o! what a city.

labor day weekend, we packed up and headed west to omaha. since i bought the zoo pass this year, i wanted to take full advantage of it and the discounts it gives us to other zoos. i've always wanted to go to omaha's henry doorly zoo, and this was my chance. adam and i had talked about it a few months ago and said that it could be a nice little getaway for the four of us, and a way to end our summer. i searched and made plans and he used his hotel cards to get a discounted price on a hotel room.there was no cancelling now.

we left the house around 9am. we had a few things we needed to do first and we had a few stops in the des moines area before heading over. my first plan was to go to the children's museum. there were tons of activities in each of the rooms to do, but little boy was a bit too young for some of it and there were tons of people to squeeze through to be able to do everything. the time that we were there, we definitely enjoyed our time and were ready to leave when we did.

 there was this giant peg board that you could put these colored pegs in and the light on the other side made them light up. it would have been fun, but the little girl next to fletcher was having a difficult time taking them out, that i thought she was going to bonk him in the head so we moved to a different activity.

this car was just taking up space, but little boy loved sitting in it and turning the wheel. i'm pretty sure he would have played there the whole time.

{playing with gadgets}

 in the science room there were tons of balls flying and bouncing and rolling all over. the tubes were full of air, so when the balls were put in the them, they would flow through and come out an opening. depending what button you pushed or wheel you turned, determined where the balls would come from.

 {even baby b got to enjoy herself}

 in the imagination station room, there was tons of different activities. there was the play firetruck that led to secret tunnels (that little boy didn't crawl through), there was a real firetruck that the kids could dress up and play on, which was the one thing little boy ran to after switching activities. i think he we played on it 6 or 7 different times.

 there was a cool farm area with different animals and these corn stalks. he posed by the animals. made animal sounds and picked corn. there was a garden section too where he planted vegetables and then harvested them.

the grocery store part was super fun. i want him to have a little cart of his own. anyway, tons of shelves with tons of different food items. he wheeled his way through the aisles and did his shopping. mostly spending time in the produce department. when he was done, he had to check out and other kids who were there were playing as the checkers so we didn't have to put the stuff away. 

 driving the tractor and trying to get a photo at the same time was a bit difficult. i think he just discovered something new he wanted to go play with. at least baby b was looking.

{ cooking a few chicken legs }

 {going down the slide}

 {playing with water. the only area i TRIED to avoid}

baby b even got to play in the wiggle room. this was a nice closed off area for the littler little people. there were soft mats and tunnels that the babes could crawl through. there was a mirror the whole length of one wall so they could see themselves. b loved looking at the baby who was looking back at her.

 in the wiggle room, there was also a lot of puzzles. b got into the puzzle action. she didn't do that well with matching up the shapes, but she did suck and chew on them like a champ. little boy has been in a puzzle phase lately, so he did about 10 different ones, a hundred times (a little exaggeration, but not much).

 one more stop at the funky car before heading upstairs to the carousel. this was the first time little boy had been on a carousel and he loved every bit of those 5 minutes. adam had to ride stand next to him, but he said that little boy smiled so big the whole time. i tried to get a few pictures, but my camera is so delayed that it kept snapping the girls in front of him. this is the best i've got, and i think they are actually stopped.

 after our two hours or so at the children's museum, we were a bit famished so we headed to a joint i searched on guy fieri's stops in omaha. it's called california tacos and more and this place was delicious. the only trouble, finding a place to park. adam and i each got a beef taco and little boy enjoyed some chips and cheese sauce. it was so good that i could have downed another taco, but it was only 3:30 and we knew we would be hungry later anyway, so we had a corona instead.

 our next stop before heading to the hotel was the gene leahy mall. when i think mall, i think shopping. this mall, think park. it has a nice walking path around a lake/pond/watery space and there are a few sculptures and benches around the area. the slides and a frog climb-on thing is in one area of the 'mall' and seems to attract the most people.  there were people coming and going the whole time we were there, including two wedding parties. as we watched some of the guys from wedding party go down and fly in the air, adam and i were a bit scared to take fletcher. i made adam to a trial run slide first and since he didn't go airborne, i figured it was alright for little boy to go. adam took fletcher first and because i really wanted to go down too, i took him again.

after going down the slides, we headed for the hotel. we got there, unloaded the car and went to relax a little before heading for supper at brewburger's, another restaurant guy fieri had been to on triple d. good food, good burgers, good beer. no pictures because we were dealing with a tired little boy and a hungry little girl. 

we ate and then walked back across the parking lot to the hotel to get ready for bed so we would be ready for our day at the zoo. but before bed, there was a little bible reading and a little playing before lights out. 

i'm sure this post is long enough, so i'll stop here. come back by tomorrow so you can read part 2 of our mini vacation.