Somewhere in the Middle of America

Tonight is our 7th night away from home and we find ourselves in Omaha, Neb. You'll recall in my last post that we were in Kansas City. From there, we went to Manhattan, Kansas for 2 days, then Galva, Kansas for 3 days. (Lots more on that on that later!). Now we're stopping over in Omaha en route to Sioux Falls to visit my family for a few days and celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday.

At this point, the trip is almost laughable. It's one of those things that once we survive it, we'll look back on it for years saying "Remember when we went on a 10-day road trip with 2 toddlers?! We were crazy!!" But at this point, we are all so exhausted that all we can do is laugh.

Today really started at about 2:30 a.m. last night. Hannah woke up crying - and did so for most of the next 4 hours. Aaron and I took turns sleeping with her on the futon, but neither of us rested well. She was, however, excited to see morning come:

 After one last morning of playing with Grampa, watching trains go by (he has a track running through his backyard!) and eating snack, we hit the road. Did you know there was a Minneapolis, Kansas along the way...?

We made it  very nearly to Nebraska before stopping for lunch, and that's when it all went to pot. Ben had spilled his water all over himself in the car, so he needed a clothing change. They were already restless, and we'd only been on the road for about 90 minutes. And we still had about 3 hours to go.

Once we got to Nebraska - which is incidentally the babies' 6th state they've been to; not too shabby for not even 2 years old - Ben finally did sleep. And he slept the entire way through Nebraska. Hannie, though... you'd think she'd be dead tired after being up all night (Daddy & I were!), but nope. Girl kept chit chatting, playing, then finally crying. She cried most of the way across Nebraska, falling asleep for the last 100 miles or so. Sheesh.

When we finally got to Omaha, our room wasn't quite ready to check in yet, so I directed us to the Old Market. My mom and stepdad lived in the Omaha area for a few years and I spent one summer with them when I was a teenager. I remembered this area of Omaha being really kitschy and hip with neat shops, good restaurants, and good people watching.

Of course, the heatwave continues in Omaha, so at 102 degrees this afternoon, about the only thing we could muster was another trip for ice cream. This time, we tried Ted & Wally's, a homemade ice cream shop that I remembered from my teenage years. It was delicious and hit the spot after being in the car for 5 hours!

Ben sits in front of the old ice cream machine.

Mmm. Cotton Candy flavor!

Tired of sitting!

After ice cream, we checked in, hit the pool (B&H both loved it and swam for an hour!), ordered a pizza, then they hit the hay. No fussing, no crying, nothing. Right to sleep. Let's hope they stay that way!

As for me, it's just 8:40 p.m. and I am going to go nigh-nigh, too. This momma's tired!
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Tomorrow's a fun day planned: Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. It's supposedly one of the best zoos in the entire country! I haven't been there in easily 15 years, so I'm excited to see it! We plan to visit it for the morning then get back in the car (gulp!) and head to Sioux Falls - a nice "short" 3 hour drive. I hope the zoo wears them out and they sleep the entire way.

A Momma can dream, right...?