Omaha Zoo

In an effort to experience as much of the Midwest as we could in our last few months in Iowa, we took a trip to the Omaha Zoo. It's listed as one of the top 10 zoos in the US, so how could we miss the chance? And yes, I did plan for Jonah and Wyatt to wear their animal shirts at the zoo. I don't get to dress up girls in cute little frilly things so I do what I can.

If you have never been, the Omaha Zoo is a pretty amazing zoo. Our day started out with an orangutan begging for food, or maybe she wanted my child?

This was the penguin exhibit. It was great because the kids can get right up next to the glass and the penguins swim directly in front of them.
Another view station for the penguins--

The sea tunnel--sharks and turtles and lots more.

I didn't include any photos of the desert, but there is a huge dome enclosing a desert and then another huge indoor rainforest with different monkey-like animals coming right up to you from the trees, a large waterfall and rope bridge...

and our own monkeys.

Wyatt cracks me up! His cute little personality luckily shines through on so many photos.


There was also a very large farm area with goats and chickens and even a fake cow to milk. Jonah could have spent half the day feeding the over-fed goats.
And they even had a cebu or zebu or however you spell it. Since Veggie-Tales is a staple at our house, seeing a real zebu was quite exciting.

Almost forgot...

Max turned 33 back in March. With three little boys we of course had to have a party complete with party hats, cupcakes, balloons and all the candles we could find hiding in the back of the utensil drawer for the biggest boy in our family.

Campin' and Fishin'

Max took the boys camping and fishing on one of the first warm weekends in April. Since we do not yet have a tent that holds all of us and the Iowa mornings can be really dewy, and since Emmett was not yet one, and since I wanted to sleep on my bed, Emmett and I joined everyone in the morning.

Jonah took this one and I love it.

Lucky boys and lucky me!

Easter

I love Easter. I think it is partially because Easter egg hunts were a really big deal at our house. My sister, Kris, made Easter egg hunts especially exciting as she has always been a competitive Easter egg hunter well into her 30s (oh wait, I think she just turned 29 again last year;). ) Egg hunts were also exciting at our house as we got older because my parents put money in the eggs--mostly quarters, but I remember one year where we were told that somewhere in our backyard was an egg with $20 in it. So you had to push and shove to get as many as you could to could increase your chances.

So far, the eggs at our house have only had candy in them and the hunters seem pleased enough.

Emmett only found one egg. He got it, opened it, and was done.
I think Jonah is helping or sharing with Wyatt here. He is really good about making sure Wyatt has fun. When they play games lately--usually Mancala--he might win the first, and if Wyatt seems sad, I've watched Jonah throw the second game just so Wyatt can feel good.

April Fools

Yeah, I know it was over 4 months ago, but here's a photo of our April Fool's joke on the kids. They thought it was pretty funny. We thought we were pretty funny. too.

A Spring Snowman, Dirt, Mud, and Bikes

Max loves to photograph dying snowmen. He has quite a portfolio. This is this year's installment.

Emmet loves to put things in his mouth, even dirt.
And this is Emmett's favorite place to play, the turtle sandbox. We normally try to remember to put the lid on the sandbox so that this doesn't happen, which reminds me I need to do that before I go to bed tonight. I had to change multiple outfits a day for a few days in a row when the weather first turned warmer. The older boys would leave the back door open and before I knew it, Emmett would be soaking wet, but oh so happy.
And "bike" although is sounds more like "ba" is officially Emmett's first word. The first time we pulled it out and put him on it he was so excited. He couldn't even walk yet in this photo but he could with the bike. His brothers love to ride, too, and so anytime the door to the garage is open, Emmett sneaks out and finds his "ba."

Bowling with My Boys

I got to go bowling with two of my favorite people in the world a while ago. There is only one bowling alley in Iowa City, which is so different than the college town than I knew. In Provo there was probably one bar and, what, 20 bowling alleys? Here it is just the opposite, except way more than 20 bars.

This is Jonah after getting an actual strike, with no help from the bumpers.
As you can see, both of my boys have very good form. They learned it from me. (And Lindy if you're reading this, I still remember your crazy arabesque/kick--I think about it every time I go bowling. Anyone else remember that?)
Yep, two of my favorite people in the world!