Insta-Omaha-Zoo

Still recapping. Hang in there with me, people!

When we left Grampa's house, we went to Omaha for the night. Because we didn't feel like jumping right in the car that next morning (and we wanted to wear B&H out), we decided to seize the opportunity and visit Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium. We had high expectations.

But, the crankiness, tiredness (Hannah didn't sleep again the night before), and the extreme Nebraskan heat caused for a very short loop through the zoo. Parts were awesome - the aquarium is really very cool! Parts were underwhelming - the "rainforest" is boring - the Tropics Trail at the MN Zoo is far better! Parts were so unique - the Desert Dome is unlike anything else I've seen at a zoo!

Here was our day, documented in Instagrams. :)

Parrots grooming

Penguins standing at attention

More interested in the tractor than the animals

Desert Dome

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

High Five! We get to get back in the car!! (sarcasm)

20 words for 20 months

Today B&H are 20 months old, or as Aaron said "one and two-thirds" years old. I'm baffled by their rapid aging. Wasn't it just yesterday, not last year, that they looked like this??

At 8 months they'd stopped looking like newborns, but they were definitely not the toddlers they are today! They'd sit nicely for a photo and not wander off anywhere. Oh, I miss those days! Nowadays, I'm lucky if one kid is looking at the camera and the other one isn't wandering off. This is a recent trip to Choo Choo Bob's - these toddlers were BUSY BUSY for a good hour. My new favorite place.

So, in honor of their 20 month birthday, I've decided to tell you all about them in just 20 words. Those of you who really know me, know this is quite a feat!


BenLoves to laugh, super silly, always smiling. Strong language skills, loves books, new words every day. Gives momma good kisses.

Hannah

Thoughtful and contemplative. Serious with a hint of silly. Dexterous and scientific, loves puzzles and building blocks. Definitely daddy’s girl!

The biggest *new* thing this month is they self-identify! Both will point to their chests if you ask "Where's Hannah?" or "Who is Ben?" (obviously Hannah self-identifies as Hannah or Hannie and Ben self-identifies as Ben). They also refer to themselves in the third person. If Hannah wants something she yells "Hannie! Hannie!" and Ben can point to his high chair and say "Ben." It's pretty cute. (And also: a big insight as to why Elmo is such a hit with the toddler crowd!)

Today, even, Hannah identified herself in photos (with a little help from me). These kids are too smart for their own good!!

Grampa's House

Again, please excuse me as I continue to back-track and relive our recent week-plus-long cartrip. I feel the need to document it - so we can remember how much fun it was to see our relatives, but also so we remember NEVER EVER to go on the road that long ever again. (It was beyond wonderful to see so many of our relatives in just about a week, but being in the car for that long was pure torture; nothing against you family members! We will visit again, just not all in one fell-swoop like we did this year...)

After Manhattan, we once again (are you keeping track yet?) got in the car and headed somewhere new. This time we went to Grampa's (Aaron's dad's) house in Galva, Kansas for a few days.

The weather proved to be very Kansan (Kansas-y?) with temperatures over 100 every.single.day.

So we had to find lots of cool things to do. Like playing AND watching trains.

 And splashing outside. Grampa didn't have a pool, but he did have this handy washing machine tray. A couple of inches of water proved to be the hit of the afternoon as we all needed to cool off from the heat & humidity. (And we were stir-crazy inside). Hannah liked to splash; Ben liked to put his feet in it and kick. FUN!

And playing with some vintage toys inside with the air conditioning cranked. Grampa dug out Daddy's and Uncle Jon's old Little People sets. They are much more fun than the contemporary ones, IMO, but maybe because I remember playing with similar toys. Grampa had a bus and a school and lots of people! I sort of wanted to bring these awesome vintage toys home to play with, but we left them in Kansas for future playing-with.

Vintage Little People (IMO, more fun the contemporary ones!)

Grampa also treated us to a few ice cream cones and a drive around McPherson (the "big" town just a few miles from his house where Daddy grew up).

The visit with Grampa was so wonderful! B&H felt totally at home at Grampa's house and made themselves comfortable sitting at his coffee table coloring, running circles through the kitchen/living room area, and watching the trains out his patio door - definitely the favorite past-time

A few days later and it was time to move on. And guess what? We didn't even get a photo on Momma's camera with Grampa! (We did on Grampa's camera, though, so maybe we can get a copy of it to add here.)

Can you remember where we went after Galva? I already wrote a post about it. Guess, then find out here.

Eighteen Month Photos

Early in July, we had our family photos taken by Heather Hanson Photography. I can't say enough wonderful things about our experience! She is professional, caring, energetic, and great with kids! (probably because ed to be a 2nd grade teacher AND she has 2 kids of her own!). I have always been impressed with her service, and today was no exception. Our CD came in the mail with the rights to the photos (this, IMO, is the MOST important criterion when choosing a photographer). I couldn't wait to upload them and share! Here are a {few} select favorites.

OK, so maybe that's more than a *few* - but they are so many great images, I couldn't choose!

The Little Apple

Riekenberg Cousins. LOVE.

I had full intentions to blog our trip as it happened. Little did I know I'd be so tired by the time they went to sleep that I didn't want to do anything but lie down! So, you'll have to excuse a bit of back-tracking and reminiscing of our 10-day road trip.

After Kansas City, but before Omaha, we had a few more stops to make. First, was a trip to Manhattan, Kansas, also known as the Little Apple. Kansas State University (where Aaron went to college) is located in Manhattan. But we weren't there for a college reunion. We were there to celebrate the wedding of Aaron's cousin Grace as she wed Erik!

Manhattan also happens to be the home of Aaron's brother's wife's (Anne) parents Bob & Elaine. Since Jon, Anne & Will were also traveling to Manhattan for Grace's wedding, Bob & Elaine so graciously opened their home to ALL of us to stay for a few days. We cannot thank them enough!! It was wonderful to have a warm, welcoming place to stay and beyond our expectations that Elaine watched the kids for us a few times so we adults could venture out kid-free. What a joy!! (We were trying to figure out a relation name of Bob & Elaine to us - parents-in-law-in-law? Or to B&H - grandparents-in-law? We just settled for "Will's Grammy & Papa"!)

We had a fun 2 days at Bob & Elaine's. B&H played with Will, ran through sprinklers, played with new toys, ate popsicles, and just had a great time. Thanks, Will's Grammy & Papa!

Will guiding Ben through the yard

Trying out Will's Trike. I think a similar model might
appear on the babies' 2nd birthday wishlist!

The wedding was on Saturday and Jon, Anne, Aaron & I enjoyed a nice outing without the kid to attend the wedding. It was a wonderful ceremony and Grace made a beautiful bride - even in the 106 degree heat!! (Thank God for a/c in the church!!!)
After the ceremony, we went back to Bob & Elaine's house to get the kids and head to the reception, held at the K-State Alumni Center. Cake, punch, room to run, and more family time. What more could two toddlers and a preschooler want??? Thankfully, we did secure a great spot at the reception in the back that allowed for this to happen:

Also, thankfully no one seemed to mind! Double thankfully: No one ran into the dessert table and knocked everything over!

I wish this photo turned out better, it was so CUTE! A group of Grace's friends were standing in a circle chit-chatting and Ben walked right in the middle and started flirting with them. What a ladies' man!!

Sunday, the day after the wedding, we got up and headed on the road again - this time to Grampa's house in Galva, Kansas. We were sad to bid farewell to Will, Anne & Jon. It just wasn't enough cousin time!! B&H also gave big hugs to Bob & Elaine to thank them for welcoming us to their home.

Two Musketeers.... Three Musketeers

 Thank you to Anne for taking such great photos AND letting me steal them for my blog! ;)

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!
.
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...? 

444 miles

And so begins the first leg of our 10-day marathon road trip.

Google maps says from our house to the hotel in Merriam, KS is 444 miles and it should take 7 hours and 7 minutes. It sure felt like 444 miles, maybe even more. But I'm happy to say that even with the two kiddos, we made the trip in just under 9 hours. That's only 1 extra hour per kid!

The trip started out great! They were thrilled with sitting forward in their carseats!

But about an hour north of Des Moines (our planned stopping place for lunch), all went to crap.

In all fairness, they were hungry. I'm not proud of the snack I gave them (duplex cookies), but it did the trick and held them over until we could stop for lunch.

At Dairy Queen in Ames, Ben was his normal flirty self and made friends with all the "grandpa" looking men in the restaurant. We've been talking all week about how he gets to see his grandpa this week, so I don't know if that sunk in or what. Nonetheless, he had a great time chatting everyone up. Hannah had fun drinking her milk out of a straw.

After lunch, we had hoped they'd fall right asleep. Of course, they didn't think that was the greatest idea. So we had to get out the big guns: Elmo. Yes, I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that we bought a DVD player for the car, but it proved to be a success. They watched about 20 minutes, then zonked out for about an hour and half. Then when it got hairy again after they snoozed, Elmo calmed them down again for the rest of the trip. 

Overall, the trip has been uneventful so far. We spent the whole day today driving. We did get to meet Jon, Anne & Will for dinner, though!! The cousins eyed each other up and down. I'm sure tomorrow the shyness will pass and they'll play like crazy!

Oh, and it's hot here. See?