Friday, September 26, 2008

Our Quick September

My sister has informed me, perhaps nagged me, that I need to post a blog. Believe it or not, I had totally spaced off on blogging. So, with my best effort at the time I will do my best to update everyone with the news of the last month.

I'll start things off, or perhaps I should say get things going AGAIN, with Labor Day. For the past something-teen years there has been an annual canoe trip in the Nebraska Sandhills. Between the Dismal River and the Middle Loup River we have manuvered a lot of downed trees, sandbars, fence lines across the river, and even the occasional cow wading in the river. The 2008 canoe trip was a nice relaxing float of nearly 16 miles down the Middle Loup River just north of Mullen.

We spent most of the day on the river, enjoying the calm meandering of the sandy river. It's hard to beat a river in the sandhills - the constant swirling of the sands in the river create quite a sight along the grass covered dunes as canoes float by under the hot sun. (How's that for a strange sentence?) The peacefulness of being on a Sandhills river is truely something impossible to explain. Sure, there is a fair amount of work involved to keep your canoe from smashing into an overhanging cedar tree, costing you several weeks of bruised knees, scraped shins, and not to mention scratches that resemble a cheese grader being run the entire lenght of your body...but I digress. We had a relatively peaceful float due to the fact that Emryk was spending the day with my mom while we had the day to enjoy on the river.

I took my 'cheap' digital camera along for the canoe trip - I had it in a water tight box I picked up from Wal-Mart - super handy for some nice pictures on the river. Laura took a picture of me posing next to our canoe, but it looks like I will need to help her next time to get me in the frame.

A few weeks later we attended a geocaching event here in Kearney. Kearney's "Fifth Annual Geopicnic & Campfire" (GC1D47F) was at Fort Kearny State Recreation Area on September 13. Geocaching events are a fun way to meet other geocachers and share stories, geocache ideas, and just general chit-chat with some other 'strange' people.

We started things off with a Nebraska Geocacher meeting - a meeting for members of the Nebraskache group - and then around noon had a big pot luck dinner with over 100 people attending. The afternoon was filled with geocaches made especially for the geocaching event and then followed with another pot luck supper before the main event - the cobbler - made in the dutch oven! YUM!

Emryk spent the morning and afternoon with us. We made good use of our carrier as we strolled about the park following our GPS. The baby carrier was a gift from our geocaching friends back in Missoula, Montana - the MOOG group (Missoula Organization Of Geocachers). This thing has been very handy for hauling Emryk around when we are out looking for geocaches or just need to keep him close while we do something requiring two hands. We will probably use it more when he is a little bigger so we can hike to some geocaches which require a few miles of hiking.

Laura and I have been dropping Emryk off with Grandma to go dove hunting with my brother in the evenings. That has been a nice relief to have an hour to get out and walk around in the pasture and enjoy the nice fall evenings. We have been trying to take walks with the stroller when we have some free time and Emryk really likes to ride in the stroller. It's been a great way to calm him down in the evenings and help us to keep our sanity at the same time!

I'll wrap it up with a parting shot of Emryk as we drove a gravel road north of Mullen over Labor Day weekend. We were on our way to find an old family cemetery when we suddenly hit some bumps in the road, his reaction was priceless!Until again

-=Nolan=-