Omaha Zoo

We went to the Omaha Zoo for Spring Break this year.  Usually we don't do anything for Spring Break, but Blake was working in Omaha and we have a family pass to the zoo so I loaded up the kids and off we went!  It's about a 4 hour drive and the kids did AMAZING in the car.  We all had so much fun!  The weather was beautiful, the kids were good, everyone was happy... it was just an all-around fun mini-vacation!

I packed a lunch for the way up, and one for the way back, the hotel had breakfast and we bought pizza for dinner so it ended up being a really cheap vacation.  (Well, until I went in the gift shop at the zoo.  More on that later.)

First here's a little side note... I was making sandwiches for everyone (for two meals) and I thought it was a pretty amazing sight to see this "assembly line production".  Here's how to feed 9 people for 2 meals for under $9.  (Cheap, but it takes work.)  These are all cream cheese sandwiches because I didn't want to deal with peanut butter around Caleb.  Look at this assembly line!  lol  This is "round 1":

Add some Rice Krispie treats, a box of Teddy Grahams and a box of Cheezits and viola - lunches for cheap!  (I just brought the whole box of Teddy Grahams and Cheezits and a roll of snack bags and we distributed them in the car rather than going to all the work of putting them in individual bags at home.)

Anyway, I just thought that was a pretty amazing pile of food.  So now some Zoo pictures.

Katie's absolute favorite thing is the "white crocodile".  She LOVES crocodiles and talks often about the Omaha Zoo's white crocodile.  Here he is, an albino crocodile.  They're very rare because they get sunburned and die in the wild.

And I thought this was her looking at the crocodile, but there's glass in this picture.  I don't know what she's looking at, but pretend it's the crocodile because she looks like this when she's looking at the crocodile.

 Michael, Anna and Elizabeth standing on an octopus.

The penguin exhibit is MY favorite so I have lots of pics from there.

 

Next we went to the aquarium.  They have the coolest aquarium... I think I could spend all day in there!
 

Of course Nathan loved reading all the info he could find:

Caleb really liked the fish.  You can see that he's saying "fish" here.

Anna listening to "the ocean" in a shell.

 Not the best picture quality, but I love how fascinated Lydia is with the sharks.

This is my new FAVORITE picture!  Nathan and Michael had fun showing Caleb all the animals.

Anna and a HUGE turtle.

Michael, Anna and the huge turtle.

 At the end of the aquarium, you have to go through the gift shop to exit.  I think I posted about a previous gift shop in the hospital that I couldn't pass up.  I'm seeing a theme lately that I just can't pass up gift shops.  As I mentioned earlier, of course I had to buy them all stuffed animals.  What's a trip to the zoo without stuffed animals to remember your adventure?!  I think I had the most fun in the gift shop!  Their stuffed animals are in a few of the next pictures.

Here's the jungle (or rainforest - I can't remember what they actually named it, but it was humid and jungle-ish).
Michael crossing a scary rope bridge which I refused to get on!

In the Desert Dome.  Nathan liked this place a lot because there were snakes.  Ick!

On our way home, we stopped at a rest stop.  Caleb was absolutely in heaven to watch all the semi-trucks go by on the freeway next to us.  The kids waved at every semi and 2 even honked at them.  I think this was the highlight of Caleb's trip.  He's obsessed with cars and trucks!