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.
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.
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.
The trip over the walkway is more fun with more people.
Having recently read "Quitter," a best-selling book with some nice career advice, I set out to make some lifestyle changes. One of them was to try to spend more time with the girls each day. And one of the easy ways to do it was to walk with the girls each afternoon – including the walk home from school with Veronica.
While Julia and Olivia have yet to join in on the afternoon walk up to pick up Veronica, Lauren joined in today. The result was a nice opportunity to catch up with her – and to capture one of her priceless expressions (seen at right).
The walk from my apartment to their house takes about 12-15 minutes and it is another 10 minutes or so to the school. The walk home is another 10 minutes, then another 10 from there. So it adds up to about 35 to 45 minutes of exercise and catch-up time with the girls.
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.
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.
Veronica shows off the three paper airplanes she made.
The weather was nice enough to enjoy some time outdoors today. Though not particularly warm, there was a nice north breeze blowing. And that made for perfect conditions for our first paper airplane throwing contest of the year.
See below for photos of all the respective aircraft that participated (Emily was at a friend's house), as well as a pair of videos that captured (nearly) all of the action. You'll have to ask Julia what "Sain Air" means. (Hint: It is a play off of Sean's first name.)
Veronica's plane – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 – went missing shortly after this photo was taken.
Lauren had a BMC Racing Team-themed aircraft.
This was Sean's second plane – and it stayed up in the air a long time.
Olivia had quite the needle-nosed craft (complete with Rudolph-themed tip).
Lauren's second plane was equally as artistic as the first – but not very "air-tastic."
Add Veronica's Malaysia Airlines Flights 371 and 373 to the list of planes that went missing.
We're not sure what "The Prison Airplane" is all about. You'll have to ask Lauren.
Julia made this amazing plane after watching a YouTube video. It flew nearly 50 feet.
Lauren pointed out her pottery that was on display in the art room.
Julia was invited to attend an open house for eighth graders at Central High School today. But there was one problem: she didn't want to go. Well, she didn't want to go if Lauren went.
I told Julia having Lauren tag along was to her advantage. Lauren is the "known commodity" there and Emily was not able to attend since she was at work.
Even though the temperature was below 10 degrees, Julia insisted on staying in the van when we got there (and it was not going to be running!). So Lauren and I went in and looked around. After making the rounds to see a few coaches and teachers, we returned to the van and gave Julia one more chance to go inside. This time, she did and everything went well. She got to see the art department and talk to a few teachers.
