Nebraska

November 4-7-
We took advantage of Kingston's fall break and headed to Nebraska for a few days.  It was an early flight, but we all managed.  At first both kids wanted grandma so I thought I was off the hook, but at the last minute the window seat fight broke out and Kingston was forced to sit with me if he wanted a window seat.  But we stayed busy with magnets and playing, but not much sleeping!!

The kids were full of energy when we landed and they were able to run some of it off while we waited for the rental car. Then, we were off to Aunt Joyce's for lunch!

She spoiled us with food and holiday treats.  The kids loved playing in the yard and making a fort with her couch cushions.  Staci, Lexi, and Nova came to play for awhile.

After that, we were off to Great Grandma Cecrle's farm.  Kingston and I got to sleep upstairs.  Oh, those stairs.  Kingston slipped and had a bumpy ride down...he held the railing every time after that!!  They are steep!!
The next day, we toured the farm and looked in all the buildings and at the tractors.

Grandma has two kitties that she feeds.  They were too skittish to let us pet them, but the kids enjoyed feeding them the leftover pancakes from breakfast.  And we had our very first opossum sighting....he would sneak in and steal the cat food at night.  Kingston has a fun story about that opossum.  "His pants got wet so grandma hung them outside along with his socks. Next morning I could only find his socks and thought someone else brought them in.  After further inspection, the opossum pulled them off the fence and dragged them into the dog house (he would hide in there from us). But luckily we got them back!"

We had enough visitors so the kids never got bored.  We played games, ate surprise rolls (these were a hit with the kids!!), and just hung out.  We got to go to bed early and sleep in...we had no agenda and it was nice!!

 

The last night we were staying in Fairbury in a hotel with a pool so the kids could swim.  Of course, the pool was closed and Kingston was devastated, but we made up for it at the park.  Fairbury has a really big fun park that we ran around for quite some time.

 

We had dinner at Runzas and visited the Francis' before calling it a night.  Julienna was out as soon as her head hit the pillow!!

As if that wasn't enough fun already, we met Jami, Nate, and Grant in Omaha at the Henry Doorly Zoo.  It started off cool, but we started with the indoor exhibits and by afternoon it had warmed up.  We picked the perfect day and probably only saw 5 other people in the entire zoo. It was a great experience.

We went through the jungle

and the aquarium.

We saw peacocks, 

giraffes,

 

elephants,

and lions!

We even had our own private seal talk.

The primate building was really cool.  There was a new little baby that was fun to watch.

And there was a giant playground, too!!  But the kids were pretty exhausted by the time we got there. 

Our 2nd to last zoo stop was Kingdoms of the night.  It was pretty creepy, dark, smelly, and night sounds all around.  It had nocturnal hunters like crocodiles.  But it was definitely cool, but also a little creepy crawly.

And then, it was time for the gift shop.  Julienna fell asleep before she could pick anything out so Kingston and I decided on a tiger for her (she got some mermaids at the aquarium).  Kingston could have spent all day there deciding.  But finally, he chose a giant boa and a shark action set.  Both really awkward items to bring on a plane!!

It was such a great day and it was nice to have some seasoned tour guides to help us see everything we wanted!!

From there we went to the airport and just waited for our flight.  We lucked out in Denver and didn't have to change planes...which worked out really good since both kids were zonked out.  Things got tricky when we landed at midnight in Boise and had to carry to sleeping kids and 4 bags off the plane!  But it was a great vacation and we came home with tons of good memories!!!