KU had a bye-week (hold on to your hats, there was an entire weekend we were not held hostage by our football team's home game schedule!) so we decided to hop in the car and head to the Omaha Childrens Museum and Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium! It was a great little trip that made us feel like we really got away from home and got to take part in some fun activities not normally at our fingertips.
The Childrens Museum is great; it is in the top 15% of children's museums nationally and features pretty much every scenario a kid would love: toy tractors and firetrucks you can drive (stationary, thank god), an entire room devoted to arts and crafts - paint, playdough, markers, crayons, you name it, a grocery store with shopping carts and shelves stocked with all kinds of food plus a check out area, play houses, a science and technology center (colorful balls flying everywhere is how I would describe this area), an indoor playground, a "splish splash garden" and more. It is cleverly designed and could keep kids entertained for hours.
It terrifies me how much this kid is into driving...
It makes her SO happy; she frequently does this at home in both of our parked cars...as soon as we pull in the driveway we immediately hear, "I drive. I drive."
Her loot from two different trips to the store. It was so interesting to watch her do this; she would start with several items in her cart, most of which would normally NOT be found on the perimeter of the store, but then for some reason she would change her mind, put items back and her cart would end up looking like this, all fruits and veggies. Kids are fascinating.
Whoa. Redirect. Must stay in the grocery area, kid, and I don't believe you have paid for those items...
At one point, she took her produce over to the "splish splash garden" to wash her fruits and veggies. I could hardly stop laughing because it was definitely the right thing to do, to wash those fruits and veggies, but we asked her to please remove the cucumbers and tomatoes from the water and return them to the store.
The "flying balls" room. This was just one wall of the room; this stuff really is science at its best; for adults AND kids.
We'll go ahead and pretend that THIS picture below is an indication of how much Lucy cooperated at dinner. We're pretending really hard.
Ohhhhh to be a kid staying in a hotel. You can run around in mom's flip-flops wearing only a diaper. Drink chocolate milk in bed with your animal crackers because "vacation mom" doesn't care if you make a mess. You can flush the toilet non-stop without being asked to stop. You can jump on the bed and throw yourself into a pile of pillows. And you get to shower like a big girl (with some help from dad).
Nevermind that Mom and Dad were kept awake by the marching band (ok, whatever it was) stomping up and down the hall all night...
And the next day, we were off to the zoo!
I know, I know. It's his butt. But we were standing in this little bubble and all of a sudden he was RIGHT THERE; Lucy was so excited.
We stopped to take a break at this picnic table because we knew Lucy's attention span was wearing thin, she was getting hungry and naptime was approaching....
And then, because I like to throw all reason out the window when I know we should call it quits and because selfishly I LOVE aquariums, we decided to stop by and check out the sea life on our way out of the zoo. And I'm so glad we did because Lucy loved it! Suddenly she wasn't tired, hungry, or cranky but very much loving the pengiuns, crabs, fish, etc.
She was so into this particular exhibit that she decided to get comfortable. 
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