Omaha Zoo Pt II

There were mice in the tiger exhibits.  The big cats didn't seem too interested, but this little guy was enjoying the tiger's poop.

Sam's never liked carousels.  He decided to brave the tiger that did not go up and down.

Sam's new little friend "Loudy" that he purchased as a souvenir..

Ben's walking stick.  We sure did walk a lot.

The Lied Jungle was really cool, about four times the size of our jungle.  There were also bats flying around us.

Downtown Omaha

The pedestrian bridge that connects Nebraska to Iowa.  It is really neat, but was also cold and windy as it sits above the Missouri River.

Omaha Zoo

Sam and Ben were out of school on Thursday and Friday, so we decided to head north to Omaha.  None of us had been there before, so we were looking forward to a good trip.  We stayed right across the street from the Zoo at the Comfort Inn which was a GREAT hotel other than the low water pressure in the shower.  The central "wonder" of the zoo is the Desert Dome.  The upper part has numerous desert scenes from around the world.  Below the dome is the "Creatures of the Night" exhibit that has a walk through swamp.  This was not Sam's favorite part of the zoo, but ranks high for everyone else.  Below in the swamp were primarily alligators.  It did have a swamp like feel to it. 

Ben's reaction to cave paintings in the desert dome

The aquarium at the zoo is first class.  We would have paid just to see the aquarium.  The penguin exhibit was exquisite.  It was even snowing in their exhibit.

   

Exploration Place

Today, Exploration Place opened up their new retro arcade exhibit with restored video games from the 1980's.  I was in arcade heaven with Galaga, Space Invaders, Ms. Pac Man, and many others.  I thought they'd be busy today, but quite the opposite.  More playing time for me :)

This is the inside of Pole Position.  Pretty cool.

Intelivision, the next video game system after Atari. 

Sam and Ben enjoying "Art in Motion".  This is pretty neat as they were able to make all kinds of cool designs.

Sam and Ben playing in the animal veterinarian clinic

Ben checking out an X-Ray

September 22nd, 2012

Brooke joined us for the Lowe's building project.  I think Sam and Ben make a fire truck every year.

Headed to the zoo for a little while.  These birds are called Hyacinth Macaws.  I've never seen blue macaws before.  They were looking a little blue, so I tried to cheer them up.

September 15th, 2012

We started our Saturday with a bike ride to Sam's school for "Owls" workday.  There is a garden/plant area at the front of Sam's school and the science teacher, Mrs. Olze often times requests volunteers to help for 20 minutes or so.  We worked for about an hour and got a lot of work done.  Sam and Ben didn't work a whole lot, but they had fun.

Went to Tanganyika again today.  Nothing else to do.  We love the lorikeets.  We purchase nectar with a token and they go crazy.  They like eating out of the little cup that the nectar is in.  They also like just hanging out anywhere else they can find room.

Kristin didn't have any nectar, but liked her anyway because she is so sweet.

Sam and Ben enjoying the playground

This little guy's name is "Joker".  He did talk some.  He said, "Scooby Doo" and "hello". 

State Fair 2012

Butter Sculpture.  The lady working on this liked my name so she engraved it in to the butter sculpture.  I'm so famous.

Ready for takeoff on the big yellow slide

Dad won Sam and Ben some snakes at the dart throw.  Actually, Mike, the nice man running the game was generous and gave them to the boys despite my misses.  He still came out ahead.

Skating Party

We've never gone to a Mclean skating party, so we decided to head out and try our luck on the skates.  Sam did a great job and enjoyed it more than ice skating (I think).  Ben however did not fair so well.  Oh well, he will get better.  A few things in life never change one of which is Carousel Skating Center.  I used to have my skating parties there and very few things have changed.  The lights on the back wall are new which you see behind Sam and Kristin.

Ben gave up skating early and went for snacks instead.

Labor Day Weekend-Saturday

We were debating about going out of town for the weekend, but opted to stay here and have fun.  We went to the zoo early Saturday morning and finally rode the boats which we've always wanted to do.  It was a lot of fun.  I did not know we had lemur islands.  Quite a nice little ride.

We enjoyed going ice skating using the free coupons that the boys earned from their summer reading program.