bright colors, delighted when a few people walked by with dogs and pretty much waved 'hi' at everyone who passed. He also took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to hang with the girls (friend Campbell and cousin Perri).

As you can see J meant business once the water balloons came out, and spared no one in his quest to soak 'make it rain'. Not sure if one of the balloons he threw ever broke, but he sure tried hard! The way he's been tossing around balls and blocks and remotes and phones and food at home, he's going to be dangerous next year with those balloons. You've been warned.

4th of July ... a week late

We owe you all a 4th of July post and a week later here it is. We kicked off the holiday a day early by spending part of the day July 3 with the Wilson side at the Blank Zoo and then had dinner at our house, after the rain hit as we were walking to our cars on our way home.

Jasper P, Gramp Paul and Syd got wet in the waterfall; J and Syd gave the sleepy lion a big 'High 5'; J milked his first cow (She was empty); we all rode the train (J sat on Nat's lap); and gramp took J into the heart of groundhog land. We also watched the monkeys play around, pet goats, fed the fish, played around in the playground, watched part of the sea lion show and MUCH more. Very fun!

The next post will be of our day with the Henderson side during Waukee festivities.