{Cole & Cason (1/2)}

It seems like it's been forever since I've blogged but so much has been going on in my family it's been overwhelming. I'm not going to dread on that but I wanted to share about one of the greatest weeks I've had of my life. Josh & I got to have Cole and Cason for an entire week while Amy & Jeremy had to go to Kentucky for work/house stuff. We started off by meeting them in Topeka before Josh, Cole, Cason, and I went north to Omaha, Nebraska. I've never been to Nebraska - and well, on my "Bucket List" is to go to the 50 states. So we set forth on our 2.5 hour long drive to Omaha. Holy corn - corn was everywhere once we crossed the state line. No I'm not stereotyping, just being honest. Corn, Corn, and More CORN! Once we got to our hotel, we decided on dinner - "The Amazing Pizza Machine" - the food was terrible but the boys had fun playing the games. The favorite game by everyone was the shooting gallery - by the end of it, the boys were all doing really good. We ended up with 232 tickets :)

Cason, Cole, & Uncle Josh
Cole, Aunt Amy, and Cason

The next morning was the whole point of the trip - The Omaha Zoo (07.11.11) - I'd always wanted to go. I'm a huge animal lover and we've been to quite a few but I wanted to check this one off our list and I figured the boys would really enjoy it too. I did a little research before we went so I knew the penguins were going to be fed at 10:30 - so that was our first stop. By far the best penguin exhibit I've been to out of all of the zoos I've seen. They had probably 60 penguins. After spending time with the penguins and in the aquarium we did the Zoo farai ride - it was like a gondola that went over the animals - it was the coolest ride I've ever experienced at a zoo.

Cole & I rode togetherUncle Josh & Cason rode together

We walked around the whole park looking at animals, posing for pictures with the statues. The cat complex was neat - there were a lot of cats in here. Many different types and even one that had only 3 legs. She lost her leg in 2003 and was still able to have babies and gets around fine.
We even were interviewed about traveling up to the zoo. I guess along I 29 there is a lot of detours and closings because of the flooding. We didn't have any detours on our way, just a lot of traffic. We ended with eating lunch at the jungle cafe. We're hot, tired, and hungry so it was satisfying. We spent the evening in the pool at our hotel and dinner at Fuddruckers - very delicious! The next day we went to the Omaha Children's Museum - complete waste of time and money. $38 for nothing. The boys were bored and it was complete chaos. Everyone says it's soooo good --- lie, lie, lie. It's AWFUL! The boys enjoyed the ball area - that's about all we did. We paid $2 extra for their "Dinosaur" exhibit - the boys would have got more information from Jurassic Park.

I hope to get the rest of our week blogged this week before heading home for my Uncle Kris's funeral. He passed away last Tuesday evening. He was only 44 years old. It's a very sad time yet again for our family. I also had to say bye to Cole, Cason, and Amy yesterday as today they are moving to Kentucky. I know it's good for them and a new place to travel but I'm so sad to see them go.