A Weekend Trip to Omaha-The Zoo

After a late night at a baseball game, we still decided to leave fairly early and go to the Henry Doorly Zoo.  We got to the zoo around 9:30, and even before we went in, we could tell it was super busy.  We started at the north entrance of the zoo, which proved to be a good choice because for the first couple hours looking at animals, it wasn't terribly busy.  It was when we went to the main part of the zoo where the aquarium, Desert Dome, and Lied Jungle were, we found out just how busy it really was.  I have never seen so many people at that zoo all at once! Walking through the aquarium was literally a zoo of people.  It was wall to wall filled with people and moving at a very slow pace.  It's a good thing none of us suffer from an extreme case of claustrophobia, because it was horrible!  Needless to say, the kids didn't enjoy this part much (neither did I since I'm not a fan of crowds of people...I'd rather it be us and maybe 10 others at the whole zoo, but oh well), but overall I think they had a pretty good time!
 Here they are at our first stop, the petting zoo and the goats!

 Keely pointing at the bears...she's always loved bears for some reason!

 Brooks was really excited to see the polar bear! He was waiting to be fed so he didn't swim at all, which would have been fun for Brooks to see, but at least he was up and moving!

 The gorillas...Brooks is here saying, "I don't know what he's doing??"  I think the gorilla was looking right at him!

 Brooks liked checking out the map to see where we should go next! :)

The giraffes...one of my favorites!

 And the butterfly house was also a favorite, but super packed with people! At least we saw more butterflies here than we did at the Lincoln zoo!

 The aquarium was next.  I always think it is one of the more fun places for the kids to watch the fish and bright colors, but with so many people, we really couldn't watch much and didn't really want to stop and look real long either!

 The desert dome...one of Blake's favorite because he likes the dark kingdom underneath it.  Not sure why, but he likes the bats! I didn't take any pictures of it though because it was so dark.

After the zoo, we relaxed at the hotel for awhile, then went out to eat for supper.  Keely thought sleeping on the cold tile by the fridge was a good idea...she was just being goofy and didn't stay laying down much longer than for me to take a picture, but it was cute!

 Brooks and Grandma relaxing with iPads..

 We decided to eat at Joe's Crab Shack, and Brooks finally fell asleep for his first nap of the day on the way there.  He can be so stubborn with naps if we are anywhere but home!

 Blake getting ready for his crab legs

After supper, we went to the hotel pool.  The water was FREEZING!! It was pretty ridiculous, but Brooks was so excited to go that we had to stick it out for at least a little bit.

 Blake and Keely look pretty cold in this family picture!

 On Sunday before we left Omaha, we decided to drive out to the pedestrian bridge over the Missouri River to check it out since none of us had really been there before.  Here is a picture of Keely in Nebraska and Brooks in Iowa...the states they were born in! The kids were getting tired by this point and were not too impressed so we didn't make them get out, but we at least got a picture of them in the stroller over the state line!

 Blake and Brooks checking out the water

 On the way out of town, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast.  It was actually lunch time before we got in to eat, but we all still enjoyed a big breakfast! I guess except for Brooks and Keely who had chicken fingers, fries, and corn!

It was a fun and busy weekend, but the kids did really good considering there were no normal bedtimes or nap times.  It was also nice to just get away for a little bit even if it wasn't very far away!