We had planned to take this week off a couple months ago when we found out our daycare provider was going to be taking her week of vacation then as well.
We didn't make any major plans for the week, as we knew we'd be a little ready for a wind down after having had company the week prior, but we knew that we wanted to make it down to visit my family in Iowa at the farm as well as head to Omaha to see Mark's sister and family and hit up the zoo with the boys.
We spent the first half of the week just unwinding and catching up on housework that had been BADLY neglected. We took a few walks, but for the most part, it was just so dang hot and humid that we just laid low, watched probably too much TV, did some puzzles, painted, got some decent naps, and had fun being together.
Monday evening after waking up from super late, super long naps, we took the boys to their first ever movie at a movie theater. The local theater had free movie night at the local theater, and we figured it made more sense to try out their first movie and make it not be one we had to pay for just in case it went poorly. They did marginally well (Cashel moreso than Kendrick), and we made it through about half of the movie: Minions. They loved the popcorn :)
Tuesday was Daddy's last softball game we'd be able to make it to that season, and the boys had fun playing at the park, so we hardly got to see the game, but they had fun!
Wednesday was another park day, catching up at the gym, and then family swim night at the local pool as well, so we went for the first half of that before it started getting a bit too chilly to stay.
As much as we thought the week would be fairly laid back with "nothing going on", we certainly kept busy!
Thursday morning we got our things packed up and took off down to Humboldt to see my Mom, sister and brother and their families for a couple days. We made it down there around 2pm and enjoyed visiting with everyone for the rest of the day and the next day. The kiddos just LOVE spending time with their cousins, and they had no shortage of seeing cousins this particular week!
Friday afternoon, we said our goodbyes at the farm and headed out around 2pm to make our way to Omaha for the weekend. It was a long drive, but the boys took naps, so that helped a bit. We checked into our hotel and got settled in a little bit before heading over to HuHot Mongolian Grill for supper. The boys did AWESOME at all the meals we ate out (well, excepting for the zoo), and we were so pleased to not be sweating bullets during our meals while trying to corral them.
We settled back in at the hotel and wound down with a little Barney for the boys. We had a big day ahead of us at the Henry Doorly Zoo the next day!
Saturday was the big day the boys had been dreaming of for a few months now: The Omaha Zoo day!
I did a full recap
here in an effort to not make this particular post so long. In a nutshell, though, it was just kind of okay overall. It was miserably hot and humid, half of the Zoo was under construction, we lost Cashel in the Aquarium for about 20 minutes and then the boys and I got lost from Mark for about 20 more minutes. It was just the wrong temperature for all that excitement haha :) But what we did see was pretty cool!
We all crashed pretty hard after the Zoo and napped for a few hours, then we all showered up and the boys took baths and we headed over to Mark's sister's house for supper. I find that whenever we actually visit anyone elses' home these days, it's really hard to manage getting any pictures, since we're usually so busy keeping the kids occupied and not either beating up their kids or breaking things (oh, spirited boys...), so I have all of one picture of these kiddos, playing in a makeshift "cave"...and the only one you can see is Kendrick haha :)
We enjoyed a delicious lasagna that Mark's sister made (thanks, Sarah!) and had fun playing block towers with the kiddos and letting the little ones knock them over. It was nice to catch up with Sarah and her family, as we hadn't seen them in over a year! It was also so fun to see how much baby J3 had grown up! The last time we had seen him he was only 3 months old! I've said it before and I'll say it again: Somehow between our two families, we lucked out with THE CUTEST nieces and nephews :)
We called it a fairly early night around 8:30pm so we could at least make an attempt at getting to bed before 10pm that night, and were successful! Vacation bedtimes are a rough deal!
Sunday was our last day of vacation and a travel day to boot. We started the morning with breakfast in the lobby once again, then made our way almost immediately to the pool. I had a pretty horrible night of sleep and some stomach discomfort, so I opted to stay out of the pool, but that was almost better, since I was able to capture all these sweet shots of my little dudes in the pool :)
If you couldn't tell, the boys LOVED the pool! Haha :)
After the pool, we gave the boys baths and got dressed and all our things packed back up, loaded up the car, and made our way down the road a bit to Pizza Ranch to enjoy a farewell lunch with Sarah and her family.
It was fun to catch up a little more with Sarah and family, and to see these crazy cousins enjoying each other so much. Granted, I don't think Cashel ever really got the hang of "gentle" hugs haha :) He was just so in love with his little cousin that he couldn't help but want to give him lots of kisses and hugs.
We really had a pretty good week, but man was it ever crazy. I cheered pretty loudly when we finally saw this sign :)
I've decided as I get older and older that my vacations should no longer require a vacation to recover from the vacation. I guess I'm just not as young as I used to be! It took me a few days afterwards to recover from the trip to the Zoo and all that heat and walking. But all in all, so many great memories :) I loved being able to spend the week with my family and being able to be just us :) I'm certainly looking forward to the next vacation, though ;)
