Family Get-togethers

Time to get caught up on my postings! About a week ago, after we finally returned from one of our summer visits to the lake, we got together with Rob's family for breakfast. Since we had missed celebrating Penny's birthday on the actual day-of, we used this occasion for that purpose as well. Here are all of Rob's girls with Eleanor giving Penny a hand with the gift opening.

The next day, Kathie and I headed west on our way to see Travis in Colorado. Rather than suffer through a single twelve-hour day of driving, Kathie suggested that we stop in Omaha for one night on the way. Omaha is really a fun town. There are lots of things to see and do there and in near-by Council Bluffs. Sometime we want to spend a longer weekend there, but at least this time we enjoyed seeing a few things, having a terrific steak dinner, and having some fun at a casino (although fun does not equal making any money!).

One of the things I have always glanced at as we drove west in the past was the pair of historic Union Pacific engines on display on a hillside just as you cross the Missouri River and enter Omaha. This time, we were able to stop and see them up close. One is this massive 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" steam engine. The numbers describe the number of wheels in each set from front to back, and the two eights mean that this brute has 16 drive wheels. The engine weighs about 1.25 million pounds. Its history is an interesting one. The task of moving it to this location for viewing is an interesting final story in its life. There is an interesting sequence of still images at this YouTube location if you are interested in seeing how they got it up onto this hill.

The other engine is a diesel originally manufactured by General Motors' Electromotive Division (EMD). It is officially an EMD DDA40X rated at 6600 horse power. These engines were nicknamed "Centennial." They remain the most powerful single-unit diesels ever built. Kathie's dad worked for EMD as a metallurgist, and so it was with some extra sentiment that she spotted the EMD logo on the engine.

A day later, we arrived in Colorado. Jessica and Maia came to enjoy the week with us too. We had a picnic in a city park one day, and Maia enjoyed her new orange ball.

Maia really, really likes fruit!

We had not been in Colorado to see Travis in quite some time, though we had been together several times elsewhere. We had lots of fun playing golf, miniature golf, swimming, and, of course, just visiting. Oh, and we had lots of great meals and some root-beer floats! (And somehow, I managed not to gain a single pound!)