Nebraska Trip

Back in August, we had our second family reunion of the year. Ryan's family doesn't do a yearly reunion like our family, so this year we decided to travel to Lincoln, Nebraska for the first time.

We are never sure how Leah's going to travel-as of May she was horrible and we would rather stay home than have to sit in a car with our toddler for a long time. So we packed a ton of things-movies, books, toys, sleeping things, snacks-you name it. We even packed a few surprise presents that she would get when we took a break from the road. We had nothing to worry about though as Leah was a true champ and had no issues what so ever. We really seem to be developing a good traveler!

We left on Thursday morning and our first stop was in Iowa at a winery. I love some good wine, and Leah loved running around outside and chasing the little puppies that they had on the property. She also got her first present on this trip-a little Cinderella doll. Her interest in the doll lasted about 4 seconds and then she went back to watching Dora on the DVD player.

Second stop was for lunch at Arby's. Nothing special to report here other than the fact that Leah loves curly fries:)

Third stop was another winery which had a super cute little shop in it. I didn't buy anything, but I sure could have :) Leah again liked running around outside, this time chasing cats. She really loves her animals.

We drove the rest of the way to Lincoln, which wasn't a bad drive-just long. Leah didn't nap at all on the way out there-all 8 hours of the trip-but both Ryan and I got to sneak in a little nap.

After checking into the hotel and having dinner with some of Grandma's friends it was time for Leah's favorite part of any hotel-the pool. She jumped in with Daddy and played until it was bed time. She really is a true water baby!

The next day we went to meet up with Great Grandpa Alford, Aunt Peggy, and cousins Carley and Sam, affectionately known to us as "The Canadian Cousins". We played for a bit before getting ready to head to the Omaha Zoo.

Leah, like any 2 year old, loves the zoo. The zoo we have here in Madison is free, so while it's nice to see the animals, we don't have many animals here. So Leah, and I, were very excited to see more animals!

For some reason we took her stroller in, and I don't know why because 2 year olds don't need strollers. But we figured she'd want to be pushed. Nope. I pushed the whole thing around without Leah sitting in it once. Oh well.

A Pygmy Hippo

Leah sitting in the Hippo mouth

Grandma and Grandpa

Her favorite-penguins!

Chilling on a Sea Turtle

Looking at the Bears with Grandpa

Sam and Leah

Parrots

I didn't actually take a picture of the snake, but I loved the Harry Potter reference to the Basilisk and that was enough for me!

The train that Leah was terrified of-it was super loud.

 



 

The only left on this trip was the family reunion. We had a good time-and the food was great! We spent some quality time with family we don't see very often, so it was nice. Leah had enough after a while and decided we needed to go find the hotel pool of course!

 

Our family!



We had a great time in Nebraska! We can't wait until we get to for the next family reunion, whenever that may be!

Love,
Amy