As Seen On SnapChat

Emily must have been bored at work tonight.

Back to the Future: Mid-City Bank

There was plenty of goofiness going on as we shot our second "Back to the Future" location.

The old Mid-City Bank that once sat on the corner of Saddle Creek and Dodge for years was torn down earlier this year.

In its place will be a hotel for Nebraska Medicine patients and family.

We stopped by the site after shooting photos and video of the demolition of the Omaha Civic Auditorium.

We tried to use some existing landmarks to make sure the "after" photo matches.

Apparently, the hotel could be up to six stories tall.

The property has been a dirt lot since May, when the bank was demolished.

Ok, look closely at this one. I didn't see it until after the photo was taken.

The End of the Civic Auditorium

Watch the final 30 seconds of the demolition of the Civic Auditorium.

We rushed from picking up Lauren from art club today to get our "Back to the Future" photo of the Omaha Civic Auditorium. Little did we know, we were under the gun to catch the final parts of the building being demolished.

Unfortunately, Lauren was not a willing participant in the shoot. While she moped and complained about not being able to work on her homework, I hustled the other four girls across the street. Then the fun began.

This was cute.

No Lauren in these photos, unfortunately.

We know there are photos like this from our "before" shoot. We just have to find them.

Check out Emily, trying to scale the fence.

As Seen On Snapchat: Emily

If you drove through the Cass Street Crane Coffee shop today, you might have seen this.

And The Winner Is...

Julia helped tally the NCAA brackets (about two weeks after the title game).

It seemed a "dumpster fire" had broken out on everyone's NCAA Tournament brackets due to a host of first round upsets.

But, as you can see from our scoring system, it is the games near the end that really matter and help you pile up the points:

First round win: 1 point
Second round win: 2 points
Sweet 16 win: 4 points
Elite Eight win: 8 points
Final Four win: 16 points
Correctly picking the champion: 32 points

Julia helped tally up the points today and it was pretty close between Cole, Julia and me. In the end, I won with 165 points, with Julia in second (152), followed by Cole (140. Julia said I only won because, "Dad cheated. He copied off of me!"

Anyway, enjoy these final photos – and this year's "One Shining Moment" video.

Here's the final point totals from each round.

There were more brackets to tally this year.

The winning bracket.

Christmas Is Here!

The girls show off their presents.

Christmas Letter Time!

Veronica decided to "decorate" someone's face...

Things came together rather quickly when we got down to business on this year's Christmas letter. From Friday night to Saturday afternoon, we finished everyone's text portion, got the letters printed at CopyMax, addressed more than 140 envelopes and stuffed and mailed them off. Emily, Julia and Veronica were the biggest of helpers, with Olivia chipping in and Lauren ... well, being Lauren.

Thanks to a trip to the main post office, we expect the letters to start arriving in the Omaha area on Monday and faraway places after that. The only regret this year? That I did not have time to write a personal message on each one of them. Sorry!

Veronica (right) handled stamps and return address labels this year.

How Emily addressed envelopes while wearing my glasses is beyond me...

As Seen on SnapChat

No caption necessary.

As Seen On SnapChat

Emily went "old school" today.

Like The Photos? You'll Love The Video!

Behind the scenes at the photo shoot.

Re-enacting the post-game fight song.

They Love Their UNO Hockey

After Lauren bailed on our "Back to the Future at Baxter" shoot, we took a few more photos.

UNO hockey means a lot to the girls. Several of them are season ticket holders, in fact. So when a special salute to the Mavericks' program went up recently at Aksarben Village, we knew we had to get some photos with it.

Celebrating a victory. Well, kind of.

Ready for the face off.

I am not sure what was happening in this photo. Feel free to comment.

Geez, Julia. Talk about strength!

The girls posed in homage to the photos behind them.

Back to the Future: Baxter Arena

Our first "Back to the Future" photo of Baxter Arena, shot more than two years ago.

We are quite proud of our "Back to the Future" series photos, which document the "before" and "after" of buildings in and around the Omaha area. But the Baxter Arena photo project was our most ambitious one yet.

For more than two years, we have been shooting photos from the same spot on the wall across the street from Baxter Arena. Never mind that there is a sign (just out of frame) that says to "keep off this wall." In addition to documenting the building of the arena, we also tried to include a white car in each photo. That's because there was a white car in the first photo we took.

And the final photo, shot a few days before the building's opening.

As Seen On SnapChat

Emily really rocked out on this drawing of the house.

As Seen On SnapChat

Another gem from Emily.

Princess Pictures

Not the best quality (with an iPhone set on small resolution), but pretty princesses nonetheless.

And a nice one with the girl who has gone off to college.

First Day of School

Emily and Lauren rode along with Julia and me on the first day of school.

Back to the Future: Aksarben Village

We shot this photo in August of 2012.

Aksarben Village has been the site of quite a few of our "Back to the Future" series photos. (Read about them here.) So last night, we decided to check on the progress of one from nearly three years ago.

Lauren said her knees look the same in both photos. And that she hasn't grown.

As you can see, there is no new building in "Zone 6." Only a parking lot, primarily used by Aksarben Cinema patrons. But we are told the building is still to come. So I guess this photo is the "in progress" version.

Here is how the latest "Back to the Future" series photo looked on Facebook.

Twelve Hours At The Pool

We were the first people in the pool today ... and the last ones out.

A couple years back, when we first lived at these apartments, we once spent seven hours at the pool. It was quite legendary. But the girls – now older – decided we could do things up even better. How about staying at the pool from open to close, they asked.

So today, with temperatures in the upper 80s in the forecast, we set out to make it happen. Several of the girls were documenting things, hour-by-hour, on Snapchat:

We also took this fun photo of Veronica at the start of the day... and another at the end:

Emily was sure excited about something to do with Julia.

Tough girls after a long day at the pool.