The Cornhusker state

As sometimes happens in Craig's line of work, he had a full day off in a place other than home. On the 4th of July Craig had a whole day off in Omaha, Nebraska. Because it was a holiday and because we basically didn't have anything better to do, we decided to tag along with him. Craig had a quick turn to Spokane before heading to Omaha, so the kids and I took a direct flight to Nebraska where we arrived about four hours ahead of him. No biggie right?? My plan was to pick up the rental car and do some exploring before Craig hit town. The flight went great (two hours on a plane with three kids always makes me nervous) and we made it with no incident. However, when I was waiting in the breezeway for my stroller to be unloaded I thought I was going to be sick. It was VERY humid and I thought it might just be the weather but it didn't pass. We got the car as planned and I found the nearest restroom and tried to survive until Craig arrived. It was awful. I will fast forward to about midnight when Megan started in about every hour. Let's just say our hotel room smelled rather sour by morning! Craig took Spencer and Amber down to breakfast and Megan and I tried to clean ourselves up and assess the damage. We decided to carry on and do what we came to do and that was to enjoy Omaha! For those of you that didn't pay attention in primary, slept through seminary and thought institute was for losers (myself), Winter Quarters was near Omaha. There is a great museum that commemorates the sight which is located across from the pioneer cemetery and the Winter Quarters Temple. The museum has life size replicas of wagons, oxen, log cabins, train cars, handcarts, and all the goods that a family of five needed to take on the trail. It was really fascinating to see the actual scope of what the pioneer experience was. Wow. The photo above is the kids dressed in pioneer garb that they sifted through a trunk to look the part. It took the pioneers four months to get from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters because of the thick mud.

It was the fourth of July and the city of Ralston is known as Independence City (at least that's what the signs said) so we went there for the big parade. Craig and Megan watched the parade while me and the rest of the gang hung out at Dairy Queen. No photos of that!

That night we did find the perfect spot for fireworks. The show was fantastic and you gotta love the Midwest. Everyone is so friendly and no one is in a hurry. This is a place where the speed limit on the freeway is 55.

The next day Craig left for work early in the morning so it was up to me to entertain the kids until our plane departed at 5:00pm. Omaha is so easy to navigate and we finally got a rental car that wasn't a gutless wonder so I enjoyed driving around. We found a beautiful foot bridge that crossed the Missouri river and led over to Iowa.

Don't ask what Amber is doing with her feet; I don't have a clue! This bridge looked innocent enough, but because of the humidity (Nebraska averages four inches of rain in July!) it was quite the trek. How beautiful it was over that big river. On the Iowa side we even saw a deer in the thick trees. When we reached the other side there were signs announcing a new river front community. How sad! Where are the environmentalists?? There was also a large memorial to the Lewis and Clark expedition on the Nebraska side.

Despite the visit of the flu bug, it was really a great trip. (Amber slept from take off to touch down on the way home!) Who knew Omaha had so much to see!