Growing Telanders

Ponca #4 (Museum) -- December 24

Cousins! Erin is on the left, Hazel in the middle, and Vivian on the right.

Here, Vivian is charging ahead, and Hazel and Erin are following behind holding hands.

Vivian enjoyed this part of the museum in the visitor's center with Nana. There were fish and turtles and a few other creatures in tanks for the girls to look at.

Andrew watched squirrels.

The girls pretended to canoe.

All in all a good little outing for Christmas Eve day.

Ponca # 3 (lights) -- December 23

We were sitting around the cabin one afternoon looking at the fire, and someone had pulled into our parking area. We assumed that they were other guests, but then a guy walked up to our cabin. He was over 6' 5'' tall with a big cowboy hat on and cowboy boots. He knocked (banged?) aggressively on the door. Andrew opened the door, and noticed that he was carrying a gun too. He had a big loud voice, and said "well, I guess you know why I'm here." Andrew asked if he could help the man, since we did not in fact have any idea why he was there. Emma barked. He seemed to be under the impression that we were in our own home, and didn't realize that he was in the state park. He asked where the lights were on Highland road, and we had no idea. He went on his way, and we laughed about the whole thing.

I did some Googling, and found this local news story about a lights display pretty close to Ponca State Park. After the kids went to bed, Andrew and I checked it out and were pretty impressed. After Christmas Eve service, we took the little girls to see it. It was a huge display that was meant to be walked through. Not something we will forget soon!

Ponca #2 (Painting) -- December 23

Ponca #1 (Playground) -- December 23

We went to Ponca State Park in eastern Nebraska again for Christmas, where we met Abbi and Mike and Erin. The old playground had been removed, and Hazel was sort of appeased by the fact that they had installed a new one. The new playground was pretty neat, and it was pretty much right across from the cabin so we could hop over there whenever we wanted to.