I Blame the Touch...

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever. Drew's touch is way too convenient. I can check everything in the palm of my hand. So the desktop has been being neglected and thus so is the blog. Fall is here and we're getting back into our routine. On Tuesdays I'm taking the kids to music makers (a way cute music class), on Wednesdays we go to toddler time at the library (we get to sing, march and hear a story), and on Thursdays we have playgroup. Randomly we work in the zoo, children's museum and parks. So we're alive and running all over Lincoln.

My adorable Molly is now 2 1/2.
I decided that Molly's old enough to potty train. That's what we've been working on. aaaahhhhh. Molly can seriously hold it ALL day. We've made some progress; we've only had two accidents. But after staying home ALL weekend I decided that I needed to get out Monday. So we went to the zoo....
I'm not sure what you 'd call this (see picture below). It's a box made out of plywood that has a bunch of looking holes at all different levels. I think it's a cool idea. It's overlooking a little pond that contains a bunch of exotic birds. This is a picture of Molly and Gabe modeling what you should do. Right after I took the picture Molly turned and gave me one of her I have a great idea smiles. (That smile means one thing... trouble.) Molly ran full speed into the wall at the other end. I swear the whole thing shook. Gabe thought it was hysterical so he was laughing and clapping, which echoed quite nicely. Gabe's laughing was all the encouragement Molly needed to take off for the other side. I swear one day someone is going to ask us to leave. I couldn't see the animals, but I'm sure they were scared that a crazy two year old was going to come through the wall to kill them... yikes.


We went to the children's museum last week. One of Molly's favorite stations is the face painting. Go figure. Here she is with freckles (I have a bunch of freckles that Molly is very interested in. Molly has one freckle on her leg.) rosy checks and blue eyes. Priceless.

A picture of Gabe courtesy of Molly. Nice angle huh? :)

A lady from church invited us over to pick apples. Molly kept calling it apple jack (after the parade we went too. apparently it made quite the impression).

Mike is in the tree throwing the apples down to Drew. Drew was catching/bagging them. I loved the creativity/teamwork.

We went to the Apple Jack Festival in Nebraska City a couple weeks ago. I'm a little embarrassed to say that it was the kids first parade. Lame parents I guess... Molly and Gabe LOVED it. It was the longest parade that I had ever been too. I think it was 2 1/2 hours. It was full of marching bands. Gabe danced. Molly waved. After the parade we went to the Arbor Day Farm. There we had yummy carmel apples, and apple slush. Sadly I didn't take any pictures after the first 1/2 of the parade, but I'm sure you can imagine all the apple goodness.

Go Huskers!

I went to my first Husker game today. Its great being in the sea of red. It was pretty easy to pick out who was with Arkansas. Being in the student section really made me wonder. Was I that naive and ridiculous looking to people around me when I was in college a few years ago? hmmm. (And for anyone who knew me in college I'm not interested in hearing about how I was ridiculous. I know. It's a rhetorical question.) I'll say that it was a good game. It was a blowout 38-9. How could that not be a good game? But, I always think it's more exciting when it's a close game. I'm looking forward to the next game that Drew scored me a ticket too. UNL vs Oklahoma.

Us about an hour before the game.
After the first touchdown people release balloons. It's really cool looking. Even though this picture doesn't capture it... Notice how the seats have filled in. It was the 299th consecutive sold out game. Here football is king.

And special thanks to Jana and Brad for watching our kids!

While we're speaking of kids I'd like everyone to know that Gabe is now a walker! He isn't graceful, but finally the day has come. Everyone kept telling me that everyone walks eventually, but I knew better. I've seen those commercials for specials on the discovery channel about these families in third world countries that walk on their feet and hands. I'm so happy that we'll never be in one of those specials. :) The Wilkerson's are a family of walkers. Now if we could all just use the potty... I guess one accomplishment at a time.

mmmm We Love the Berries!

On Labor day the Anderson's invited us to go to Marin's Hillside Orchard with them. We picked raspberries and apples. yum.

The State Fair

We went to the State Fair on the 4th. I love fair's. I love being around big groups of people with a ton of different things going on in every direction. Molly really liked the animals. Especially the cows. When we were camping last month she kept telling us "I a cow, moo" we would have to address her as Molly cow so that she would do what we asked. She still tells us that she's a cow on occasion. She got a kick of mooing and being mooed at. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that, but here are some others....

Now what would a state fair be without food? Probably a lot healthier that's what. But you only live once right? My justification. We tried fried oreos and a fried peach. The oreos were a lot better than I expected and the peach was disappointing.

Drew with his peach. I was expecting something closer to cobbler. Maybe if it had fried longer the peach would have been softer? Ah...

Who wouldn't want to climb through a cement pipe?

Some neat tractors. Come on it's Nebraska. We had to take some pictures with farm equipment.

There was a band playing. I don't remember their name, but Gabe thought they were hands down the best thing ever. He was laughing and dancing. He's proud to be wearing the bands sticker. They kept saying "we aren't pirates were farmers from Nebraska, look at our overalls". I must admit they did have some pretty clever lyrics.

They look like farmers don't they?

quick visit

Julie, Beth, Kurt and Ethan drove through Lincoln at the beginning of the month on their way to Idaho. They spent a day with us. It was fun getting to see them. We took them to the Sunken Gardens. (Julie is a hort major I knew she'd appreciate it) Then we went to the "big big park" behind the children's zoo. After that it was time for naps all around and visiting.
Before anyone comes to visit I always pull out pictures of them and talk it up a lot to the kids. It helps Molly. It's been almost two weeks and Molly is still sleeping with the picture of Beth, Kurt and Ethan. Every night "my picture my picture" "yes Molly we see your picture" She LOVES Kurt. Her favorite activity when they were here was cornering Kurt and making him read to her. She also enjoyed having Julie chase her all over the place.


I always forget to take pictures when people come to visit. We're always too busy doing other things. So here's a picture of the kids right before everyone left. Don't ask me what Molly's doing...
Everyone on the swings at the "big big park" or antelope park as it's more commonly known.

some cute kids just being cute

A lazy Sunday afternoon painting the sidewalk with water.

Gabe charging the camera. I love this three toothed little grin. His fourth tooth just broke a couple days ago. In a little bit he'll be balanced again.

This summer we signed up for the Lincoln Safari at the library. It's so cute. You get a little book and a map. Then you go on a scavenger hunt of sorts. You pick a park and then the book gives you clues leading you to a rubbing. The book also has different fun activities that you can do at each park. Drew came with us so we hit up 3 parks in west Lincoln. Bowling Lake, Arnold and Olympic Heights. It's a lot of fun finding little places that I never knew existed. We're defiantly going to have to go back to Arnold this winter if it snows. The book said it's the best sledding in Lincoln and I'm sure they're right. Here are some of our pictures.

Calling all Lincoln friends...

If anyone else is doing the safari and would like to do it with us. Let me know. We did 3 at the beginning of summer and then 3 yesterday. That brings us up to drum roll... 6. Now that Drew's back in school full time we have a lot more park time.

Drew has season tickets for the Huskers. Opening game is Saturday night. If anyone wants to come over and hang out. I'll be home with some sleeping kids :)

And we're planning on going to the State Fair sometime in the not too distant future. We aren't sure when. So if anyone is going give us a shout out.

Indian Cave

We went camping at Indian Cave State Park for a couple days. I love camping. I told Drew it's funny that we pay money to sleep outside. It's a really neat Park. There used to be a town there called St Deroin. They've restored a couple of the buildings and do demonstrations in them, like broom making and candle stick making etc. Unfortunately they only do those things on the weekends and we were there during the week. As you drive further into the park to the actual "cave" you pass a little cemetery. We walked around and looked at some of the tomb stones. Most of them were too old to read, but there were all around the late 1800's and early 1900's. Except for a couple of people who were buried a couple years ago. That was a little strange. I read about how the cemetery is haunted by a man named Ritter. Interesting and a little creepy. There was also another cemetery on the map, but it wasn't off the main road it was in the woods and the path to it was closed. It was called the Half-Breed cemetery. Drew and I decided it must be where all the mud bloods are buried.:) In reality I'm sure it had something to do with the Frenchmen and Indian women. It was neat being in a place with so much history. Not a bad way to end our summer vacation.


Gabe and Drew reading about the cave.

The Missouri River.

Here is the Indian cave. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It was more of a wall than a cave. Molly was so excited to walk up the stairs.

There were wild turkeys everywhere. I have to be honest turkeys have to be some of the ugliest animals out there. Especially when they're running and there necks are bobbing. wow.

This seat is one of the greatest things ever. We stole it from my parents. I wish we had one for Molly.

There were little parks all around the state park. This one was at our campsite. I'm not sure if the picture really shows how scary it was. I was worried she was going to fall off the top. Molly didn't share my concerns she loved it. They don't make parks the way they used to.