Lions & Tigers & Bears...Oh My!

So with all of the summer activity we finally got a chance to sneak away for a quick family vacation weekend up to Omaha, NE. While it may not be the most glamorous of vacations, it was a perfect fit for the boys and we had an overall fabulous time!

Gram and Papa were brave enough to travel with us on the road trip and through the flood lands that extended our road trip by about an hour each way. The only thing that I can say is thank goodness for portable dvd players...maybe that is why I didn't go on many road trips growing up! :)

We left early Friday morning and were able to hit up the Children's Museum Friday afternoon. What a great place to take kids! There was tons of hands on activities that both boys absolutely got a thrill of! Splash tables, plastic balls, face painting by mom followed by a science show that included blasting off a "rocket" using water and alka seltzer! It is a must to go see. AND...this summer they also had a dinosaur exhibit on the 2nd floor where the boys got a chance to see dinosaurs up and close. They both had a ton of fun, but it took Kieran some warming up before he took his eye off the dinosaurs!

We ended up staying in this cute little hotel downtown called the Magnolia Hotel. It was in walking distance of the Old Market. It really surprised me how beautiful Omaha was! Not sure what I expected, but the Old Market had brick paved roads and carriage rides going on...it was full of hustle and bustle both nights we were there! We must have tuckered Kieran out because we had just sat down for dinner in this nice little table in the corner when Kieran got out of his seat. I thought he had dropped a toy on the floor that he was reaching down to get, but the next thing I knew he had fallen asleep on the floor of this restaurant!!!! Even the manager of the restaurant had to come over to take a peek.

On Saturday we loaded up the car and took the boys to the zoo. What a great zoo...and the weather turned out to be perfect! The highlight reels were: Aiden loved the gorillas most - Papa even got to see one run up and 'slap' the viewing glass window sending kids into a frenzy...if you can imagine that! A short second to that would be the aquarium that we walked through an underground tunnel and saw a stingray and sharks swimming right above us! Kieran loved the train ride throughout the park. My personal favorite was the Kingdom of the Night exhibit, which included a swamp exhibit that Aiden kept repeating "Mom...these crocodiles are freaking me out!". I think Gram's favorite would be AFTER the zoo and the ice cream parlor we found that only serves HOMEADE ICE CREAM!! Yummy! Similarly, Chris would also chime in that he enjoyed the nightly cookie buffet at the hotel that he got to indulge in his love of White Chocolate Macadamian Nut cookies!!

Overall, it was a great weekend of fun! On our way out of town we stopped at the Bob Kerrey pedestrian bridge that crosses over the Missouri river. Did I mention the flooding? It was crazy how high the water was - including the views we got on the drive up of the flooding through the farming fields.

Here are a few pics from the trip!