NE Day 1

We're off again is a week for more family adventures! I thought about working a half day Tuesday, but insteadLyla and I had a breakfast date at Edelweiss. She has been needing some girl time and it was nice to do something special together. 

We packed up and left around noon, picking up Amir from Faye's on the way. The kids both slept for the first almost three hours of the trip. We stopped for lunch and then we were on the road. 5.5 hours to Omaha seemed like a short jaunt after the KY drive!

After we got here and got unpacked we headed out for dinner. The hotel is a suite where we have a front living room and kitchen area and a bedroom in the back. There's a connected balcony that lets us walk outside and all the way around the hotel on the outside. We had a good swim and then came up nd went to bed. Thanks to the two rooms, Amir went right to sleep!

This morning the kids called Mom to tell her about their day. We had to disconnect the hotel room phone because Amir plays with it constantly. He loves phones. 

After breakfast in the hotel restaurant and a quick spin in the desk chair, we headed off to the 

Henry Doorly Zoo. We had heard it was great and it didn't disappoint. Even after six and half hours we didn't see everything. We started at the Mutual of 

Omaha Wild Kingdom pavilion and then did the jungle, aquarium, Africa, Madagascar, the gorilla habitat, the cat house, the aviary, and the desert dome. We've been to a lot of zoos, but today we saw a lot of animals we had never seen before.

Lyla loved swinging on the vines in the jungle. 

Amir almost fell asleep, but then got excited to see the tapirs.

This soft shelled turtle was huge. Look how bi got is compared to the ducks! We also saw Pygmy hippos, awesome stingrays, and beautiful fish. Amir liked watching some monkeys until they started running toward him unexpectedly and he got spooked. 

We have obviously not mastered family selfies with 4 people. We tried. There was a lot to look at and we were posed on a small ledge over the river. 

We also loved the aquarium. It reminded me of the Shedd. And they had beautiful marine life. Amir loved the Sharks and Rays and the jellyfish were beautiful. They also had empower penguins. These weird fish that looked like plants mesmerized me and Lyla. 

We stopped for lunch and shared pizza and popcorn. Then Amir napped while we trekked a mile and a half through the under-construction Africa trail to see a giraffe and rhino -- Lyla's must see animal of the day.

Best part of that section was the open prairie dog exhibit. I'm not sure if this was an exhibit or they just live there. It sure looked like the dogs just moved in. They weren't shy and this one got within inches of us when we share did a few kernels of popcorn. 

Lyla liked the mister. It was quite hot. 

 Amir was fascinated by the gorillas. He also liked standing by the monkey measuring chart, he was as tall as a Gibbon!

I stopped taking pictures father a while because there was just so much to see. At the end though, I had to get this one. Even though it's blurry, you can see that they're both standing on the rail. Lyla climbed up there and Amir copied her right away -- with no help or prompting. Monkey see, monkey do!

It was a great day! We had so much fun and saw some amazing and beautiful things! We picked up dinner at Walmart. The kids had Mac nd cheese and peas, Masud had fried rice, and I had pasta with vodka cream sauce. We also had coconut Popsicles and enjoyed a good swim. I'm quite sore tonight, but it was worth it!