Birds, Mullets and Many Moccasins!

     Can you see the Swallowtail butterfly in the picture? Chelsi and I saw Swallowtails flying around on Friday while we were mowing the native plant display. Of course, neither of us had our cameras and he taunted us the entire time. Once we went back inside, we convinced Jesse to let us go to butterfly monitoring and attempt to take a picture of the swallowtail. We walked around the prairie and even found a black swallowtail! He would not land longer than 2 seconds, and we could never, EVER get a picture of him. Here's Chelsi standing patiently trying to get a picture:

     While we were walking on the trail, we saw some cool bugs like a giant cicada! He was sitting on the trail, and when I poked him, he went BZZZ and it scared me to death! I shrieked and jumped! He didn't move, but instead just sat there and looked at us. A few seconds later, Chelsi poked him.... and BZZZ! We both shrieked really loud, and then laughed because we should have learned the first time.

     We walked and walked on the trail, trying our hardest to find butterflies that would land long enough for us to take pictures. A monarch was nice enough to let us get close to him, and when we went to the woodpile to check and see if there was water from the rains, I found a group of hairstreaks all together. My shoes got stuck in the mud, but it was totally worth it.

     Once we got done with our grueling day of work, we were excited to go to the Beatrice Motor Speedway with Blake. We raced home and showered, which turned out to be a mistake because I think our clean skin only attracted more dirt and sweat once at the Speedway. Blake, the historian here at Homestead, picked us up in his shiny new Chevy and it was off to the Speedway.

     We look terrible in this picture, but Chelsi insisted we take it. We were hot, sweaty, and nasty! It was really funny though, because one time all three of us girls got up and went to the bathroom together. Later, Blake told us that when we got up, literally every head would turn and watch us as we walked down the stairs. We weren't sure if we should be flattered or freaked out!

     I've never been to a speedway, so hearing the loud cars and seeing how fast they could go was so much fun! When they'd pass us, they were so loud it was like my insides were vibrating. We'd pick a car to cheer for based on colors, and the brightest ones were our favorites! Except when there would be a pink one, of course... 

     The crashes were the best part! Well, at first they were. Then, after the 20th crash, they were less impressive. I've never seen a car crash in real life before! Even though these were race cars, it was still really awesome! The mood that would come over the crowd upon a crash was interesting. It was either surprise, or pure anger. I love mob mentality, but I don't enjoy mob mentality nearly as much as the mob mullets...

     We watched the whole race, and it was a lot of fun! I don't know if I'd go back again, but this one time was fun. Seeing the type of people who go to these things was fun as well. As Chelsi said, "people are proud of their potbellies here. Proud enough to show them off!" Men everywhere had their shirts off with their bellies hanging out. I'm talking, round, tan, big bellies. They were really, really proud of those things.


     On Saturday morning, bright and early, it was time for me to host Kids in Parks for Birdie Basics! I had made a powerpoint and was nervous, but was ready to go. Let me tell you about the awesome powerpoint I made! The point of the presentation was to teach the kids about the bird orders. The orders are: columbiforme, passeriforme, galliformes, falconiformes, and piciformes. Let's start with the columbiformes. 
     How could you get a kid to remember this word? Columbiformes coo. A columbiforme is a dove or pigeon. Collumbiformes are also committed. They 'marry' another bird and stay with that bird until one of them dies. The kids totally understood! I actually cooed for them too. I think they got it!
     Next are the passeriformes. Passeriformes are the largest order of birds. The red winged blackbird, bluejay, and robin are in this family. Want to know how to remember a passeriforme? Passeriformes perch. They have three toes in the front and one in the back which allows them to perch on vertical limbs!
     Next are the galliformes. Galliformes are pheasants, quails, and chickens. Are galliformes graceful? No! Galliformes have a startled flight due to their stocky bodies. Also, galliformes are game. Game birds are any bird hunted for sport. The kids understood everything I said!
     Now onto the falconiformes. Falconiformes are fast! These birds are birds like the northern harrier and the red tailed hawk. Just how fast can a falconiforme fly? A red tailed hawk can fly up to 40 miles per hour! At the end of the day, the falconiformes won in the 'favorite bird' category.
     Lastly are the piciformes. Piciformes peck! They are woodpeckers. Why do woodpeckers peck? Many reasons! They peck to eat the bugs that live in the bark. They have a glue-like substance on the end of their tongue to catch the bugs. They also peck to show their territory, and to make a hole so their babies can live there. Do you know how many times a woodpecker pecks per day? They peck anywhere between 8,000 and 12,000 times per day! That's a lot of pecking. 
     Here are some pictures from our program. Sadly, only three kids came since it was so hot outside. My favorite part was the little boy. He came up to me outside on the trail and whispered, "Hey! I sawed a one-eyed alien bird!!" We took them outside to play "Birdie Bingo". We had to cheat a little bit because there were barely any birds outside!

     At the conclusion of our bird searching outside, I had created a coloring sheet for the kids so they could create their own species of bird. You could name it, and it even asked what type of bird it was. We enjoyed seeing how colorful the birds were! Here is a picture of our bingo cards and the coloring stuff.

     Later on in the night, we stayed to help with the campfire program. The theme for tonight was "Native American Experience - Welcome Special Olympians" The performances were by Kevin Locke, Jack Gladstone, and the Many Moccasins Dance Troupe. I had so much fun watching this program!

     The Many Moccasins Dance Troupe was a family of dancers. I only caught the last bit of their show. Here are some pictures!

     They would dance with these hula hoop type things made of wood. These pictures do no justice to the beauty that was created by the hoops. They'd make butterflies, globes, and things that were important to the Indians. After the Troupe, it was time for Jack Gladstone to sing songs about bears and his experiences throughout his lifetime. Here are some pictures of him!

     He was really good! He's 6'2. He played on the University of Washington's football team as third linebacker at the exact same time that Mark Engler, Homestead's Superintendent played as third linebacker at University of Nebraska Lincoln. Isn't that crazy? They still joke about it. Next was Kevin Locke, the hoopdancer known for dancing with as many as 37 hoops on him at a time. Here are pictures of him dancing! Once again, the pictures do no justice to how amazingly beautiful his dances were. He began by playing the flute and showing us some Indian sign language.

     That night, we didn't get off of work until 10 til 11. We were exhausted! All I wanted to do was take a shower and go to bed. I slept like a rock... until 7 am when I woke up and got ready to meet Kevin in Omaha before 10 am.
I met him at his house and we went to get some breakfast. I had French toast with strawberries and bananas. YUM! His dad met us there and it was off to the mall to see the new movie Inception.
     Inception was good, but if you've seen Shutter Island, you've seen Inception! After the movie, we went to the Joslyn Art Museum. They had like 4 or 5 Van Gogh paintings and some Monets, but overall I was very disappointed with how little they had in that huge building. Here are my pictures beginning with the outside garden:

     Like I said, the inside of the museum was pretty disappointing, except for the huge glass sculpture in the middle. Can you see me standing in front of it? I'll post the pictures that I took of the inside.

     After we finished up at the museum, Kevin took me to the University of Nebraska Omaha and gave me a tour. I took a picture of the tower, because it was pretty and Universities always have towers that look pretty neat. I still think the University of Nebraska Lincoln's campus is way more my style.

     We headed back to town, and on the way there we caught the most beautiful sunset I've seen in a really long time. We even chatted with an older couple who was parked on the side of the road standing outside of their car watching the sun go down.

     Now the fun begins! Once the sun went down, it was time to decide what we should do before I went home. We finally decided to go to Iowa to a casino right next to where Kevin lives. This is my first time to go into a huge casino... I mean, this thing was the size of Ikea! Lights were everywhere. Kevin went to the blackjack table and I played the quarter slots. After two quarters... bam! $10! I could really see how this could become so addicting to people. We stayed for about an hour or so, then decided to leave because we didn't want to lose any more money. I headed home.

On Monday, the girls and I decided to go see the Bodies exhibit in Omaha. However, we wanted to begin our day with lunch in the Old Market Square in Lincoln. We also looked for the Special Olympics, but when we go to Memorial Stadium, we were 30 minutes too late for the games.

     Let me tell you about lunch! We found this cute little Vegetarian place called Maggie's. I had a salad with cranberries and walnuts... and it was so delicious. We tried to eat outside, but my lettuce kept being blown off my plate! I decided to go inside and so we ate there, unfortunately. It was a beautiful day!

     Yum! That was my first time to ever eat at a vegetarian place, and I really enjoyed it. After lunch, we searched for the Special Olympics to no avail... and settled on ice cream instead since we were really hot and wanted to cool down. Off to Merrith (my boss's boss) favorite ice cream place, Ivanna Cone!

     They had some crazy delicious flavors! I settled on one scoop chocolate covered pretzel flavored ice cream and one scoop of birthday cake ice cream. It was blissful. I felt fat for the rest of the day even though we were walking everywhere! After our ice cream, it was off to Omaha to see the Bodies exhibit.

     Now let me just tell you... if you haven't seen the Bodies exhibit, no words can describe the feeling you will experience when you walk in and see actual human bodies displayed in front of you as if they were a painting or something. This exhibit was intense, and I had to sit down a few times or go into the front room and just take some deep breaths. They would not allow anyone to take pictures, nor could you have your cell phone out. I googled a picture just to give you a taste of what we saw. These were actual people at one time... 

     After we had seen and studied all of the exhibits (there weren't that many, actually), we decided to take a breather and go to Barnes and Noble until we got hungry. It didn't take long for us to begin feeling hunger pains! Chelsi wanted sushi for dinner since her birthday is Wednesday, so I looked up sushi places on my phone and found one with really good ratings. It was off to Hiro!

     Now this place was swanky! The inside was beautiful, but I didn't get any pictures (didn't want to be tacky or embarrass anyone) except for the food. The food was SO GOOD. I had chicken and asparagus, and the girls and Kevin had sushi. Kevin tried to sake as well. For an appetizer, we had edamame. I have never had it before, but it was really good! 

     We were stuffed to the brim with sushi, edamame and crab rangoons. Time to go home and get to bed. The 21st is Chelsi's 21st birthday! I've filled the house with notes all over the floor for her to see when she wakes up... hopefully even though I work until 8:30 pm tomorrow, it will still be a fun day for her!