I’ve taken the last couple weeks off from blogging, house projects, laundry...basically everything that was part of my everyday routine. I just needed a break from it all after being out of town and honestly, the first week back was brutal! I was exhausted and felt like I was constantly trying to stay awake and survive. So, I took the following week to recover and relax. I took bubble baths with my bath bombs (which are amazing!), played with the kids, and did a lot of pinning on Pinterest. This week I’m excited to be back to my norm and get ready for Kensi’s birthday party, but I have some catching up to do. Such as share our trip back to our hometown of Omaha!
First of all, the kids did awesome on the flights! They were so excited to see the planes on the runway and could hardly keep still once they found their seats on the plane. They were constantly opening and shutting the windows to see how high we were and if they could spot anything down below. We did give them the iPads and to our surprise neither of them really wanted to play on them any length of time. They preferred coloring, reading the books we packed for them and of course eating every snack! When we arrived in Omaha, we were all starving and so ready to stretch out. The kids definitely reacquainted themselves with my parents house and found all the toys.
It’s been awhile since our last trip home (a year and a half) and we were so excited to finally get the chance to go back. Many don’t think of Omaha as a big city, but over a million residents call it home in the surrounding area. It’s constantly growing and getting more and more amenities which we love, but better yet it still has a small town feel. Almost everyone we know somehow knows each other. Omaha has a large catholic community, several different school districts due to the the smaller suburbs that have been intertwined with the growing city limits. Mike and I both grew up on acreages and love the the grassy farmlands that sit just outside of the city. Whoever designed the city was genius as it’s a perfect grid that runs all the streets north to south and east to west. No wild turns or goofy intersections make getting around amazing. You can literally get anywhere in Omaha in about 25 minutes, end to end.
We initially went back for a friend’s wedding over and extended our trip in order to see friends and family, and hit a few of our favorite local spots. Mike was asked to be a groomsman in his best friend’s wedding from high school. Mike was anxious to see all his old buddies, some of whom he hasn’t seen since college. The thing about a lot of our friends is that we’re so fortunate to have the friends that it doesn’t matter how much time has passed or how much distance is between us, when we get back together it’s as if nothing has changed, except maybe our topics of conversation i.e. school to beer to marriage to children to beer.
Even with ten days, there was still so much to do in so little time. We didn’t get to half the things we hoped to, but our trip was great nonetheless. We tried to focus mostly on the kids after being away from them much of Friday and Saturday with wedding festivities. We spent Sunday celebrating Olivia’s baptism in our hometown church where we were married and both Kensi and Finn were baptized. This was our first day of seeing most of our family and Kensi completely hit it off with her cousins. We had dinner at my brother’s home tucked into the forest of Elkhorn where the kids went exploring through his backyard and calling the wild turkeys. Mike and I felt relaxed and at ease, knowing our kids were safe venturing off with their cousins because we were with our family who genuinely love our children as their own. There’s just a peace that comes with family that we long for and really needed.
I’ll share all the rest of our week in another post later this week. We have so many photos and trying to fit them all into one post is a little overwhelming. So stay tuned for more Omaha fun!
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