I told my friend I was going to Junkstock this past weekend and he asked me why I was going to a Gentlemen’s club on a Saturday morning. Fail.

In case anyone else came across “Junkstock” in their search for things to do in the Omaha area and had some questions, I can assure you this is a family friendly and fully clothed event.

In fact, Junkstock is quickly becoming known as one of the countries best vintage festivals. Junkstock began in 2012 as a small event with a handful of vendors, but over the years it has expanded to become a semi-annual, three-day event at Sycamore Farms with 200+ vendors, 20+ food trucks, and a stage for local musicians to show us what they got…talk about success!

We paid our $10 cash only entrance fee and wandered the crowd trying to find our friends. It turns out saying, “I’m standing near the wooden pallet vendor” or “there is a guy selling artisan chocolates to my left” doesn’t really narrow things down at an event like this, woops. Thank goodness for the pony ride station and thank goodness there was only one.

Before getting too carried away in our hunt for all things dusty, rusty, and adorable, we obviously had to stop and snap a picture at this totally staged photo-op – an instagrammer’s dream!

Ok, now that we got that out of the way, time to focus! You really learn a lot about your friends by observing which vendors they are drawn to. I won’t name names, but I had no idea my friend would be so into tea cups glued together to form a bird bath – fascinating! This is truly the one-of-a-kind type of junk people flock to the event for.

We strolled past locally made cutting boards, pallet wood everything, homemade soaps, beef jerky out the wazoo, carefully crafted greeting cards, more home décor than we could fathom, and so much more!

I’m a total sucker and/or a Basic B because I was loving all the weathered pallet wood décor – I couldn’t resist! I strolled down Penny Lane (not kidding) and bought an old teal ladder to use as a blanket holder in my living room. So stinkin’ cute!

Eventually all our strolling made us hungry, so we wandered over to the food truck area, grabbed a bite, and hung out around one of the fire pits they had setup. It took 3 days to wash the campfire smell out of my hair, but totally worth it.

This was such a fun day with friends and I am already looking forward to its return this September!

Junkstock.com

-Leah

It’s Friday night and the mood is light – the Globetrotter’s are in town!

When Big Brother Big Sisters e-mailed us Bigs saying that they had tickets available for us to take our Littles to see the game, I was so excited! I texted my Little, but was so surprised when she replied asking, “what are Globetrotters?” Say whaaaaat, please don’t tell me they became irrelevant!

After sending her some YouTube video highlighting their tricks and dunks, she agreed to go – thank goodness because otherwise I may have had to borrow another child to pass off as my Little just so I could go.

We had to get there an hour early because my Little (and 9 other Littles) was going to be joining the team on the court for the National Anthem so we had to check in with the courtside announcers – we felt pretty dang cool hanging out down there looking all VIP.

We had fun watching the local dance troops warm up the crowd, grown adults participating in dance contests on the court, the crowd passing giant beach balls into inflatable hoops, and all sorts of other things to get the crowd pumped up. The CenturyLink had no shortage of energy this night!

The lights dimmed and the opposing team entered the arena, the Washington Generals. They talked a lot of smack, some wore masks, and we all yelled “booooooo!” – so great.

Next up, the stars of the show arrived, the Globetrotters! Red, white, and blue flashing lights everywhere, each player doing a little something something to highlight their personality, and then finally they got lined up for the National Anthem – my Littles big moment! 

All the Littles lined up and walked onto the court and stood amongst the team…and all the Bigs obnoxiously took a thousand photos. They had a local church group sing the anthem and hot dang, they did so good – hearing this before a sporting event never gets old for me!

We found our seats and spent the next two hours cracking up at all the silliness happening on, and off, the court. They had players running into the crowd for a bite of someone’s nachos, grabbing a lady’s purse and running around, holding an infant up in the air Lion King style, and so much more!

They had a lot of fun during the “game” too – all sorts of slam dunks, jumping over each other to make a shot, sliding under the opposing team’s legs, playing in slow motion and reverse; the entertainment never stopped!. They kept the whole crowd engaged and laughing the whole night.

I was so glad to see that the overall schtick hadn’t changed since I last saw them (like 20 years ago), and more importantly, I was so glad that my Little had a blast and left there asking when will they be coming back. SUCCESS!! She had me worried leading up to the event, so that was a major relief!

Being involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters has been so much fun over this past year; they are always inviting us to partake in special events and offering us tickets for things all around town! This helps make planning our outings a breeze! If you’re interested in learning more check out their site:

http://www.bbbsomaha.org/

-Leah

  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the fact that my friend had to help me out of my office chair this morning because my tailbone hurts so badly suggests otherwise. Today is my birthday and I am suddenly feeling every bit of my 31 years.

You know what, though? Our afternoon at Skate Daze was totally worth all of the bruises, rug burns, and sprains that we acquired.

It was such a nostalgia trip visiting this place. While it was my first Skate Daze experience, it reminded me so much of this place back home, Roller Kingdom, that was popular for birthday parties and school outings growing up. It had all things I loved most about my Roller Kingdom days: the bright lights, neon print rugs, cheap pizza, and the DJ playing old school pop songs…and then when the music stopped having to rush and claim a spot in a numbered corner and hoping they didn’t call your number forcing you to exit the rink. Ahhh, memories… 

We grabbed our rental skates and snagged a rink side table to set up shop. We laced ourselves in and uncoordinatedly made our way onto the skate floor. I was feeling confident on my first few loops and thought to myself “this is like riding a bike – it’s coming back to me!” Lies, all lies. As soon as one child cut in front of me causing me to quickly dodge him, I lost all control, skated right into the carpeted edge and face planted. Ouch.

Ain’t nothing but a thing – onto round 2! I had a good second run; I was feeling the beat of the 90’s pop songs, skating alongside my friends while managing to pose for action shots, and waving to our other friend who was in charge of the video footage. Good times. Until they had all skaters change direction on the rink.

Clearly, I am much more skilled at skating clockwise because as soon as we had to reverse directions my feet flew out from under me and my butt hit the ground…hard. Like so hard the referee came over to check on me. Ugh. This wasn’t a “that will hurt later” fall either, it was an “oh no, I think I broke my butt” type fall. I played it cool and did another loop before hanging up the skates for the day.

Injury aside, this was such a fun day! Maybe next time we will go on a Tuesday when it’s Adult Retro night – less chances of small children causing me to wipe out 😉

skatedaze.com/

-Leah