Random Trip Pictures

 My cousin Zach and I

 Roasting starbursts on the fire

There were bald eagle nests along the river.  I saw about six eagles on the day I took these pictures.

Hole In The Boat

Most would disagree, but since I've been in Nebraska the weather has been amazing!!  The first few days were extrememly HOT (2 days in a row temperatures were record high).  While everyone was complaining about how hot it was, my dad and I would be out airboating on the river.  On Tuesday, after being on the river for only 20 minutes, my dad was getting ready to go under a bridge and was paying attention to whether or not the boat would fit under it when the current got a hold of the boat and took us into the side of the bridge and put a hole in the side of the boat.  At first I was a little nervous because water was spraying in the boat.  Fortunately, there's a pump in the boat that just pumped the water out and we were able to go from sand bar to sand bar.

Our attempt to stop the water was to plug the hole with a t-shirt, that helped for about three seconds.

Mushroom Hunting

I think it's considered a sin to be from Nebraska and never have gone mushroom hunting.  Both of my parents had told stories of their mushroom hunting experiences, but I never really knew what it was all about.  So my second day here in Nebraska my dad took me out on his airboat and we stopped at his "mushroom hunting" spot.  Unfotunately for my legs, I was not informed that I would be hiking through a forest full of poison ivy, ticks and sharp bushes.  I was wearing shorts and flip flops.  I think I was more worried about looking for poison ivy than mushrooms.  I don't know exactly what poison ivy looks like, but I've been told it has four leaves on top,so I tried to avoid anything that resembled a four leaf plant .  We hunted for about 20 minutes and only found old mushrooms.  (There's only about a week span that the mushrooms are good and we were a few days late it looked like)  So though I've been mushroom hunting, I've still never eaten these mushrooms.



Me sporting my sceptical face



The forest we hunted in



This is what the mushrooms look like , this ones a little old but you get the idea  (Not was I expected)



Birthday Pictures

                                              This one makes Andrew's hand look like my own.... SICK!

                                                      Just playing around

Finals

This week was finals week.  Finals are something that I usually dread, but at the same time look forward to because it means the semester is coming to an end.  That couldn't be more true for this semester because for the first time in two years, I'm going to get a summer break!  I had contemplated taking a full schedule of classes over the summer and quickly decided that I NEEDED a break even if that meant that I might not finish as soon.  I took my first final last Friday in my Physiology class and then wrapped it up this morning by taking my Psychology final.  My summer break will officially start tomorrow when I arrive in Nebraska for my week long vacation full of lots of boating, fishing, friends and family.  I can't wait!

Happy Birthday Andy!

We celebrated Andrew's 25th Birthday Yesterday.  I'm reluctant to admit this, but with his birthday falling on the Monday of finals week, I wasn't planning on doing anything too big for his birthday.  Well when Andrew heard this he quickly guilt tripped me into changing my mind.  I heard "It's my quarter of  century birthday" and "but hun, I'm going to be 25".  After that I decided I was being a bit selfish for not planning something.  On Saturday, two days before his birthday, I decided to call some of our family and invite them over for a little birthday party.  Sunday night we went to my parents for his birthday dinner and then on monday his family came to our house for dinner.  I'm always a little nervous to cook for people other than Andrew because though the food usually tastes good, it often looks strange, but I think it turned out ok.  Andrew also wanted to have his moms chocolate sheet cake that she always makes for birthday, but instead of having her make it he wanted me to make it.  Andrew doesn't know this, but after getting the recipe from Kristine, I thought it would be safer to just stick with a box cake and add a few extra ingredients.  I did stick with Kristine's frosting recipe, which is the best part and the cake turned out pretty dang good for my first try.  Andrew even rated it a 10 out of 10 :) ( I don't think he's ever rated anything I've made below a 10 so maybe he is just being nice or is just extremely happy that I attempted).  After our family left we rented the movie Black Swan.  We had heard that is was a really good movie, but both Andrew and I were a little creeped out and didn't care for it too much.  Other than the movie, Andrew's Birthday was a success.  It was nice to be able to spend time together and with our families.