Derby: Rock River Rapids

Noah and I got to spend an afternoon at Rock River Rapids, the aquatic park in Derby, with Aunt Holly & Uncle Jeremy.  I think this was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for Noah! He got to spend the whole afternoon playing in the water, and the water was the perfect height for him to walk and splash around :)

Crawling through the tunnel

 

Going down the water slide all by himself

 

 

 Noah was having a blast stepping (and sitting) on these pad things and making the water come out :-)

 

Hahahahaha!

 

 

Uncle Jeremy, Noah & Aunt Holly

 

 

 

Wichita: Exploration Place

One of our other big adventures while we were in Wichita was a trip to Exploration Place!

We were excited that Noah's buddy Ryan, who was born about a month after him at NAS Jacksonville, came up from Oklahoma with his mom Heather to visit us for the day, too :)

Noah & Ryan checking out one of the airplanes

Noah flying Papa around :-)

Concentrating hard on his landing ;-)

 

(and of course he had to take his shoes off...)

 They get their love of airplanes from their dads :-D

Loving the wind tunnel

 

 Digging for bones

Exploration Place had a temporary dinosaur exhibit, too!

Noah posing with Aunt Holly

"RAWR!!!"

Looking down from the top of the castle

Hahahaha!

Enjoying the teeter totter

Noah, Ryan & Heather

Wichita: Sedgwick County Zoo

Noah and I spent one of our days in Kansas at the Sedgwick County Zoo with Papa, Aunt Holly, and one of my friend's from high school, Kellie, and her three daughters.

One of our favorite activities when we go to the Sedgwick County Zoo is feeding the giraffes! The feeding session didn't go quite as well this time, however.  Noah started off by throwing a piece of food at one of the giraffes, so then the giraffe wouldn't come anywhere near Noah! When we went over to try and feed a different giraffe, Noah dropped the food before the giraffe could take it, which then made this giraffe hesitant to come near Noah again...but finally after a little assistance from Mommy, we were able to actually get some food to the giraffes!

When we went to the tiger house, the real tigers weren't out but we did have the opportunity for some good photo ops :)



 

Noah, Abi & Lauren

 Who needs a stroller when you have Papa ;-)

In the barn with Papa, Abi & Noah (yes, Noah is barefoot...every single time his feet left the ground his shoes came off! You can take the boy out of Hawaii but you can't make him wear shoes ;-)

Petting Zoo!

Once the animals figured out Noah had food, they went a little crazy!

 

 

 Noah loved this goat!

 

I took a picture of this guy because when the zoo keeper girl (I have no idea what her technical name/position is) asked Noah what shape was on the goat, Noah replied... "Mickey!"

The rest of us saw a heart, but when you look at the inside of the heart it really does look like Mickey Mouse!

Aunt Holly & Noah



Back to Kansas

After a great time in Nebraska, we had to drive back to Kansas so Ely could fly to San Antonio for training.

While Ely was in Texas, Noah and I got to spend a week in Kansas with Papa & Grandma seeing lots of friends and family!

Making popcorn with Papa

Swimming lessons with Aunt Holly

Trying on Papa's hunting hat 

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