We had the BEST weekend.

We decided to go on a minivacation at the last minute. We dragged our friends Jeremy and Amelia (they are our neighbors, Jeremy is in Derek's program, I was Amelia's doula, and their two year old Everhett is Henry's best friend...) to go with us. We drove two and a half hours to Lincoln, NE (Jer and Amelia used to live there) and went to the Children's Museum, which is code for the MOST FUN PLACE ON EARTH. The two-year-olds basically ran like crazy people for four hours. We TRIED to get them to eat lunch, but the cafeteria is on the same floor as all the airplanes, and so, it didn't happen.

For those of you who don't know, children's museums are magical places that have tons of hands-on-stuff thinly veiled as "educational." So, they have a mini grocery store, bank, Police Station, Farm, Pizza Place, doctor's office, construction site, theater, prairie dog tunnels, tree houses, airplanes, a real semi truck, a real fire truck, a flight simulator, and water experiments. It WAS AMAZING! I think, Henry would have moved there if I'd have let him. Hands down, the boy's favorite thing was the semi truck. They could get in and "drive" and honk the horn, etc etc. Seriously, it was a blast.

After the museum, (we only left because the grown-ups were exhausted), we went back to the Cornhusker Marriott, and swam. (Very nice hotel... it was only a little embarrassing to show up on the wrong floor when trying to get to the pool... we ended up in the very fancy lobby in our swim gear... whoops.) And then a nice dinner and BED! My boys were so exhausted that they were asleep by 7 and then Derek and I watched TV in our room with the closed captioning on. :) Well, the TV was on and we fell asleep. We're so old and tired....

Then, Saturday, we drove to Omaha to go the the Zoo. It is an amazing, HUGE zoo. We didn't even get through half of it before we were too tired to go on. HUGE! It was fun. The boys were happy to be able to ride/walk so they got less tired.

The zoo has this cool tunnel in the aquarium where you can walk under the sharks, etc. Well, at one point a sting ray came swimming straight for Henry and then went up and over the tunnel. Well, Henry, being two, didn't realize that the sting ray was NOT going to get him because of the glass, and so it became a theme for the rest of the day. If any animal came toward the glass, Henyr would scream and declare, "The ____ is going to get me!" I *think* he knew it was a joke. I really hope so, because I laughed. My favorite was when the baby gorrilla came right up to him and Henry shouted with glee, "THE MONKEY IS GOING TO GET ME!" Henry got to bring binoculars home as a suvenior and Spencer got a stuffed bird. (As in a toy, not taxidermied...)

BEST WEEKEND EVER!

While I was very tired, we did have a blast, no major emergencies, or even meltdown. We'll pay for the tiredness today, but it was worth it. Henry is having Everhett-withdrawl, after spending every waking minute with him. He keeps asking when "Eeedaaa" (as he calls him) is coming over. Poor kid.

P.S. Henry picked out that hat himself, and I must say, it works.

P.P.S That little cowboy is Everhett.