Nebraska Road Trip 2010 (Part II)

While in Nebraska we had a lot of fun going to the pumpkin patch, the children's museum and the zoo. We also had fun visiting with Grandpa, Grandma, uncle Ben, Sara, G-pa, G-ma, Aunt Jane, Uncle Mike, Marla and GiGi. It was nice because we do not get to see them nearly as often as we would like. We arrived at Grandpa and Grandma's house on Wed. around 1pm. We basically just hung out that day and evening since we had been traveling so much the day before and Joshua needed to run off some energy, which he did. When he got out of the car, he told me that "he needed to run, run, run!" That is exactly what he did. He had so much fun playing catch with grandpa and looking at the fish in their pond. The next 3 days were crammed with fun, fun, fun!! During the day over the next 3 days we went to Vala's Pumpkin Patch, which was absolutely the coolest pumpkin patch I have ever been too. Joshua loved it! It was like a little boy's dream. Outdoors, dirt, hay, and wide open spaces to run til you dropped. We also went the the Children's Museum and the Zoo. Both of these places also were great fun! We had never been to the children's museum so that was a great experience and Joshua's favorite exhibit was the ball room. It was hard to drag him away from there. We thought that he would only be able to hang for an hour, but we ended up staying about 2 because he was having so much fun. The morning that we left we decided to go to the zoo, because the last time we went there were a few exhibits that we did not get to see. So we spent a couple of hours there before getting on the road. Our evenings were spent visiting with the family and hanging out on the deck. The weather was absolutely perfect! I really could not get over how perfect the weather was. During the day is was in the low 70's and at night it was high 50's. It was nice to actually be able to wear some long sleeves in October and to actually see a true season of Fall. There were so many pictures that were taken that I could not post them all, but here are the highlights of what we did.

In the ball exhibit. He was very interested to see how everything worked!

Joshua and the big, red firetruck

This is called the Light Piano...Awesome!


Water table...always a favorite

Loves being at Grandpa and Grandma's!!

On the hunt for his pumpkin!

"It's heavvyy!"

On the hayride out to the pumpkin patch

Lots of animals to feed and pet, there was even a camel there.

We tried to get a family picture in front of these pumpkins, but Joshua was not having any part of it.

In a "cave" in the Desert Dome at the Zoo

Desert Dome

Rain forest Exhibit at the Zoo

You can actually reach out and touch the falls at this stop

Once again, these were just the highlights of our time in Nebraska. Check back for the last post on our Nebraska Road Trip of 2010. When we head back home!!

Nebraska Road Trip 2010 (Part I)

We decided during the summer that we wanted to go to Nebraska to see Grandma and Grandpa and to visit the pumpkin patch that Dan went to when he was little. After searching for cheap airline tickets and finding zero, we decided that it would be cheaper to drive than to fly. Plus we thought it would be fun to take our first family(our little family) road trip ever! So after picking the date, planning and mapping; the day finally came to get on the road. Dan and I decided that in order to help save money we would bring an ice chest and stock it full of drinks and sandwhich stuff for lunches and suppers and also pack snack food items as well. So on Tuesday, Oct. 12th we loaded up the car and pulled out of the driveway at around 3:30 in the afternoon. We had so much stuff that you would have thought we were moving there, but when you are going on a 14 hr road trip with a 2 and 1/2 yr old, you just have to make sure you have EVERYTHING!!! Dan and I decided that we would stop every 3 hrs to stretch and take potty breaks, but our goal for the first leg of the trip would be to reach Wichita,KS and stop for the night. Round Rock, TX to Wichita, KS took about 9 hrs. Joshua did very well in the car and Dan and I took turns driving, so whoever wasn't driving at the time sat in the back to keep Joshua company. You would think that you could find a hotel on a Tuesday night around midnight, but that was not the case. It took us 3 tries before we actually found a hotel that said we have a room and even then it was the last room. What goes on in Kansas on Tuesday nights?? LOL!!

See what I mean by everything!

Can you find Joshua??

Daddy and Joshua ready to go!

On the road somewhere, but having a good time!


It was unreal how many casinos were in OK when we passed through!

We finally made it to Wichita, KS and got some much needed rest. Check back for Part II, our time in Nebraska in the next post!

Sneak Peek!

This is a sneak peek of what is to come. We had a great time in Nebraska and there are tons of pictures to show, but it is going to take probably 3 post to fit in everything that we did while we were gone. I will try to post Part I of our Road Trip to Nebraska tomorrow. I am just too exhausted to think and try to organize the events tonight! So here are a few pics to hold you over...

A Saturday in Pumpkins

Saturday we drove about an hour away to take my friend Jana to a pumpkin patch. The GPS took us the scenic route, so it seemed like forever before we were there, but it was a very pretty drive. Everyone had a really good time.

Pumpkins for Sale

Joshua went around sitting on all the pumpkins, I guess he was trying to see which one was more comfortable!

Went through a corn maze and at the end you got to ring the bell

Joshua leading the way through the maze

He kept saying, this is bumpy!

There were goats there that we fed and pet

Feeding the Ducks

The weather has been so nice lately that we have been spending alot of time outdoors. Today we went to feed the ducks at a near by park. Joshua was so excited about feeding the ducks, that he kept chanting "feed the ducks! feed the ducks!" These ducks are used to being fed because we were able to get close without them trying to fly away. I am sure the ducks are full now, because we fed them about a half loaf of bread, not to mention what was thrown to them by the kiddos that were there before us. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Of course we had to stop by the playground before and after we fed the ducks!

A Day Out with Thomas

Joshua's school had a flyer that they put in all the kids take home folders advertising that Thomas the Train was rolling into town on Oct. 1,2, & 3. Joshua is really getting into trains now, and so Dan and I thought it would be fun to take him to ride on a real train. We bought our tickets online like 2 weeks ago and today was finally the day. Joshua does not fully "know" who Thomas the Train is, he just calls it a choo choo train, fair enough! Our departure time was 9:20am and we were supposed to arrive an hour early, so that meant that we had to get up at 6:30 in order to leave by 7, because the train station was about an hour away. Let me just say that no where on the website did it say to get there an hour early. I only found this out when the tickets came in. I would not have chosen this early of time if I would have known that, but it actually worked out nicely, because it was not crowded at all. When we arrived we got to see Thomas and take a picture in front of him. Joshua wasn't into smiling that early in the morning, so we took a couple of pics and moved on. While waiting for our departure time, we saw a man on a unicycle that was juggling and Joshua thought that was really neat! We also went into the imagination tent, where they had a few train tracks set up for the kids to play with and a couple of bounce houses off to the side that looked like trains to jump in. Joshua loved(understatement) the train tracks and promptly asked for his choo choo train that we had brought from home so he could test out the tracks. He kept saying "All Aboard" real loud and then would move his train along the tracks. He was having a good time. Then the conductor blew the whistle to let everyone know that Thomas was coming into the station and that made Joshua jump a little. It was finally our turn to ride the train, so with a little coxing we pulled Joshua away from the pretend train tracks, and boarded the train, Thomas the Train! Joshua was a little skeptical at first but once the train's whistle blew and the conductor said "All Aboard" it was all good. Joshua loved looking out at all the different scenery and kept saying "train moves fast, train moves slow" The conductor came through and punched our tickets and said hello to everyone. The train ride was about 25 mins long and that was just enough time. We went to the gift shop on our way out(I know bad move) to see if there was anything reasonable to get Joshua for his Day Out with Thomas. We settled for a Thomas the Train balloon, which he was perfectly ok with! Below our some pics from the morning!

Happy Friday!!