Omaha: Strategic Air & Space Museum

On our last full day in Nebraska, we got to spend some time with Grandpa John, and we decided to visit the Strategic Air & Space Museum since Noah loves airplanes :-)

 Rocket Ship!

My cousin Katie and her two kids (Gradyn & Brynlee) were also able to join us at the museum!

Although the kids enjoyed seeing the airplanes, they couldn't really play in them or even go inside most of them, so we spent a lot of time playing in the kids' area :)

The big kids had fun playing, too ;-)

This picture will look familiar to some of you! When my sister Holly got married, Noah spent a good part of her reception pushing Brynlee around in a stroller and he apparently wanted to recreate that memory at the museum :-)

This was the other area where the kids wanted to spend most of their time! Forget the real airplanes, they just wanted to be able to fly themselves

 

Noah, Gradyn & Brynlee

 

Finally getting to sit in a real airplane

One of Noah's favorite parts of the museum, riding up and down the escalator (something else not found in Kauai!) 

There they go again

Before we left the museum, I told Noah to go stand by his favorite airplane so we could take a picture, and out of all the airplanes in the museum this is the one he chose!!!

 Grandpa John, Noah & Daddy

Daddy chose this as his favorite airplane :-)

 Family photo

 

Grandpa John & Noah in the shade (per Noah's request)

After the SAC museum, we went for a walk to the park near Grandpa John's house

 

 Grandpa John, Noah & Daddy

 

Cheeseball!

While in Omaha, we had the pleasure of staying with Ely's Uncle Joe & Aunt Patti
 

Uncle Joe and Noah playing catch in the backyard



 

Playing in the rain

 

Omaha: Henry Doorly Zoo

After a few days in Lincoln, we headed up to Omaha for some time with Ely's family. 

We were very excited about taking Noah to the Henry Doorly Zoo since there are no zoos in Kauai!

Noah was having the best time throwing himself backwards off of Ely's shoulders

Looking through the "noculars"

 

They had a special dinosaur exhibit while we were there and since Noah loves dinosaurs, Ely bought the tickets for the exhibit as a surprise for Noah :)

 

 

We had a little photo shoot before we went into the exhibit

 

RAWR!

Love these faces :-D

 

He was a little nervous when we saw the first dinosaur...

The dinosaurs had timers so they would periodically start moving and making noises, but Noah warmed up to them quickly and then wanted to wait at every dinosaur until we saw it move.

He must have really been missing the ocean by this point in our travels, because when we found a sand pit where kids could dig for fossils, Noah didn't want to leave!

 



 

Noah also went around the entire sand pit and "cleaned up" every bucket he could find!

 Looking down the hole for the prairie dogs he had been chasing!

I don't know how well you can see the prairie dog to the right of Noah in this picture, but he was about 2 seconds away from being picked up by a crazy 2 1/2 year old! 

Noah and Daddy went for a ride on the carousel (another thing we don't have on our island) and Noah had to pick the rooster to ride on!

He had a great time and loved waving at Mommy every time they went passed

 

The Kauai rooster...Noah loves to chase them (and apparently "ride" on them) but for some reason he is really worried that they are going to come into his room at night. I think it's because they stand right outside his window in the mornings and crow ridiculously loudly

 

 Petting zoo

Brushing the goat

Noah must have felt at home in the ape house because he decided to hangout in this window for several minutes

 

Just relaxing at the zoo

 

Rosenblatt Stadium is completely torn down but they created this new "mini" ballpark with some of the old seats.  We have no idea what they are actually going to use this for, but it was neat to see!