Friday I got stuck at work late and then had more work to do once home. Heath picked up Jimmy Johns for dinner and we all ate then she took Peanut and Pumpkin to Pinewood derby.
Bean and I cleaned house, did work on the computer, cleaned Bean, and most of all cooked and packed for our weekend. We made turkey and bean quadrilles,peanut butter roll ups and banana bread. I got her to bed early and finished up my work work at about 9.
Heath and I had a little more to get ready when they got home then we all got to bed so we could get an early start the next day.
I got up at 6 and got myself ready and then got breakfast and coffee, packed the coolers and van and then got everyone else up and in the car. We hit the road for a 3hr drive. It went well and we only had to stop once for bathrooms and donuts.
We went strait to the zoo and got there 30 minutes after it opened. It was really windy and there was lots of people headed in.
As our crowd of people got past the front gate we realized it was free day and a nice day and everyone was going to the zoo. We pretty much got in line and slowly slowly made our way through.
At first we tried to make the best of it and check things out.
But the crowds were just too much so once we got to an exit we ran for it. We decided it was worth it to come back the next day and pay. We had worked up an appatite and a thirst so headed to our favorite Omaha brewery.
Things started looking up. We had seats right by the tanks, good drinks and good food.
After everyone had their fill we went exploring in the Old Market area.
There are lots of fun shops, the streets are brick and we all found something to do.
The girls loved a giant candy store.
Peanut found some cheep comic books at an antique store and the adults found a brewery and distillery.
So we hung out in a fancy lounge area and had our drinks while the kids read and ate candy.
Bean was pretty beat so we headed to the hotel. It seemed a little sketchy but it was close to everything we wanted, cheep and had a pool. Heath and Bean laid down for naps and Shin and I took the big kids swimming.
We all swam a bunch to give Bean a good naptime. Then we all got rinsed off and dressed and went to dinner.
Heath sister lives in Omaha and her mom, brother and other sister were all visiting. They made chicken and rice and salad and we brought the chips and salsa. The star of dinner was Heath’s new niece.
We hung out until the girls got exhausted then went back to the room. Heath and Grant stayed a while longer for some Fifa soccer tournament on the playstation.
Bean was the first one up so I snuck her out and down to breakfast. Shin joined us and we kept her eating as long as we could then went up. We got the rooms cleaned up while everyone else ate
and then we all went swimming.
After swimming we quickly rinced off, tossed our stuff in the van and went to the zoo. We got there about 30 min after opening again and parked way closer. It was also not windy and felt great.
We skipped the little bit we had done before and got after the animals. First we were inside the dome and everything was dark so I didn’t take any pictures. There were gators and bats and beavers and all sorts of really cool stuff. Once outside we had a snack
Then we saw monkeys and stuff
We had the lunch I made Friday night.
Then checked out the bears.
They had a lot of bears.
And a whole area of bear stuff.
We worked our way around past Shin’s favorite, the prairie dogs
to the playground.
We went through Madagascar and saw heath’s favorite the chameleon
Then went to see Bean’s favorite the baby lions.
Our next stop was the aquarium. It was just as cool as the dome but also a little tough for pictures.
Peanut and Pumpkin’s favorite was the Japanese spider crabs.
We were getting pretty worn down but had a lot left to see so stopped for sneaky hard cider, Gatorade and snacks.
This snack was right next to the butterflies.
On our way to the jungle we stopped for a family picture.
The jungle is giant and really cool. Heath and I remember it being one of our favorite spots about a decade ago but everyone was just too tired to see the whole thing.
We did find time to see my favorite the giant carp.
On the right you can kind of see a huge catfish that could probably be swallowed by the carp swimming under the turtle. I would guess the carp is 7-9ft long and maybe 200lbs.
Then we got in the car and headed home. It was a fairly quite ride home and much napping was done.
We didn’t go home though, it was almost 7pm and we were hungry. Shin wanted to treat us to a special dinner so we headed to Jack Stack.
We went all out and got a ton of food.
We ate and ate and ate.
Then we remembered how tired we were so we rushed home and got to bed.