When Bill got off work on a Friday, we immediately threw our duffle bag and pillows into the Trailblazer and took off for Omaha. Night fell and our uneventful ride turned even more so. The cab of our car was illuminated by the glow of the dashboard; the stereo played a podcast. The typical ambiance of a night time drive.
It was then that a field of floating red lights blinked at us as we reached the top of a hill. It was awesome and eerie! Some blinking lights were synchronized, others flashed intermittently. We finally realized it was a field of wind turbines. As the blades of the turbines passed in front of the light beacons on top, it would cause a blinking effect - our poor night vision stopping us from seeing any sense of it's base or blade.
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| This is a field of turbines in Germany - but it gives a sense of what we saw! (PC: PPSoulreaver) |
We pulled into LaVista following the directions dished out by the GPS. I thought I had the Noker's address memorized from years of it being push-pinned to my bulletin board (from the days Liz and I exchanged pen-pal letters), but I was thwarted by an address suggested by google maps and we were not actually driving to the right house. When we supposedly arrived, it was very obvious that it was not the house we had stopped at on our way to Iowa. Fortunately, we got a hold of Liz and found we were only off by a couple of streets. *Phew!
Despite being 10:30ish at night, we were greeted at the door by Liz and aunt Nadine. A little bit later, Bekah arrived home from her shift at work. After chatting for a bit and devising a plan for the zoo in the morning, we crashed on a futon in the back room.
Bill was a bit stressed by the weekend because after we had made these plans, he found out it was Year-End at his work...one of the more critical times in the company. His phone was close at hand at any given moment, ready to respond to any trouble-tickets that might come in. BUT luckily, there were very few issues to be resolved while we were away!
We woke up to a 90% chance of rainfall that was expected to basically last the whole day. We were worried about the zoo being jam-packed because it was the weekend that Berkshire Hathaway investors, etc. (?) were in Omaha for an annual meeting (fun fact: Warren Buffet, owner of Berkshire Hathaway, lives in Omaha!). According to the Noker's, the event usually inundates the area with tourists and mobs of people. We really hoped the rain would deter all those people from wanting to go to this renown zoo. And it did!
Nadine, Liz, Bekah, Kyler, baby Evelyn, Ben, Bill and I arrived at the zoo dressed in multiple layers to peel out of as we made our way through the giant indoor exhibits of the zoo. It was great! We started in the jungle house and made our way to the back portion of zoo to see the new elephant exhibit. We spent some time in the rain between buildings, but it wasn't awful weather to be stuck in...just typical April weather!
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| The Monkeys were out in the open and actively swinging in the tree! |
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| Liz, Ben, and Bill |
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| Bekah and Evelyn - zoos are much more fun with little kids! |
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| Liz and Evelyn |
My magic moment was walking through the butterfly house where a Blue Morpho landed on my head!!! I slowly handed my phone to Bill for him to take my picture, but just as he snapped the picture, the butterfly flew away. I will never know what it looks like to have a butterfly on my head, only what my face looks like when I'm disappointed.
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| The look of disappointment... |
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| Blue Morphos - like the one that landed on my head |
One of my favorite parts of the zoo was the aquarium exhibit and their jellyfish display. I could seriously watch them aaaaaaaalllllllll day! And the penguins were also top-notch!
The Desert Dome is a cool architectural design and was Bill's favorite part! And after wandering through the desert you end up in the underground caverns and ultimately the bayou. The atmosphere was unique and unlike any zoo exhibit I had ever been to! I loved that very much.
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| Liz inside the Desert Dome |
Somewhere in there we ate ate some lunch, saw lots of monkeys, and visited with the giraffes. It was a fun day at the zoo! But were ready to head home when we came full circle.
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| Ben, Bekah, and Evelyn walking in the rain |
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| Lunch time! (L to R: Bill, Ben, Nadine, Liz, Kyler, Bekah, and Evelyn) |
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| Bill in the Giraffe House with the Big A** Fans in the background. Seriously...that's the brand: www.bigassfans.com |
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| Bill and I...somewhere? |
We came home and everyone went their separate ways to take naps. Adulting can be rough sometimes. ;)
On Sunday we got up and went to church with Nadine and Marshall. It was Fast Sunday, but we were all really surprised when the Bishopric member turned the time over to the Stake President for some stake business AFTER the sacrament had been passed, rather than opening it up for testimony meeting. He read some scriptures and then out of nowhere pulled out his laptop as an older man rolled in a projector from the side door. The projector and laptop were connected, and displayed on the wall - in all its glory - was the new and unexpected ward boundary! The whole congregation was kind of in shock as the Stake President related the news to the ward that this has been in the works for nearly a year, but very few people were aware that it was happening! It was kind of fun to be apart of the meeting and to witness the reactions of the people around us.
For the rest of the meeting, Evelyn and I played together with my rings and magnetic bracelet - we had managed to become buddies over the course of the weekend. :)
After church we came home and shared another yummy meal prepared by Nadine. The Noker's were seriously the best to share meals with us and allow us to stay at their home!
And eventually our whirlwind weekend came to a close. We left their home around 4:30pm and arrived back in West Liberty with enough time to call my parents for a Sunday evening Skype call.
The weekend flew by, but it was so nice to spend time with family that we know and love. There are a lot of perks to living where we do - and one of those perks is it's centralized location to some pretty awesome places in the US. More to come in future posts!
