We ran into twin boys from Alena's previous daycare class and their parents at the Des Moines zoo. They had recently made a trip to Omaha and had nothing but good things to say about the Children's Museum there. Our neighbors from our old neighborhood also raved about it last summer when they returned from a trip there. In the end, we decided to head West.
We left mid morning and made it to Omaha a little before the museum opened. (Although it is GREAT everyone is potty trained, that means more stops to use the bathroom. We may or may not have stopped to go potty on the exit ramp a time or two!). We packed a picnic lunch so we ate that prior to going into the zoo. A lady struck up a conversation with us while our kids played on the playground by the museum, asking "what's is like to go from 2 kids to 3?" Which we responded, "What's it like to just have 2 kids?" Long story short, she was making a cross country, 12 day trip with her 4 year old and 1.5 year old from Dallas. Her next stop was "in Northwest Iowa." When I asked her what city, I was caught off guard when she said, "Granville." What?! This is the city my mom and her family grew up in and it is a tiny little town. Everyone knows everyone. When I told her my grandfather's name she recognized it right away. Small world.
The museum was stimuli overload! It was busy and loud, although this didn't seem to bother the kids. They didn't know where to start and quite frankly neither did I. When you are outnumbered with kids it can be challenging to keep an eye on everyone, especially in busy places. Thankfully for the most part, the girls wanted to stick together so I followed them while Justin kept an eye on Caleb. He was very fond of the mechanic's shop where he probably changed about 50 tires and checked under the car a handful of times. I thought the girls would want to attend the Princess Dance Party but they wanted nothing of it. Instead they played in the pneumatic tube area where balls were flying everywhere, the art area and the Lego area the most.
They all enjoyed the little grocery store, with a medical office, bank and restaurant. Lauren was in a zone here and couldn't be bothered for anything, not even ONE picture. Alena particularly enjoyed checking out the groceries for all her "friends." Unfortunately, none of her friends bothered to put their groceries away after paying for them so I spent most of the time doing that. Actually, being in that place caused me to have a mini panic attack because all I wanted to do was put everything back in it's little place, but then tiny hands would take them right back off the shelf again and into their grocery cart!
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| My Lego builder |
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| This doesn't show it, but she was having a blast |
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| Checking out |
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| They LOVED that they could paint their own faces |
We ended the day going through the little water play area outside of the museum (luckily I had their swimsuits). We then checked into the hotel and met my cousin for dinner at a local brewery. I have a love for a good falafel sandwich and you can't find them many places. The one I had that night was delicious-I would definitely get it again. After walking around the Old Market we said our goodbyes to my cousin and headed into the hotel, (which is beautiful, new and modern-a big thanks to my cousin for getting us a great rate at the Hyatt).
We limit our overnight stays in a hotel because nobody usually sleeps well when all 5 of us are in the same room. This room had two double beds plus a sofa sleeper so we didn't need to utilize the pack n plays. We started the process early because we knew it would take a while for the 3 little ones to fall asleep. There is usually talking, giggles, trips to the bathroom, complaints that someone is stealing the covers, etc. Justin and C bunked up together, the girls slept on the sofa sleeper and I had my own bed :). Justin and I had good intentions of getting a cocktail from the hotel bar after everyone fell asleep, but I fell asleep too.
At 3:00 AM I woke up to a thud and crying. Little missy had fallen out of bed. I quickly picked her up and deposited her in my bed for the rest of the night. Thankfully everyone slept in (which means sleeping until 7:00 in our household).
After some morning cartoons in bed we decided to head to breakfast. I think it's perfectly ok to go to breakfast in a hotel in your jammies but maybe other people think that is weird? Needless to say, we all headed in our bed wear and enjoyed a yummy breakfast. During our breakfast it down poured outside. I had no idea it was supposed to rain and was worried it would ruin our plans for the day.
Then we got ready for the day and headed to the zoo crossing our fingers the storms would stay away. Thankfully the first 4 hours we were there were overcast and perfect temps. After a late lunch, the sun came out and it was hot! Although there are a few things under construction there was still plenty to see. In fact we were hurrying at the end to get to all the exhibits. A new exhibit is where you can touch and feed stingrays. Alena, Justin and I all fed stingrays which was really neat. It made me immediately want to jump on a plane back to Grand Cayman.
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| I could watch the gorillas all day |
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| train ride selfie |
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| Waiting for a stingray to eat her shrimp |
I love this zoo. Did you know it was ranked the 6th best zoo in the world last year? It will be even better after the African part is completed, which is scheduled for Summer of 2016. We plan to head back in a couple years, when strollers won't be needed. We stayed almost until the zoo closed then headed back into the van for the trip home. It took the twins 13 minutes of driving before falling asleep :).
All in all it was a very successful trip. Where is this summer going?
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