We knew a couple years ago we wanted to take Landen to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha for his first vacation. We just hadn't figured out a good time to do it. So, when it didn't happen before Cecilia arrived, and we realized we'll soon have 2 babies, we got right on it and God totally blessed the entire trip!
Landen had been working hard since January 2009 to collect links for his reward chain. He wanted his reward to be Coco Key. This was a pretty expensive reward for us, but I had a GREAT coupon and was kinda dying to go myself! In mid-July, when Luke and I realized the chain would be touching the ground very soon, I started researching Omaha, Coco Key and the Zoo to see if we could turn this into our first family vacation. My great coupon, paired with an
amazing opportunity to stay at the hotel at coco key for free and a little savings made it a great trip!
The kids could not have been better in the car! They were excited and happy the entire trip. Landen loved listening to Stella (our gps) direct us where to go and even had to hold the map to make sure she was right.
Coco Key was a blast! Landen loved all the slides, the basketball court, and the lazy river. His favorite part was the huge bucket that collects water above the water park and dumps it all over everyone. He also loved re-enacting WIPEOUT on ABC with the large floating lilly pads.
He would jump and crawl to make it across! Cecilia loved the colors and beach area. Mostly, she just loves when Landen is happy so it was a great day!
We checked out
The Amazing Pizza Machine for dinner and was very impressed!
The pizza was similar to Pizza Street, but the buffet included a baked potato bar, taco bar and dessert bar as well! Great for parents who are kinda over the kids pizza buffet thing! They also had slurpees on the drink bar!!! We signed both kids up for the free kids club and received 20 free play points to use in the dave and buster's style arcade!
They have an under 5 area where the games are cheaper and include play tunnels and ball pit which came in handy for spacing out our play point usage! We will be visiting this place again if we are ever in Omaha again! Landen still talks about it today. He even invited Grandma to go
but warned her it was a long drive!
We visited the zoo and Rosenblatt Stadium on our way out of town. Landen didn't really understand the baseball stadium and why we wanted to see it if there was no game- but he'll appreciate the pictures we made him take later in life!
Our favorite parts of the zoo were:
Penguins!!!
Leafy Sea Dragon!!!
The Aquarium!!!
and cecilia freaked out over the Gorillas!
It was a great First Family Vacation. I am happy to say it was a success, except for one bad Perkins breakfast experience and a broken camera (that mysteriously started working last week!) I just hope Landen doesn't think he gets a whole vacation every time he completes a reward chain!
Landen started preschool this year. The Headstart program he was able to get into is awesome! It's through Great Beginnings in Lee's Summit. They go Mon, Tues, Weds and Thurs from 12:15 to 4:15pm. Lunch is provided and he gets to ride the bus!
This is such a blessing for us right now! Especially, coming off of 5 months of being unemployed and preparing for a new baby!
I remember the spring after Landen turned 3, he started wearing his backpack around the house and asking when he could ride the bus. He would run to the window when he heard the bus dropping off neighbors and get so excited about the whole idea. I remember telling him he had a long time to wait, but it seems like I was saying that yesterday. ahh, time flies.
