Omaha Zoo

 We realized that the summer was slipping away from us and we hadn't really taken the kids on many trips. We decided to take a mini-trip to Omaha. We left early on a Friday morning and went to the zoo as soon as we got into town. It was 99 degrees that day. I can't explain how hot it was. I was trying to take a picture of the kids. The girls couldn't even keep their eyes open.

 Take 2...still can't open their eyes.

 Take 3...looking good, Riley! She looks like popeye. Mia's peeking a little bit. I gave up!

 These guys were pretty cute. The Omaha zoo is one of the best zoos I've ever been to. I've been to quite a few, too. I even like it better than the San Diego zoo.

 I didn't think this hippo was real at first. I couldn't tell if it was breathing or not because it was so still. I saw it twitch a little bit.

 The kids were so excited for the zoo. They get bored with our hometown zoo. This was definitely more exciting.

 We thought we would go on a Friday thinking it wouldn't be so busy. Dead wrong. You could hardly walk through the exhibits. It was crazy! The kids were pretty well behaved and stuck near us most of the time. Mia is our slowpoke and a few times, she fell behind. Things would catch her eye and I guess she had to stop and look.

 Again, trying to get a nice picture of the kids. Don't my girls look so cute? Ethan wouldn't hold still. I should photoshop him out of this picture. :)

 Scary sharks. Their aquarium was really neat. Mike was in heaven walking through it.

 Jelly fish always creep me out a bit. I've been stung twice by jellyfish. Once while swimming in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and once while in the Bahamas. Their stingers hurt a lot! The Cape Cod jellyfish was more painful. I must have stepped on the stupid thing. He stung me from my calf to my upper thigh. The tentacle marks stayed for 2-3 weeks after the sting too.

 I liked the octopus. They're interesting creatures. I wanted Mike to get an octopus for his salt-water tank but he said they are escape artists and we'd probably find it dead on the floor one day. Okay, than.

 The poor kids were melting. We drank plenty of water that day and splurged on a train ride. That helped with all of the walking. This zoo is spread out. We didn't even get out at one of the stops because we were all so tired and hot.

 Even Mike and I were getting worn out from the heat. We ended up renting a stroller because the kids were getting tired of walking. They're getting way too heavy to carry!

 The gorillas were one of the favorites. They are so big and cool to watch.

 We had to get some $20 ice cream, of course! The kids had it gone within a minute.

 We were lucky enough to see the trainers working with the tiger and lion. They put little chunks of meat on their sticks and when the tiger would react to the tennis ball, she'd give him the meat.

 The zoo had five baby lions born this year. They were so cute.

 Here's the momma. She was huge. It's so intriguing seeing these animals. I definitely wouldn't want to run into them in the wild.

 The poor momma is still nursing. Her cubs are pretty big too. She layed on her back and they all came running. I'd probably have cut them off long ago. :)

 Here's the daddy. He is enormous. I love the predator animals. The zookeeper was training him with the tennis ball as well. He was lazy and sleeping until she came over with the meat.

After the zoo, we went and checked into a hotel. The kids were so excited to be staying over. The hotel had a decent pool so after we had Cheesecake Factory for supper, we swam the rest of the night. The kids passed out and didn't wake up until the next morning. We went swimming one more time and then headed home. It was a very short trip, but we all had fun!

Pedicure Time

 The girls LOVE getting their nails painted. They are always begging me to do it. I thought it would be a fun girl trip to go get pedicures.

 They were beyond excited. They were smiling and giggling the entire time. Ethan tagged along as well. I think he felt a little left out. He wanted to get his toenails done as well, but I explained to him that little boys usually don't get pedicures.

 Mia chose bright green which surprised me. The lady drew a white flower on her big toes. It was pretty cute.

Riley chose bright pink. The lady drew a butterfly on her big toes. I also chose bright pink and had little flowers on my big toes. I forgot to take a picture of all of our toes. It was a lot of fun and we'll definitely have to do it again!

Good-bye Greenhouse

 I always thought it was a bit odd that someone would put a greenhouse in the front of the house. I always thought it was ugly looking and was a bit happy that a tree branch fell through the window. We had to get an estimate to turn the claim into insurance and they wanted $4000 to fix it. Ummm...no thank you.

I couldn't wait to tear her down. It only took us a day to take it down. It was rather easy. Mike unscrewed the windows, and I took the windows from him and placed them in our driveway. They sat in the driveway for a few days until we decided to rent a huge dumpster. We were contemplating hauling the scraps to the dump ourselves, but it was easier, and probably cheaper, in the long run to get the dumpster. 

 I think our house looks naked now! We are now trying to decide what to do with the huge hole in front of the three windows. It goes down 5-6 feet.  We'll probably end up buying some window wells and fill it with dirt. We got an estimate from a company and they want $1300 to fill it with dirt. WHAT?!?! That seems crazily expensive to me.

We want to try and get it done before winter, but I guess it's not a huge deal if we don't. I don't want any little kids falling in the hole, however. The only drawback to taking down the greenhouse is all of the storage space we lost. We stored the kids' outside toys in there during the winter. We'll need to figure something else out.

4th of July

 We traveled back to Chamberlain the following week. I'm sure Mike's parents were sick of us by the end of the weekend! Mike's dad's side always get-together the 4th of July weekend. This was a small group compared to other years. I think 20-30 people came for the weekend. Usually, there's 50-60 people.

 The kids had plenty to do. They must have done a hundred sparklers. Nobody was burned, which I was thankful for.

 We did even more boating and tubing. We also did some fishing. I'm proud to say that I caught a 19 inch walleye. It was the biggest one caught that day!

 Ethan and his dry skin. I was afraid people were going to think it was impetigo. He kept licking his lips and caused his skin to dry out.

 The girls asked for my camera and then proceeded to take a few dozen pictures. They did a decent job at taking pictures. They photographed all of their great-aunts and uncles. I have some interesting pictures! They took all of the pictures below.

 I really like how this one turned out. I'm not sure what they did, but it's a really pretty picture of Grandpa Tom.

 They liked all of Grandma's flowers. I have quite a few pictures of her garden.

 We shot off a ton of fireworks. We saved the biggest ones for the end. The kids had a blast watching them.

 Andrea is going to love this picture!

 We waited until it got dark and then went to the bridge to watch the firework display. Chamberlain always puts on an impressive show. It was a fun weekend!

Ethan and his third-cousin, Reese. They play so well together. Reese is such a nice boy and Ethan always looks forward to seeing him.