Omaha

I took a little drive with my mom and Lil Stella

to Omaha Nebraska.

there wasn't too much to see but I still thought it was beautiful!

she did very well for being on the road almost 11 hours!

Finally we made it and the first thing I did was snuggle my new cousin Bradley.

The last time we were all together I was pregnant with Stella. but you would have never guessed She had never met her cousins before. They all started jumping on the hotel bed and giggling away!

after jumping we got pizza and enjoyed the pool and hot tub.

but we were very exashted! 

and FYI she is not a good sleeping partner!

constant movment and kicking!!

we got our morning workout in

 

 Then headed to the Omaha Zoo! 

for some silly computer reason these next pictures don't want to go in the right order but

the point of them is Gorillas like to bang on the glass and pick their nose....

 

best buds!

 

my favorite part of the zoo was the lake completely filled with Koi fish and a Black Swan!

i had no idea black swans were real!

 

in our Cincinnati Zoo they let the peacocks run free but in Omaha they let Prerri dogs run free! they were everywhere!

 

after a full fun day we stopped for dinner. But Stella wanted nothing to do with us
so she left our table and fell asleep in the corner! this girl has a mind of her own.

MJ was my little helper. he volunteered diaper duty, pushing the stroller and begged me to take pictures for me :)

I am so sad to have to leave my cousin and her family behind. 10 hours apart is just not fair for family. There is a lot of family history, hurt, pain, lies and just missed memories. I had only known Crystal growing up from pictures and very few visits. but God moves mountains and I am so thankful for the relationship I am able to have with her now. She is such a strong and inspiring mother. her husband Nick is an amazing daddy that absolutely loves his family and works so hard for them. and all 5 of their kids are so well behaved and respectful yet have that sweet innocence that makes you want to hug them to death. it was not a good bye it was a see you later alligator, alllllllligator , ALLIGATOR!

moving up and out

I am so far behind! but for good reasons. I made a short video to help explain:

Jump n jacks

I am a little late to catch on to the Instagram train

but I finally did and I LOVE IT!

you can follow me here

if you already do follow me then you have seen these.

o-well 

this day was so much fun I have to share again!

 Jump-n-jacks 

with the girls, my sister and her friend Haley 

which helped out a lot

 we each had one girl per person.

I love this place!

it's clean and well taken care of.

the price is awesome (adults free!)

even though it's not super huge and there were a lot of people

there is so much to do that you don't really notice.

Miss Belle is such a sweet gentle little girl.

she's safe.

the big slides were too high and too fast for her so she found one that wasn't too bad and she went up and down that one slide over half the time we were there.

 Stella on the other hand is our little dare devil!

and Julia well she is a huge ball of energy. this is the only picture I got of her because she was nonstop bouncing off the walls!

This picture cracks me up. My sister took Stella to go down the slide. They sat down when it was their turn, she pushed off  to go down the slide when a tthe last second some random little girl jumped in her lap.  

 I said "who is that?" 

she laughed and said "I have no idea!"

 

 good fun times! and I forgot how bad rubber burns hurt! I left with bruises on my knees and my ribs were sore for a few days. but I can't wait to go back!