Bubbles For Ellie: Omaha Fun

Anytime we are getting in the car to leave somewhere, Miles very thoughtfully says, "I have a good time at (fill in where we have been eg: the zoo, my friend's house, the store)". The best part is when he says it even when he didn't actually have a good time like when he cries all through nursery and as we are leaving church he will say between sobs, "Miles had (sniff, sniff) a good time (sniff, sniff) at nursery." Miles has had plenty of opportunities to "have a good time" as we have been out and about exploring this summer. Here are some of our favorite things we found to do in Omaha.

Henry Doorly Zoo

We heard A LOT about the zoo before moving to Omaha. The zoo is kind of a big deal out here and people are very proud of it. After being told by countless people we had to get a zoo membership we decided it better be one of our first stops. So while my mom was out here in June we took our first Omaha outing to the zoo. It was pretty awesome and did not disappoint. We have been back to the zoo several times throughout the summer, checking out new exhibits each time, and we still haven't seen the entire thing. My kids are all such animal lovers that the zoo never gets old so I'm sure we will be continue to be frequent visitors there.

Swimming

With Brynn still learning how to swim, Miles being...well, Miles, and us having to be so careful with Ellie around water with her trach, I was not very confident I would be able to take all four kids to the pool by myself this summer. But what is summer without swimming? We did a trial run while my mom out was out here and checked out the local pool. As it turns out, Ellie absolutely LOVES water! She gets so happy and animated and goes crazy splashing. It was no surprise that the other kids loved it as well. I couldn't deny my kiddos their summer swimming so I took a deep breath, bought a punch pass, and braved as many outings to the pool as we could. I got a lot of funny looks and "you've sure got your hands full" comments whenever we went (or anytime we leave the house really), but most of the time it wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. The cool thing about the pools out here is they are all Omaha public pools and the punch pass will get you into any of the pools. So we got to pool hop all summer and see what each pool had to offer. Our favorite turned out to be Zorinsky Pool which happened to also be the closest and most convenient one. Brynn and Mason also took swimming lessons and each made a lot of progress. Brynn is well on her way to being an independent swimmer and Mason continued to improve his strokes.

Children's Museum

As mentioned before we checked out the children's museum on Brynn's birthday and this was my first outing with all four kiddos by myself. I was definitely exhausted by the end, but overall it went really well and gave me confidence that we would be able to get out more than I thought we would. Mason's favorite things were the cool art area they have that has pretty much every art medium you could think of for kids to explore and create with and panning for fossils in the dinosaur exhibit. Brynn loved the grocery store, bank, and children's hospital play areas. Miles loved the dinosaur exhibit. I'm pretty sure he thought all of the dinosaurs were real. Ellie was happy as can be in the bjorn the entire time. By this point in the summer she was starting to like our outings just as much as the other kids.

Panning for fossils.

Miles described this part by saying, "I cwimbed up on a twampowine and the dinosaur wooked at me and talked to me." Translation: He climbed up into this little cage that apparently reminds him of a trampoline and the dinosaur's head would turn and look at him and then it's mouth would open and it would roar.

Cute Ellie and goofy looking mom checking out the dinos.

Brynn was sure that Ellie was dying to go down this slide.

Hydrant Party

A fun activity the fire department puts on all summer are hydrant parties. They close down a neighborhood street, hook a sprinkler hose up to the fire hydrant, and let the kids run through and play in the water as it floods the street. They do these parties twice a day, three days a week at all different locations. It's obvious I come from a state where drought warnings and water conservation are constantly preached because it was stressing me out how much water they were wasting. I had to keep reminding myself we no longer live in the desert. It was the perfect activity for a hot summer day.

College World Series

Every June Omaha is taken over by the college world series. It's a pretty big deal and proved to be a lot of fun for our baseball loving family. Scott took Mason and Brynn to a game and they both had a blast!

Union Pacific Homeplate Family Days

During the college world series Union Pacific brings in a bunch of classic train cars that have a railroad museum inside of them and parks them right outside of Ameritrade park for people to go through. One day they hosted an employee family party there full of fun baseball and railroad activities. It was a fun afternoon for the kids to get introduced to the company Scott is working for.

Water parties

The kid's favorite activity of the summer turned out to be water parties in the backyard. Rarely a day went by that the kiddos didn't suit up and run through the sprinkler, slip and slide down the hill in our backyard, and turn our playhouse slide into our own private water slide. Our grass now has a permanent imprint that is the shape of our pool at the bottom of the slide. It was the perfect way to keep cool on the hot humid days.

The Slides

Our friends introduced us to these awesome slides that are downtown and just down the street from Scott's office. They are seriously the fastest, craziest slides. The kids get air over the bumps and without someone to stop them at the bottom their little bodies usually launch right off the end. Miles won't even go on it by himself because he gets so thrown around. As if that isn't enough, a lot of people bring wax paper to ride down on to make it even faster. The kids love these slides and insist we stop and play anytime we go downtown.

White Hawk Lake

There are a lot of little lakes/ponds scattered around Omaha. We happen to have a cute little one in the development right next to ours that also has a playground that we like to walk to. It's not a long walk, but one thing we have learned about Omaha is there is no such thing as a flat road. Every road is either going up a hill or down a hill. It makes for pretty rigorous bike rides for the kids, but it was fun to watch how their strength and endurance improved over the summer.