Fun with friends and on the farm

Vivian and I have had another fun week enjoying the fall weather and spending time with family and friends. On Wednesday, we had a random game night with our Journey Group from CCC. We played some croquet in the courtyard of the Greenfields apartments out in West Omaha, where Nick and Lisa live. We had to fight off some terrible, carnivorous mosquitoes and then scratch and itch or two upstairs while playing a few cutthroat rounds of Apples to Apples.

On Thursday, we continued our September birthday celebrations with Vivian's parents, carrying on the tradition of eating ribeye and a bloomin' onion at Outback Steakhouse in celebration of Vivian and Jack's birthdays (which are two days apart).

We've been having some gorgeous autumn weather this week, so Vivian and I enjoyed the great outdoors on Saturday. We dropped by the Farmer's Market in downtown Omaha in the morning, buying a peach pie, some swiss mushroom brats, a bottle of homemade root beer, and a few other tasty wares from local vendors (including a yummy peanut butter and banana cupcake).

Afterward, we dropped by Gifford Farm in Bellevue, which was having an open house fundraiser. Vivian's mom has been working there for sometime, so we dropped by and got to visit some of the animals on the farm, including baby chicks, a ferret, a turtle, a leopard gecko, pigs, chickens, horses, and several other animals. We also got to sit inside a makeshift planetarium and learn about astronomy later in the afternoon. Now I can find the north star if I ever get lost in the woods.

That evening, we finally made it up to Blair again to take part in one of our friend Dennis' many movie night events. (It seems like our schedules have always collided in the past.) We had some pulled pork and a few glasses of wine before settling in to watch Back to the Future Part 3 and Smokey and the Bandit, both movies I'd seen a while ago but had mostly forgotten about. Vivian had never seen Smokey and the Bandit before, and it was fun to watch the antics of Burt Reynolds and Jackie Gleason in what was essentially was one long car chase. The third installment of Marty McFly and Doc Brown's adventures in time also turned out to be a little more interesting than I remembered.