TRAVELING: Well, I was feeling a little bit guilty about having Frank fly home from Omaha on Friday night, only to turn around and fly back with all of us on Saturday morning - then home with us today, only to turn around and fly back to omaha tomorrow morning. But, let me tell you - it was a struggle with BOTH of us -- I don't think I could have physically done it by myself! Between the stroller and the car seats and all the bags... it would have been impossible for me, I think. The kids were both troopers, though - Ellie wheeled her princess suitcase through the whole airport (and we took off from the "C" concourse)! She was practically running at times to keep up - but she was so excited, she didn't seem to mind. She loved the "walking sidewalks" but she insisted on standing still on them - after all, what was the magic in being on a moving walkway, if you had to move, too? Once on the plane, both kids did great. Nathan had gone to two-year old heaven - apple juice, goldfish crackers and Elmo playing on the DVD player -- and take off and landing did not faze him in the least. Ellie was interested in looking out the window and putting her tray table up and down and putting her seat back and up. It is a short flight, but no problems either way. And once we got to Omaha, one of the first people we see in the terminal has on a cowboy hat, so Ellie starts shrieking, "Is that a REAL cowboy, mom? He has a hat and a whole cowboy suit! COOL!" I didn't know how to respond, really, so I just said, "yes, it's a real cowboy...don't point..."
FOOD: OK, so not much to report here - we did the typical vacation, lots of fast food thing. Ellie and Nathan were glad to see that there was McDonalds and Panera and Subway in Omaha. I was also able to introduce them to one of my favorites... Arby's. I know we have them in Chicago, but we really don't have any near our house. In Omaha, it's like Starbucks is here -- one on just about every corner. Nathan loves roast beef, apparently -- he just about out-ate me on the Arby's sandwiches -- a kid after my own heart! We also ventured to an Omaha attraction for dinner on Monday night -- the Amazing Pizza Machine. The kids liked it, and it was OK for a Monday night because it was empty. basically, it's a glorified Show-biz Pizza or a chuck-e-cheese. It was a big buffet (food not bad, actually) and then lots of kid gaming -- arcade, little kiddie rides, play-land stuff, and for bigger kids - bumper cars, bowling, go carts, mini-golf - the whole nine yards. Vegas for kids - they loved it and it was fine for us... we were glad to do something fun for them after dragging them house hunting for the third day in a row...
HOUSE HUNTING: Frank had done a LOT of good pre-work here - he and the realtor had gone to see 20-30 houses in the last 2 weeks. And Frank had narrowed to field to the top 5. On Saturday, we went to see them all (yes, after traveling and after no naps for anyone...it went alright, actually). We deliberated on Saturday night, went back to the internet and found 4 more to see the next day (new ones that none of us had seen before). We deliberated on Sunday night and decided to visit our top three again one more time on Monday (all of which were from Frank's original picks, by the way...) Here they are:
This one is in "Dickinson's Landing" (next time you see Ellie, you have to ask her to say the name of the subdivision... it's hilarious!) As Frank puts it, this house has been "lived in and loved" -- it was built in 1998 (antique by Omaha standards...). This house had a good floorplan, a nice kitchen - granite countertops and all that jazz, a big walk-out basement (never knew how much we would want a walk-out basement until we saw some...), one of the biggest master bedrooms / bathrooms / closets I've ever seen (like, borderline weird, but...). It was just a great house in a good neighborhood -- our only hesitation was that we had sort of set our sights on a subdivision called "Cinnamon Creek..." On to option #3 --
This one is in "Cinnamon Creek" -- a neighborhood that we decided that we liked (just from driving around) and it was a good house -- maybe not as great of a house as Dickinson's Landing, but would be more than adequate for us -- second floor laundry, a huge kitchen (but with laminate countertops...oooh....). The basement had lots of storage space, but it wasn't a walkout. It was the biggest house we looked at overall (and the most expensive), and it was brick and vinyl (vinyl is very rare in Omaha). Our question to answer now, is: Do we want a great house in a good neighborhood or a good enough house in a great neighborhood? And is Cinnamon Creek really a better neighborhood than D.L. or is that just something that Frank and I have cooked up in our minds? The realtor assured us that both neighborhoods were fine, so back to the deliberations again... we'll keep you posted on this one for sure!
THE FUN STUFF: And of course, house-hunting was no fun for the kids, especially by day three. So, we had to filter in just enough stuff for them to enjoy, too. When we arrived at Frank's apartment, the living room had two air mattresses for them to sleep on - one with an Ariel blanket and one with a Thomas blanket -- they thought that was cool. That Frank, he was so excited that we were all coming -- he had the place stocked with popcorn, apple juice, goldfish crackers -- all the favorites! Ellie and Nathan both go a big kick out of the "slumber party" set-up. It was cute. We stayed at a hotel on Sunday night, just to have a pool - something fun to make it seem more like a "vacation" -- it was a typical holiday-inn express indoor pool - nothing special, really, but very fun for them! On Monday morning, we woke up to POURING rain - thunderstorms, really. This was the day we had planned to go to the "famous" omaha zoo -- we were second guessing our plan. We took our time getting started, we went by Frank's office to meet and greet people there (he wanted to show off the kids, I think!). After we left there (still in the pouring rain), we were maybe thinking about switching it up to do the children's museum instead. As our luck would have it, the Children's Museum was not open on Mondays, so... off to the zoo we went. When we got to the zoo, the rain magically stopped and we literally had the place to ourselves! (Like, I think there were 7 other cars in the parking lot). We only stayed for a couple of hours at the most - we saw the big things - their aquarium, their "desert dome" and the rainforest / jungle. It was a very nice zoo -- even worth traveling from Chicago to visit... :)
NATHAN: This kid is clumsy, but luckily fairly indestructable to this point. His weekend included a fall in the zoo parking lot to the tune of a fat lip and a bloody nose (and something in his mouth was bleeding, too... he seems fine now), countless head injuries on the glass tables in Frank's apartment and (to no fault of his own) a croup attack on Monday night that kept us all up longer than we wanted to be. Step one when we get to Omaha - find that kid a pediatirician and the closest E.R. !
It was a great weekend - I can say that I am more excited about the whole thing, now that I've seen some houses, toured the Imagination Station and can just generally more imagine our day to day lives there -- I'll think of more later, I'm sure - but those are the highlights!
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