Surprise Getaway

Living close to family has it's perks!  Zach and Amie Houser were kind enough to take our kids for the night and I decided to surprise Paul with a night away.  I took him to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, a small town about 35 minutes away from Omaha.  We stayed at the Parmele Bed and Breakfast and had a great time just the two of us.

After we checked in we went to dinner at The Sister's Cafe.  Two Thai sisters run the restaurant, one married an American and the other married a German.  So they serve Thai and German food, odd combo huh!  But it was really delicious and given the opportunity we would definitely go back!

After dinner we went to a movie which to most is a basic evening, but to us it was awesome because we never go to movies in the theatre!  We saw The Martian and did a little shopping as well.


The next morning after a delicious breakfast we walked around their downtown area which really is well preserved and pretty.  We then headed to Nebraska Furniture to order a bed and dresser for Reid and had lunch.  It was a nice break before the storm and perfect timing once I realized Paul would be in the bishopric and gone a lot more.  I'm glad I made it a surprise, it was hard not to tell him, but it made the weekend much more exciting.

Surprise Baby Shower

I have the most thoughtful young women and young women leaders!  They threw me a surprise baby shower and I was completely shocked when I walked in the room Wednesday night.  They had the room decorated so cute with tons of refreshments and gifts.  Terrie Ridpath (2nd counselor) even made an adorable motorcycle diaper cake!  They themed the party with the motorcycles and it was just so cute.

One of my Mia Maids, Susan, planned all the games.  We played the toilet paper game where they guesstimate how big your belly is using toilet paper, the candy bar poop game where you have to guess which melted candy bar is in each diaper.   And, lastly we played a game that I have never played where a blind folded person had to feed pudding to their partner.  It was really fun to watch.

We opened presents and the leaders had brought lots of gifts for Reid and Hayden which was just so thoughtful.

I finally feel comfortable and like I belong in Young Women's and now I am released.  It's been a crazy week, we had a ward split and lost half our ward and Paul got called to be 2nd counselor in the Bishopric!!!  It was quite a shock and I am not going to lie and am afraid for myself.  Paul is a great help on Sundays and at night and I am going to be on my own a lot more often which is terrifying.  It seems like bad timing but we'll make the most of it.  Hopefully my attitude will turn around soon.  His parents drove all the way to Omaha for the weekend to have his father ordained him as a high priest and be here as he got set apart.  Hayden and Reid loved having their grandparents here for a few short days.  I only got one picture, Reid sure loves Papa Steve!

Halloween

We had lots of Halloween fun this year.  Reid is starting to understand holidays which always makes them more fun.  He did NOT enjoy carving pumpkins again this year and even Hayden was disgusted by the goo. So Paul ended up doing most of the work.

Hayden and Reid did have fun painting their pumpkins though. 

The next day Hayden had her Halloween party at school and costume parade.  I was able to help out in the classroom which was fun and Hayden was so excited to have me there. There were 3 Dorothy's in her class, it was quite a popular costume this year as was Star Wars Themed costumes.  

Hayden strutting her stuff in the parade

Mia was a cow girl

And Caleb was a mad scientist

One of Hayden's best friends from school, Lexi

That night we had our ward trunk or treat.  It rained so we didn't last very long, but here was our attempt at themed costumes.

Saturday we got together with the Housers children and went trick or treating.  It was so fun to be in Omaha for trick or treating. Our neighbors had haunted houses in their garages, another neighbor gave hay rides on the back of his 4 wheeler, and the streets were filled with kids and their parents, just a really fun night and the weather was perfect.  Reid was so cute running from house to house with his little lion tail, he loved getting candy at each house and stood there each time waiting for them to give him more candy!  His ploy usually worked!

Here is Reid and Hayden "roaring" like lions

Gotta love Hayden's poses!

All the cousins together

Kansas City

In Atlanta Paul and I did a bad job of exploring near by cities early one, so this time around we vowed to change our ways.  We thought it would be fun to have one last family vacation before this baby comes and rocks our world for a bit!  Kansas City is only 3 hours away and they have a Great Wolf Lodge which is a hotel that's really fun for children.

We left Wednesday evening and arrived around 8pm.  We walked around the hotel and checked everything out and then "tried" to get the kids to bed.  Reid is just like Hayden was as a baby.  A "sleep nazi" in hotels!  He stayed wide awake until Paul went to Walmart and bought Benedryl to knock him out around 11pm.

Hayden kills me, she read the Holy Bible and set up everything on her nightstand.  She LOVES hotels.

Don't let this cute face fool you!  

The next morning we went swimming at the massive in door pool.  Reid had fun going down the kiddo slides and Hayden tried out a few of the big slides with dad!

After lunch at Chic-fil-a we knew that Reid needed a nap, so Paul went back to the hotel and did some work while Reid napped and I took Hayden to the American Girl Doll Store for her first time.  She was over the moon excited.  She is fun to do activities like this with because she is so over the top in expressing her excitement.  She has been saving up money to buy something here for quite some time.  She bought a dog for her American Girl Doll Rachel and then we accessorized it a bit. Her dogs name is Peachy pup.  She also got her dolls hair done at the salon! I think we walked every inch of that store two times over.

When Reid woke up dad took him to Cabella's to look around and we met them there and went out for pizza.  We then headed back, got in costumes and went trick-or-treating at the hotel.  They were really adorable in their costumes and a crew asked if they could film and photograph them for promotional materials.  They were filming and taking pictures of Hayden in this first picture.

We also listened to story time that night and then headed to bed.  Reid went to bed better but woke up in the middle of the night and talked for an hour in a half!  The next morning we went to Science City which was AMAZING.  It's located in an old train station and it has really fun exhibits.  We spent all morning exploring it.  Reid loved the helicopter and called it an "a-pee" or "airplane" 

They both loved building bikes together

And of course Reid gravitated to anything that had a ball with it.  He loved this, the air would blow the ball straight up and then he'd swat it away!

For lunch we went to Fritz's and the kids both had a fun time.  There are trains running along the ceiling delivering everyone's food.  You call your order in on a phone like the Training Table and then a train delivers it.  Reid said, "choo-choo" and "where'd go" the entire time we were there.

Fritz's was located in a mall and they also had a giant crayola store there, here is the color wheel with every crayon color!

That afternoon we traveled to see some church history sites.  We went to Independence Visitors center (where Reid slept in the car) and also so the RLDS Temple and then headed to Liberty Jail.  I had been to these places back in 2006 but it was Paul's first time.  Hayden was very reverent and quite in both places.  Reid, not so much!

We got some really yummy Mexican Food in Liberty and then headed back to the hotel for a late night swim.  We really packed it in the second day!

The next morning we drove to the Deanna Rose Farmstead and met our friends from Atlanta that now live in Kansas City.  We had a great morning with the Sugdens!  We bottle fed goats, they were crazy aggressive, they'd push each other out of the way to get a bottle and jump on you until you gave them the bottle!

Hayden got a pony ride for the first time!

Both Reid and Hayden fished for the first time.  They didn't catch anything, but Paul was bound and determined.  I took the kids to the next activity while Paul stayed behind until he caught something.  It ended up breaking the pole so he never got it out of the water!

Hayden with her friends Hannah and Adam Sugden 

We then headed to lunch at Oklahoma Joes which is a famous barbecue restaurant there and it did not disappoint!  So yummy!  Neither Paul and I had dinner we were still so full.  We then drove back home.  It was a nice little vacation before the baby comes and we go into survival mode for a bit!