Happy __th JIM!!

This September we made a special trip to Omaha to celebrate a completely unimportant, very small, and hardly mentionable age in the amazing life of dad, grandpa, computer wiz, B52 baron, disc golf Olympiad, scotch aficionado and grill master, (to name only a few descriptors) Jim Cerney. It was quite the event with old friends, some from Matt's youth, family including Melinda, Mark, Max, Madeline, the uncles Den and Don and great ma and pa Cerney, Frieda and Bob.  Let the festivities begin!

 

 

Brock shows off his construction skills.

 

and some daddy love.

Brock has been working hard on controlling the deep despair that accompanies the collapse of a tediously stacked tower. As a coping method, we have given him the mantra "relax, rebuild" to channel the pain.

Here is "relax, rebuild" in action

 Peanuts anyone?

 Brock is a hard core fan of Madeline. Here is the esteemed lady providing him with a tutorial in the preparation of delicious and highly addictive snack foods.

"Look me in the eye and tell me where that rolo went..."

There is a fine art to dewrapifying. Mentor and pupil discuss methodology.

Yay! A tee-shirt! A short reprieve from the endless stream of scotch bottles.

Look at that guy open another bottle of scotch... No! Wait! It's a tee shirt!! 

 

 

What a way to recover from being vegetarian! These ribs were amazing.

 Ah, the bounce house. The trouble is that they are just so bouncy.

Rrrr matey, this bouncy house be rougher than t' roughest seas!

Oh goodness I hope the poop deck is clear.

Here's a sample of the crew.

  No party is complete without a paper mule for the little ones to bludgeon.

Max took an unfortunate tumble a few days before the big event. It was not well timed, to say the least. He was quite a trooper lightly stepping solo in the bounce house and swinging one/wrong handed at the pinata. Luckily, Max's baseball stills are so beyond the average child, let alone a 3-year old, that it might have evened the score a little. 

It was Madeline who claimed the deathly swing.

She poses with the prize.

Pool time. Brock is enjoying this. Maybe we should have baptized him after all. 

Dunk shot.

Max somehow manages to wield a dangerous blue squeezy guy despite his injury.

Did we have hot wheels Jake? Why not? I blame this on you. Luckily I am getting in my time now.

We shrunk Brock and put him in one of the hotwheels. Look at cute tiny Brock!

Ok, there was no shrinking. Just an a sweet, sweet ride.

"I don't know Brock, it bottomed out...too many rolos maybe? hmm?!"

This picture does not reflect the chaos and emotional trauma ensued with this vehicle.

Fun at the local playground Brock "drove" to. I put that in quotes, it was more like "screamed violently while battling his own feet" to.

Matt got roped into a full out monster battle. It was an Oscar worthy performance with all the award criteria represented: violence, check; blindness/maiming/or general physical oddity, check; good vs. evil, check; teddy bear bullet gun, check.

aaaannnndd... cut! That's scene!

Plenty of energy left for throwing around a 33 pound squiggle three feet in the air.

That face is worth it every time.

With the kids in bed it was time for the big kids to hit the pool. Jim poses pre-plunge. 

 Proper attire was required: cut off t-shirt tucked uncomfortably deep into swim trunks.

Coined the "Nebraska Hot Tub" by the uncles, this baby is fueled by a shop vac and a substantial amount of beer.

Well, with the big day done, we had an afternoon left to visit one of our Omaha favorites, the zoo. And finally, a picture of our hostess with the mostess, JULIE! From Brock's expression I think he is on the wrong side of the cage... rawr!

The boy loves a little goat time.

This gorilla was cray. It was chasing after another patron, being all gorilla like. This caption makes no sense, sorry. 

Sun bear was awesome! We got a great view of it at feeding time munching on projectile veggies.

Boy ponders fish.

People ponder boy pondering fish.

Boy ponders ball.

Boy harasses ball. Daddy harasses ball boy harasses.

That was an odd final caption for this awesome trip but oh well, I'm losing steam here at the end. A big thanks to Melinda, as always, for doing all our dirty work and being our-in-the-moment photographer. A heart-felt thank you to Julie for feeding cleaning and entertaining a hoard despite pantry-blocking-naptimes, broken bones, fickle grandchildren, Nebraska Hot Tubs and Nebraska Margaritas, and general insanity. Thank you Jim for aging is such a celebrational way, we had a blast!