Holiday, Celebrate!

I love to celebrate holidays (sometimes more than once!) Minor holidays like Labor Day are no exception. This year, as labor day weekend was approaching, I was feeling bummed that I had no plans, no family nearby, and no husband around. I was able to talk my friend Lisa into going on a last minute get-away with me, and where could be better than fabulous Omaha? We got a great deal on a priceline hotel (a 2 bedroom suite for $40 a night!), loaded up the kids in her van, and headed across the border (the Iowa state border, that is).

This crazy crew was so excited for our little trip.

We took the kids to Spagetti Works in Old Town for dinner. The atmosphere was great, and the weather was perfect. The food left something to be desired.

When we got to the hotel, we were greated with warm chocolate chip cookies. (Are you kidding me? could this place get any better?) Then we took all the kiddos to the pool.

Ammon, Abbi, Carter, Ashlyn and Oakley at a park in downtown Omaha.

These picture are kind of out of order, but at Spagetti Works there was a balloon lady! She came right to our table and made the kids these fun ballon creatures.

Abbi was a little angel (well most of the time!)

Saturday, we met some more friends at the wonderful Omaha zoo. Once again, a great day. The weather was beautiful, the company was great and the kids were (mostly) well-behaved.

The boys in front of one of the waterfalls in the indoor rainforest.

My kids are super cooperative when we try to take pictures. This one, at the butterfly house, is the best one we got of all of us at the zoo.

The whole crew! (minus Lisa who was taking the picture)

Maddie, Caden, Heather, Brenna, Oakley, Logan, Austin, Megan, Ashlyn, Shauni, Carter, Abbi and Ammon.

We love Omaha!

Thanks guys for the fun trip.

(and Lisa, I am amazed that you managed to escape every one of my pictures.)

Toddling

This one's for Daddy!

After many failed attempts, I finally caught Abbi toddling on video. As you can see, she still prefers to crawl, but I think she is on her way to becoming a walker!

Go Hawkeyes!

Iowans take their football seriously. Especially Iowa/Iowa State football. This year I have noticed it even more than before. The boys both had University of Iowa/Iowa State dress day at school, both of their soccer games were cancelled Saturday because the coaches wanted to watch the big game and too many players were going to miss soccer to go to the big game and last week (the week of the game) the doughnuts at Hyvee were frosted in Iowa/Iowa State colors. But I knew it was really serious when Ammon came home from school on Friday and said, "So mom, Cyclones or Hawkeyes?" I decided it was time for us to get into the spirit of the big football rivalry. We are all now proud owners of Hawkeye apparel (football fans across the nation will begrudge the fact that I chose our team based solely on the color scheme of their merchandise). The day of the big game we all got dressed in our University of Iowa garb and headed to the farmer's market with some friends. We enjoyed chatting with fellow Hawkeye fans and the banter we received from those who were sporting their Cyclone gear, and we felt like true Iowans, enjoying a morning at the farmer's market before the big game. We didn't go to the game (we actually didn't even watch the game), but I hear that I chose wisely: University of Iowa beat Iowa State 35 to 3. Go Hawkeyes!