We headed back north to Nebraska (but the eastern side this time) and were so excited for a chance to see "our Nebraska friends" as we often call this crew.
Brad and I have known Alea since she was a teenager. We met the Smith family at the church we attended a couple of years into our marriage (around 2007) and were so thankful for them as well as the other friends we made there. We have never had such a close-knit church family since leaving our home-town churches. When we moved back there in 2013 we were glad to get more time with these amazing friends. I was able to spend time with both Michelle and Alea in different respects and at some point in that timeframe Alea started dating Tyler, so we were able to see them as they began their relationship. Brad and Tyler have a lot in common from personal history to jobs and habits and that has been fun to be able to see as well. The unique dynamic Michelle and I love is that I am right in between Michelle and Alea in age and I am friends with them both! SO we were so excited when Tyler and Alea finally decided to tie the knot and couldn't miss a chance to catch up with all these friends over a long weekend. The other extra-special thing about this visit is that Dan and Michelle actually moved to Bulgaria and will be there for about three years, so this was a great chance to see them when we wouldn't have normally!
Ok now I'm going to back up to the start of our road trip. We stopped in Kansas to see a museum that covered The Orphan Train Movement. We have been reading up on this over the summer and it was great to get more knowledge on this bit of history.
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| We worked ahead as much as we could the day before we traveled but both kiddos still had to do some school work on the road. We have only missed the last week of school in years previous for travel so it was very different to make sure we were caught up at this point of the year! |
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| Getting a glimpse at an old train car set up similarly to how it would have looked during The Orphan Train Movement. |
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| One of the many stations from those days that The Orphan Trains stopped at. (It has been refurbished.) Inside were many, many stories and huge pictures of various children who rode the Orphan Train. |
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| This mural was amazing to us. |
We stayed at the same hotel as many of the guests from the wedding and loved being able to see everyone even if it was in small amounts each day of our visit. We were there to support and help if needed but also just happy to celebrate and then filled our other time with some family fun.
Friday morning we headed to the zoo after a short visit with friends at the hotel. We went ahead and bought a pass because it can also be used at the zoos here locally and we knew we likely would go back Sunday.
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| They always love to get it rolling a different way than it already was. |
The kids are working to convince me we should get a bird so feeding the budgies was a way they thought they could help convince me this is a great idea. :)
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| Unique and Gorgeous |
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| Loved petting and feeding the stingrays. |
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| Lorelei has always struggled with a fear of heights. We don't really push her with it but lately she has been mentioning various things she wants to try (to do with being brave about heights) so when she asked to do the Skyfari we decided it was brave and we should let her give a shot. Turns out I was more scared than she was and she absolutely loved it and "wasn't scared a bit." |
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| The penguins are always one of our favorites. |
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| The Kingdom Of The Night is also a favorite with these two. The pictures there never work out because its so dark! |
Saturday we enjoyed a game of putt putt at one of our favorite putt putt courses in the morning.
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| It is made like a real golf course in mini form. So fun! |
Then it was wedding time!
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| We attempted some special wedding hair for L! |
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| Close-to-matching Mother-Daughter dresses. Yep we failed on the shoes for L! |
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| Every table had its own cake! Ours was a classic wedding cake but there were at least six different flavors. |
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| The church friends group who attended the wedding. :) We sure miss seeing these faces each week! |
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| Alea and Tyler! |
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| Myself with Alea and Michelle |
Sunday we headed back to the zoo.
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| Getting and up-close look at some turtles. |
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| The rainforest. |
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| Getting a close-up look as bats were eating fruit was something new. |
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| It isn't a trip to the rainforest without hanging on the vines. :) |
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| The Dessert Dome |
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| Lorelei was beyond excited her friend Anna from Kindergarten could join us for the afternoon! These girls still adore each other and have only seen each other via facetime for the last 4 years so making this happen was so appreciated by them both. |
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| Entirely by accident we managed to get to the sea lions right at feeding time. Getting to see the baby sea lion was pretty special! |
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| The aquarium. |
After the zoo we headed back to the hotel and Anna got to swim with the kids for almost an hour. They were so excited they got to do both the zoo and swim together!
That evening we were able to catch up with Dan and Michelle over pizza for a bit before we all headed out the next morning.
