Camping and the zoo

We took our first camping trip since Lauren was born last weekend and it was great!  We went to Council Bluffs and stayed at Lake Manawa State Park.  We arrived on Friday evening and set up the tent, ate supper, and of course had s'mores.  The kids stayed up until about 9:30 so they zonked out quite quickly.  The weather was perfect, not too chilly, but just cool enough that we weren't uncomfortable at all.

Setting up the tent, can't let Dad do it alone

Finished with supper, ready to play

Aubrey and Cameron played dog, Cameron was the dog (he crawled on hands and knees all over) and Aubrey used the tent strings to "tie" up the dog to the tent

Ryan was worried about how Lauren would do, but she did great!  She is a wonderful independent player, so she and the great outdoors, along with a few toys, was a good equation.

How cute!

Saturday we went to the Omaha zoo.  It's a great zoo and once again, the weather was perfect.  We really couldn't have asked for a better weekend.  The kids loved the zoo, especially the polar bear.  It would back float up to the glass, then turn around and swim away.  Halfway down the glass it would press with its paws against the glass and then start the whole routine over.  Aubrey loved watching it and made her way down the glass until she was right by where his head was.  It was cool to be right next to a polar bear.  Another cool exhibit was the aquarium.  They have a tunnel that you can walk through with the fish swimming all around you.  There were sharks and sting rays, etc.  Cameron thought this was super cool.  Lauren has not stopped talking about it since.  She'll say, "Bear.  Zoo."  Then I'll have to repeat, "Yes, we saw bears at the zoo."  

You have to look closely to see that Aubrey and Lauren are holding hands.  Aubrey was walking next to the stroller and Lauren reached for her hand, I loved it!

We rode the "Skyfari" that went all the way across the zoo, right over lots of animal cages like rhinos, elephants, leopard, etc.  This is Ryan with Aubrey and Cameron.

I had to take a picture of Lauren and myself.  I was a little nervous that Lauren would get antsy and try to move, but she did great.  By the time we were done (we did the round trip) all of our legs were asleep from hanging for so long.

Lauren was very tired, but she did a wonderful job.  It didn't look very comfortable, but she enjoyed a short nap.

The whole weekend was so fun, we decided that we could do it again next year!