Our trip to Omaha

Warning:  I took a sabbatical from blogging and now have much to catch up on!

We took a family trip to Omaha mid September...working in a marathon for Brian and 10K for myself.  Here are some of the highlights!

When we first got to town, we stopped and visited with one of my best friends from optometry school and his family, Matt Willis.  That was nice since I hadn't met his wife and they had a 2 month old little girl!  Unfortunately, I failed to take any pictures :(

There were many buffalo heads and bodies around our hotel.  Graham thought that was pretty cool!

Plenty of places for photo ops!  Graham was in the middle of saying "I'm NOT going to smile!"

In our hotel, Landon was excited about the mirror on the door!  Two things he likes to play with!

LOVE him!!

My boys!  Watching Team UmiZoomi in the hotel.

Brian started his marathon on Sunday morning at 7:00 am.  He was assuming he'd finish around 10:30 am, and then my 10k started at 2:00 pm.  It was a rough morning...to say the least... in the hotel getting myself and the boys ready, away from home!  When I got in the shower, both boys were sleeping.  When I got out of the shower, Landon was screaming in his pack and play and Graham was sitting on the floor outside the bathroom, waiting for me (like some kind of scary movie).  I got us all changed and we went down to the lobby to get breakfast.  I needed to carry Landon and of course, Graham throws a monster fit because he wants to be carried too!  I go down carrying my 1 and 3 year old boys...knowing this is going to be a circus!  By the time I got them both situated with breakfast, I didn't feel like I could walk away from their table (didn't want people thinking I was a negligent mother that would leave her children unattended with strangers) and get me something to eat, so I never ate.  Then I forgot to bring down Landon's sippy cup for milk.  I decided I would take a carton of milk up to the room, but of course forgot that with all the chaos, so we had to trek back downstairs as a family to get some milk!  

It was about 10:00 am, Brian was supposed to cross the finish around 10:30, so I got the kids in the double stroller to head to the finishline.  I got them both in the stroller and realize it won't fit through the door of our hotel room.  I proceed to take both boys out, fold up the stroller, put the stroller back together out in the hallway, and finally put both boys back in the stroller (a few choice words were uttered quietly under my breath).  We get in the elevator to head downstairs to the lobby and realize there are stairs from the lobby to the outside!  So I help myself to the valet elevators so we can get to the street!  Then we were off to meet Brian at the finish...things can't possibly get much worse, right?!  Wrong...

We walk to the finish and wait....wait some more....boys get rowdy so I jump from location to location to keep them busy and not bored.  It was kind of chilly and windy when we left, but warmed up while we were out so I took the coats off the boys and set them on the ground next to the stroller.  At some point, I realized I no longer had their coats, so we walked back to previous viewing spots near the finish and thank goodness...I found their coats lying on the ground!  Let's just say they were gifts and not cheap.  While we are waiting for Brian to cross the finish, I'm frantically monitoring Graham, who is running around, Landon, who is crawling all over the place, and the finishline so I don't miss Brian when he crosses...my cell phone rings.  Who could it be?  Brian...using a medic's cell phone!  He is sitting somewhere close to the 23rd mile and is nauseous, puking, and cramping up all over.  He doesn't think he can finish the race.  I decide I will start walking from the finish with the double stroller and just follow the route from where the runners are coming from until I find him.  About 2-3 miles later, we find him walking...slowly.  By the time we reach him, he has decided he can walk to the finish line.  We walk with him until about mile 25.5 - our hotel was right there so the kids and I headed up since it was now about 1:30 and they needed lunch and naps!  Brian walked the rest of the way to the finish to complete his 3rd marathon and needless to say, my 10k had already started and I missed it.

We ordered pizza in the hotel and Brian walked back to the hotel after crossing the finish line.  It took him about an hour to walk a half mile...poor guy!  We definitely ALL needed naps following that morning...

Graham did eventually fall asleep and then we headed to the Children's Museum.  Our weekend definitely turned around after that!

He's just a big kid!

Brian and I took Monday off and we went to the Omaha Zoo before coming home.  That zoo is incredible!!

The best family selfie we could capture!

Feeding the fish!

Caught a rhino taking a mud bath!  Brian roared at him and Graham asked him repeatedly to stop and Brian just kept roaring (for some odd reason) and Graham started sobbing uncontrollably!  He still loves rhinos, but this trip was about a month ago and Graham still tells Brian how he didn't like how he roared at the rhinos!

Landon slept through most of the zoo!

They turned the old Rosenblatt Stadium into part of the zoo's parking lot, but preserved some of it for kids to have fun playing some baseball and running the bases.  We couldn't get Graham to stop running the bases!  

Our trip was fun but exhausting!  We will be going back to Omaha, but preferably NOT to do any organized running!! :)