Slidin' through Omaha

Well, like any good plan, sometimes better things come along to change it all up! The plan was to start school last Monday, and instead we took a vacation!! So last Tuesday it was off to Omaha, Nebraska on a rainy morning. God seemed to smile on our little adventure with a beautiful rainbow arched over downtown Kansas City...


It wasn't long before the kiddos hit the ground running at the Omaha Children's Museum. Such a neat place!! Elena was convinced it was all going to be "for 2-year-olds"...that conviction lasted about 30 seconds as she promptly discovered the arts-and-crafts room. Even Zane baby had plenty to explore...


The amazing ball room was a favorite...I think we were in it for close to an hour...


Kai had a great time loading up and checking out some groceries...


Zane loves any type of vehicle with a steering wheel right now...so this giant car was right up his alley!


Eric and I were t.i.r.e.d. so we went straight for our hotel that was on the edge of downtown, chosen especially for it's "just right-sized" water park. Perfect for our kiddos and we had it all to ourselves! These racing slides were super-fast and there were lots of giggles as we would all bounce along the landing pad...


We ate at an excellent brewhouse in the Old Market area, Upstream Brewery. Delicious food and wonderful service and atmosphere...mmmmm. The Old Market area is really well done...in fact, we were impressed with the entire downtown area. Murals and statues almost every block, clean parks, container after container of lush flowers...it was just a really nice place.

The next day we waited out the rain with another trip to the waterpark while Eric got wet playing some disc golf. Our afternoon was spent at the renown Omaha zoo. It was perfect weather and we all enjoyed the animals, the train and the interesting exhibits. Not to mention the rhino rides!


Gooooo Gorillas!!!!


After we checked out Thursday morning, we walked around the lake at a park. We saw HUGE, I mean HUGE fish with dorsal fins like a shark's swimming in the big pond...hmmmm. We need to figure out what they were...maybe carp? I just kept thinking my brothers would love to try and catch them! We asked a couple locals if they knew what they were and they didn't.


One of our last stops was also one of our first...the giant slides at the downtown park! We had had so much fun on them after supper the first night that we went back for more giggles. The kids especially liked them going down while sitting on some wax paper...Elena went airborn!


Our very last stop was at the pedestrian bridge that connects Omaha to Council Bluffs, Iowa over the Missouri River. We actually learned a lot from the historical markers about how settlers tamed the river to enable towns along it to grow and thrive without being washed away every spring. Of course, now "they" are trying to reverse some of the natural environment alterations that occurred because of the developments. Very interesting. Here all my sweeties have one foot in Nebraska and one foot in Iowa...


After some nice afternoon car naps for everyone but our driver, of course, we awoke to another rainy day in Kansas City and yet another beautiful rainbow....smile!


We were back in time for a trip to the movies before one last supper out and then back-to-school night at Discovery Homeschool Academy. What a great trip!