CoCo Key Water Resort - Our Summer "Staycation"

We went on a little "Staycation" at the Omaha Holiday Inn last Thursday - Friday. Debra & Greg gave us tickets to CoCo Key Water Resort for Christmas and a gift certificate to the hotel, so we saved them until now. :) We checked into the hotel on Thursday evening after Doug got off work and then we drove to Chili's for supper. After supper we picked up some supplies at SuperTarget (doughnuts and milk for breakfast) and headed back to the hotel ready to go for a quick swim before bed time. The we all got our swimsuits on and I called to check on pool towels. That's when I learned that the pool was closed for "cleaning" for 4 days!!! Crazy!!! No one told Doug when he checked us in that we couldn't swim at the hotel pool or anything. It was pretty heartbreaking to the kids, who were jumping around the hotel chanting "swimming, swimming...." We broke the news to them and instant tears flowed from both of their eyes. :( After a bunch of "brainstorming" we decided to go on a walk around the hotel. We luckily found an indoor playground right next to the "closed" indoor pool!! It was the perfect size for both Samantha & Alden, so we let them run around and get rid of a bunch of energy! Then, we headed up to the room again and got ready for bed. We debated on where to put the kids for the night. We got a 2 room suite with a king size bed and pull out couch. Samantha & Alden told us they wanted to sleep together on the couch, so we thought we'd give it a try. We did the normal bedtime routine and then told them goodnight and shut our door. Amazingly.....they slept the whole night!! 10:30pm - 7am!! I kept waking up in the middle of the night wondering if they were still asleep, but no sounds, so I went back to sleep. Then, at 7am, our door opens and in pops Alden followed by Samantha. :) It was too cute! Samantha woke up and then told Alden to wake up too!

A little after 9:00, Debra met us at the hotel and we got ready to swim. Alden didn't need his ticket because he was under 2 years old, so we volunteered the ticket to Debra. We were outside the doors of CoCo Key Water Resort at 10:00am - right when it opened! We were the 2nd or 3rd family in the door! The kids ran to the kiddie pool and spent a lot time there with the fountains and other water features. They had to close the kiddie pool a little later for awhile because of something with the chlorine levels, so we moved over to the larger area. Samantha attempted to go down the slide, but after much debate she backed out. (She did go down the little yellow slide 2 times in her lifejacket though.) Alden went down the yellow slide and went right under water, but it didn't seem to bother him. Doug even went down the slide to show them it was fun. (see above picture). The kids liked spraying water at people from above the most. We also enjoyed the "lazy" river and completed many loops with the kids on our laps. There was also a pool with basketball hoops that Alden could play with when Doug lifted him up to shoot hoops. Doug was the only one who went down the "big" slides, but said they were fun. Debra enjoyed a few minutes in the hot tub, too. We had pizza hut for lunch and then returned to the water for a few more hours. We were all exhausted when we left about about 2pm that day. It was a great Christmas present - Thanks Debra & Greg!!

Samantha's 1st Day of Preschool!!

Samantha started preschool this morning at St. John's Catholic School in Plattsmouth. She was so excited! She has 5 other kids in her class - 4 more girls & only 1 boy. Alden did not want her to go. We left the school with him screaming "Ammy" "Ammy" "No, No" once he figured out that she wasn't going home with us! Poor boy! I was holding up just fine until he started crying....then my tears just started flowing! :( We went home and spent some quality mother & son time together!

Spray Park Take 3

We went back to the spray park last week to play. It was our 3rd trip there this summer! The kids just love it and the best part is - it's FREE!! :) We stopped at Target to grab some stuff for sandwiches and had a picnic when we got there. It was a very hot day, so the water felt very good to the kids. I wanted to run through the water, but didn't bring my swimsuit! Samantha has gotten very brave at the spray park and will now run through all of the water features! I think it even helped in the pool a little bit. I'm sure it will be a frequent place for us next summer.

Touring UNL Campus

Last Tuesday, I took the kids to Lincoln to show my brother, Chris, around Campus. We went to Lunch with Doug and then afterward, I showed Chris where all his classes would be at. We also got his parking pass (which was way across campus) and his books. It was a VERY hot day, but the kids did great! Alden didn't want his picture taken that day, but Samantha was all about posing for every picture! We took pictures in front of the statue in front of Westbrook Music Building because Doug & I spent a lot of time in that building for our marching band days. We also saw the "letter" sculpture in which at some point during the day, it shows every letter of the alphabet with its shadow. Samantha thought that was pretty cool, and decided to make a "Y" with her hands to show she could do it too. Then, we walked to the stadium and I tried to get Alden's picture, be he was actually scared of the black statues of football players and cried. As we were walking away, he realized there was a "bootball" (aka - football) with the statues and wanted to go back, but it was WAY to hot! :) After the stadium, we walked to Parking Services to get Chris a parking pass and then all the way back to the union for books. We were all exhausted after our walk around campus! :)

Cass County Fair

Doug took the kids to the Cass County Fair on August 6th after he got off work. (I'm not really a "county" fair type of girl - so I stayed home! :) When I told Samantha that she was going to get to go to the fair with her daddy, she started crying hysterically! She thought the animals would be loose and they would attack her. Poor girl! :) haha. She decided it would be okay, since I convinced her they would all be in cages! They looked at all the animals. Alden touched a sleeping pig! They saw some parachuters and thought it was pretty cool! To end the evening, they watch some of their friends do the "Mutton Bustin' " and Alden is pretty sure he's going to be able to do that next year! Samantha on the other hand probably doesn't want to even go back to the fair. :)

Member Day @ the Zoo

Wednesday, August 5th was Member's day at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo. After Doug got off work, we drove the kids up to the zoo. It was a packed house that day, so we just did a few things that we normally don't get to do. We got to go above the aquarium and look down on all the fish and sharks, which was pretty neat! Samantha tried on a "dive pack" that a scuba diver would normally wear. She almost fell over because it was so heavy! Next, we headed through the actual aquarium, however it was quite disappointing because all the penguins were asleep! We walked to the giraffes next and got to go above them where they are fed. The kids loved this, as giraffes are one of their favorite animals! It was really fun to watch the giraffes strip the leaves off a branch with his tongue! We were sick of all the crowds, so we decided to head for McDonald's for supper and then continue home.

Omaha Riverfront

The day after Doug's triathlon, we spent the morning in Omaha walking along the riverfront and also walking across the new pedestrian bridge for the first time. It was awesome weather to go for a walk! Lots of sun and hot!! We realized the bridge was actually quite large when we started to walk up it, and we decided to make it our goal to get across! Well, we did that and then decided to drive a few blocks back and walk around Heartland Of America park and see the fountain. Alden was only concerned with seeing the ducks and almost chased one right into the water!! That's when we decided to strap him in the stroller for the remainder of our walk around the lake. It was windy and the fountain sprayed us with yucky fish/duck water, which was not very pleasant! It was a fun day with the family and a great way to get a little exercise on a Sunday morning! (If you are wondering why Alden isn't in many of these pictures - it's because he would NOT cooperate at all with us to take pictures of him, so we decided to take advantage of Samantha's unusual cooperation and great smiles! :)

Doug's Plattsmouth Triathlon

Doug competed in his 2nd Triathlon of the summer last Saturday - August 1st. This one was in Plattsmouth and we had great weather! (Unlike the nasty cold, rainy weather we had at the Norfolk Triathlon in June.) My uncle Craig and our friend Joel also competed in the Plattsmouth one. Doug did great! We are so proud of him!! He shaved some minutes off his time from last year and decreased his transition times. He thinks I'm going to train for this one next year (we'll have to wait and see!). I had to help with the Triathlon and be there at 5:45am, so we enlisted the help of my mom and Doug's aunt Jodi. My aunt Janet also came to help Craig and also ended up helping Doug. They were great help! Doug's grandma & grandpa McKnight also came to support Doug. After the triathlon, the kids got to play in the pool while they figured out the results.