Weekend Getaways...

are always more than an adventure for us....

This may well be my longest post ever....but I have so many pictures of our trip to Omaha and the zoo....and I know when I make a book out of my blog some day....the kids will all appreciate these...so yes... I am going to post all of them!!!

Some might call us a bit crazy for not canceling this little weekend getaway with a Mama suffering from a broken pelvis and a Daddy who came down with strep throat hours before we were to leave.  But.... I guess we "took one for the team":)  The kids were so excited about going to the zoo....When  B went to the doc Thursday nite and found out he did indeed have strep for the 4th time in the last 4 months, Sammy and I decided to have a date with urgent care too..just to be safe.  (Every time B has strep, Sammy usually has it too...we learned that after a not so pleasant surprise on our last trip to Saint Louis).  Sam had no fever and strep test was negative. Perfect.  J had recovered from his bad allergy episode...so we decided we would leave in the AM.  

The drive was smooth...and we made it in time to drive straight to the zoo, get lunch and start our sightseeing! 

First up were the zebras...Sammy thought they were dogs and kept saying "oooh,oooh"  (his version of "woof, woof")

And below were J's favorite...the spider monkeys...And if you look closely...you can see the skyfari "gondola" ride....Yes....on our last day at the zoo....somehow B convinced me to ride this HIGH above the zoo with S and J...They loved it....I have never been so scared in my life.  I'm kind of a pansy when it comes to heights...and of course I was more than worried that squirmy J might just move an inch and fall out!!!

Sea lion feeding time:)

The lemurs....To see them you actually go in a gated area behind closed doors.  As soon as we ventured in... the zoo keeper yelled "loose lemur" and sure enough he was right by our feet!  Talk about up close and personal!

It was HOT....and Sammy was content with his water!

S brought her own (well, my old) point and shoot and went crazy taking her own pics of everything.

And lots of pictures of the gorillas...because they were my favorite...we spent a LONG time just watching them.....Of course they were behind glass..so picture taking was hard...but, still, you could get very close to them!

It looks like he is just thinking..."Those humans....they're just nuts.."

And because I've always had a thing for feet...

Tigers

It was fun watching how excited Sam was to see the animals!  And J's hair as you can see was wet because, thankfully, there were little water spray areas that let the kids cool off!

And the size of this snake...HUGE!!!

Snack time

Leave it to J to be silly..

A perfect day for ice cream!

I can't remember what this guy was called...but isn't he cute?

The penguin exhibit was really neat too!

Upside down jelly fish....the aquarium at the zoo was amazing....we thought it was AS good...if not better than Kansas City's new aquarium...and MUCH cheaper!

We decided to save the train ride and maybe the gondola ride for the end of the day. Do you remember our zoo train experience in St. Louis...yup...it poured and we were forced off the train.  Since then...J has desperately wanted to have the full train ride experience.   We figured we would be hot and tired at the end of the day and it would be a good break from walking which was extremely hard for me....  But we were so busy...we lost track of time and by the time we got to the train...it was CLOSED:(.  We had stayed almost till close without even knowing it...we told the kids we would try to come back the next day after we hit the Children's Museum... So this was the end of the first day...and you can tell..the troops were too tired for a good picture...

We were up bright and early Saturday morning....and after a good breakfast, we headed for the Children's Museum.  This was hard with Sam because he wanted to do everything that he was too little to do, and it was hard for us to chase him and still keep an eye on the others.  The kids had fun...but we decided this still didn't compare to the Magic House.  It wasn't as clean....but there were definitely some fun spots.

Getting to create yourself and your future profession...

The pizza parlor

The ball room....Sam's FAVORITE...we took him out of the stroller and he went NUTS...running everywhere...throwing and chasing balls!  He screamed BLOODY MURDER when we had to leave that room!

Thank goodness for the firetruck with real siren sounds to divert his attention!

After a trip to the Mall to buy S some much needed new tennis shoes (This girls feet grow sooo fast!!!)....we headed out for lunch and back to the zoo!

As we were driving....I saw a few clouds in the sky... I told B that knowing our luck...it would probably rain when we got to the train.

Well....as soon as we purchased our 2nd days worth of zoo tickets (mainly so we could squeeze in a train and gondola ride) what do ya know???? Sprinkles....and within seconds...thunder and a heavy downpour.  Grrrr

So....when life gives you lemons....

We headed to the butterfly/insect building.  The kids LOVED this....you were in the room with the butterflies just flying freely.

Sophia was excited when one landed on her...but it was too quick for me to get it in the picture...

Next up...the giraffes....you could really get so up close to them.....I wish I had just a 1/4 of their height.  It's incredible!

And guess what?  The skies cleared....and we finally got a FULL

ZOO train ride!

Sammy LOVED it!

We ended our visit with a trip to the jungle exhibit which was PHENOMENAL (except for the free flying bats:(  )  And last but not least....a skyfari ride that went MUCH to high for my liking...and much to low to the water....but definitely gave us a beautiful overview of the zoo!!

Besides a nasty episode of poor J getting carsick on the way home (we can't seem to make a round trip without some sort of sickness:(.... ) it was a fun-filled, and quick little getaway!