Where The Corn Is As High As An Elephant's Eye*

Hey Y'all -

It's been a great few days in Nebraska, hanging out with the Burbachs. 

We landed on the fourth of July, and as we drove from Omaha to Lincoln, we figured we'd see some fireworks. Laney had never seen fireworks, so Dad and I were trying to explain how cool! and sparkly! and just like real pixie dust! they are. Somehow, every time we'd see one, Laney would miss it and wonder why we were shouting "OOH!" and pointing at the sky. Or, if a whole bunch would light up the sky, it would happen straight ahead of the car, where Laney isn't tall enough to see from the car seat. 

When I was in high school, there were these stupid "Magic Eye" posters that were popular. They looked like a bunch of random dots, but apparently if you stared at them the right way, the dots would transform into a picture of something else. I say "apparently," because this never worked for me. Peg Peg would see one in a store and say, "Look at the parade!" or something equally irritating. But all I ever saw were the damn dots. 

This was just like that. 

Is too noisy.

But at least when we got to Grandma Meg's, she could hear them. Which she hated. Happy 4th, everybody!

Hola.

Within an hour of being at Meg's, Laney had filled her in on everything Dora 'Splora's been up to lately.

_____________

Yesterday, we loaded up and went to the Lincoln Children's Museum.

Your dad had an epiphany at the children's museum, and after years of Navy flight training and thousands of hours spent in the cockpit, he finally figured out what all those little doohickey and thingamabobbers do:

Oh, so THAT's what that does.

There was a construction exhibit, where Laney suited up and I helped her build a fortress out of blocks. Of course, it collapsed, and Grandpops and your dad decided the exhibit should be called Blame The Architect.

Don't hassle me, I'm union. 

 Laney practiced flying the small plane with Grandpops as her passenger. For months, whenever Laney would get in the driver's seat of our car and pretend to drive us somewhere, she would tell us to put on our seat belts and announce, "WE'RE GOING TO TARGA!" You dad and I had no idea what - or where - "Targa" is. It sounded like a magical, mystical place that she had maybe heard about in a book. Then one day I stopped to pick up some diapers at Target, and she looked out the window and wistfully sighed, "Targa...."

I like to imagine this was a charter flight to Targa:

About halfway through our visit to the museum, I figured out that Grandma Cece was taking more photos than I was, even, and this made Laney the most photographed child this side of Suri Cruise.

___________

Your great-uncle Steve came by to play today, and one thing about Steve: he's a good sport. 

He played several rounds of "Hide and Seek" with Laney, and pretended not to be able to find her, even when this was her average hiding job:

Steve: ("wondering" aloud) I wonder if she's behind the curtain?
Laney: No.

So far, everybody seems to really enjoy hanging out in Nebraska.

At least usually.

Love,
Mom

* I'm cheating, because this is actually a lyric from the musical Oklahoma! There are surprisingly few songs about the state of Nebraska. Trust me: I googled. Although, I did find mention of a song called "I Hate To Wake Up Sober In Nebraska" by a band called Free Hot Lunch. I'm intrigued.