I was extremely nervous going in. Three almost 18 months old. Hotel. 2 nights. 2.5 hour drive. Sight seeing. But it all went extremely well. We drove during nap time. Lived on junk food. But we had a great time.
We got all packed up & headed out Friday morning around 10. The kids helped pack the cooler.
We stopped in Minden on our way into Kearney to visit Pioneer Village. To my surprise, the kids actually enjoyed riding around & looking at stuff more than I thought. There were fingers pointing CONSTANTLY! And Hayden was saying "dis?" "dis?" for hours on end! Here we are with a really old "vroom!"
Sitting on an old Trolley Car
Daddy in the choo-choo
The girls driving the train
A sod house
The church. I had to take a picture because this looks exactly like Jeff's church back home & our current church!
An iron lung... can you imagine??
Jeff in the gift shop. He got lost in this gift shop as a kid & had to get help finding his parents. And yes, the gift shop really is only about 15 feet x 15 feet. Oh Jeff....
Tractor. Hayden was repeating "at tuh" all afternoon but he hasn't said it since.
After Pioneer Village, we checked into our hotel room. Got all unpacked. And put on swimming suits to go swimming.... but discovered the pool's heater was broken & the water was freezing :(
So instead we grabbed some Happy Meals & went to the park for a picnic. They did VERY well sitting nice at the picnic table & eating. Long enough for mommy & daddy to scarf down their food before heading off to play. I was absolutely amazed at how grown up they behaved!!
Logan
Such a big girl!
Then we played for a LONG time at an awesome park. Perfect play equipment for our size. The park even has a little splash pool, but it won't be on until after Memorial Weekend.
Logan was a slide maniac! This time he is sitting down, but most of the time when they went down they slid on their bellies, feet first, the way they would go down stairs.
This little boy LOVED Logan. He kept holding his hand saying, Logan lets race on the slide again. Logan, come with me. Logan....
The rickety bridge was a huge hit after they got it figured out. Notice Livi's excitement!
We headed back to our room. Finished up our Happy Meals & played around a little bit.
They enjoyed spinning eachother around on this chair. Logan flew off once.
And Hayden enjoyed dragging daddys bag around the room like an oxen. Maybe he learned something at the museum today?
Then mommy & the kids hit the hay while Daddy spent a few hours catching up with some old friends. They went to sleep PERFECT. Not a peep. And besides a few normal squeeks throughout the night, everyone slept until 7:45 the next morning. Up a little earlier than normal, but still I was very impressed.
Saturday, we went down to the hotel restuarant for breakfast. To discover, no high chairs. So the kids had to sit on big chairs. Not going to say they ate much of anything, but it wasn't a total disaster!! Jeff & I actually got to eat, not in peace, but eat. Then, since our pool wasn't working, we went next door to another hotel to try out their pool. They didn't have a baby pool like our hotel did. And the kids, to say the least, were NOT impressed. We spent a little time standing & splashing in the hot tub. Then headed back to our room for baths and a long morning nap.
When the kids got up, we lunched on Amigos in the hotel room & spent the next part of Saturday afternoon walking around UNK campus where daddy graduated from college.
It was 80+ degrees outside! Finally summer has hit us I think! So we got to wear our summer clothes & put on plenty of sun screen. Hayden, of course, was scared of the spray sunscreen. That boy... seriously!
We tried to go see some animals at a petting zoo, but it too doesn't open until Memorial Weekend (seriously never again taking a trip before Memorial Day!) So since it was beautiful out we opted to hit up the park again.
"I LOVE this park!"
We found a little sand beach by the little lake at the park. So we went to check that out. Logan had a BLAST!! Ran & played. Hayden & Livi, when their toes hit the sand.... let out blood curdling screams. They were terrified. And it didn't improve with time! Why are my kids such chicken-shits? Honestly!
Logan having fun
He even enjoyed walking in the cold water. He would have just dove right in had we let him.
Livi- grumpy face :( She at least finally would walk in the sand, just pouted the whole time.
Hayden, there was NOOOO way. Look at him curl those chubby feet up as far as they will go.
Saturday night we had friends over to our hotel room. Since Jeff has friends in Kearney, one of his friend's friend hooked us up with a hotel room upgrade & we got a suite! Nice & big! So we had plenty of room for a little pizza party, a few drinks & some socialization! The kids of course were people shy, but had warmed up pretty good by the end of the night.
Needless to say, daddy & mommy were ready for bed at the end of the night!
Sunday morning, the kids were up and ready to go at 7:30, but again, besides the early morning, slept great. This time we opted to just grab some things from the breakfast buffet & do breakfast in our room. The kids ate some Trix & left over pizza. And then Logan brought me a very sweet Mother's Day card signed by daddy & 3 cute tots!
Later that morning, we went to visit one of Jeff's friends & his wife & hang out with their almost 1 year old twins. It was the 1st time we had gotten to meet them! Then we met up with another friend of Jeff's (whose daughter was a flower girl in our wedding almost 5 years ago) & chatted briefly as they were finishing lunch at Pizza Hut... and before we sat down for a Mother's Day Pizza Hut buffet. YUM! The food was good. The kids ate nicely. Colored. Hammed it up for other people. And when we left, we discovered some nice man (whom we still are not completely sure who it was) had paid for our bill!! Pretty much a perfect Mother's Day Lunch!
On the way out of town, we stopped to visit the Kearney Archway "museum." It actually spans across the interstate & its a historical site inside. Had we not had kids along, we could have spent a lot more time there. A lot of information & things to see. But the kiddos were getting tired, so we made it a pretty quick trip.
"Ish?"
The only family shot we got all weekend!
The kids' favorite part of the archway was watching the "vrooms" drive by from above!
Mama & her kiddos at the archway on Mother's Day!
Outside the Archway was an earth lodge, built by real Native Americans. Once again, after Memorial Day, they have various Native American groups who set up stations out there & do activities during the day. At least we got to see the lodge.
We stopped by to visit Great Grandma & Grandpa Siebert on our way home. Played a little, snacked a little. They kids were EXHAUSTED, and getting crabby. So we headed home. Unpacked the van. Took a quick bath, and jumped into bed.
I am so proud of the kids! They did SO well. Slept. Played. Enjoyed. Minimal tantrums, fussing, etc. I'm so glad we went. And so looking forward to embarking more & more into toddlerhood!!
Sounds like your first mini vacation went a lot better than mine !!! :-)
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a lot of fun! You were only a few miles from our house, but we were in Henderson. I talked to your grandma for a little bit after church. The kids had so much fun in church, especially Brileigh, after she figured out her voice echoed in there...
ReplyDeleteI'm so jealous your vacation went well! Hopefully the next one we take will go over smoothly (especially since it's 9 days long!) cute blog... I feel like I know you between reading this and talking with Lacy daily :)
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