Tuesday, June 03, 2014

A Creepy Crawly Taste of Omaha

Tonight Omaha made national news for severe thunderstorms with softball-sized hail and flooding that shut down the airport.  (No damage here, thank goodness.)  Luckily the weather was much milder on Friday night when we met downtown for the "Taste of Omaha."

As you might suspect from its name, all sorts of delectable treats are consumed at "The Taste of Omaha."  Even so, roles were reversed at the Animal Encounter in the Kids Zone: instead of being tasters we nearly became the tasted.

It all started when they asked for a volunteer and Brooklyn raised her hand.  Just look how excited (and unsuspecting) she is!

Little did she know they were about to place Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches all over her head.  You should have seen Brooklyn clamp her mouth shut when the lady teased about how they might crawl in if she left it open.

Don't miss the bonus cockroach on her shoulder!

Brooklyn was quite brave and handled herself exceptionally well for being covered with giant creepy crawly critters.  I was just thinking to myself how grateful I was that it was her and not me when they asked if her Mom could be as brave and dragged me to the front.  Imagine my horror when they proceeded to pull out a giant tarantula and place it on my head!

I may look like I'm smiling, but really my eyes are filled with tears and I'm doing everything that I can to keep from bawling.  You see, I am a total arachnophobe.  I have nightmares about spiders.  I close my eyes during all of the scary spider scenes during movies.  I do not like them crawling on my head.

 Just look at the size of that thing!  Even looking at these photos has my heart racing in panic.  (By the way, did you know that females eat the males after mating?  Extra nutrition for the babes, but bad news for the boys.)

Believe it or not, I gladly would have traded places with one of these gals.

Or perhaps I could have been the one to take the African cat for a walk.

I suppose I would draw the line at holding the American Alligator.  After all, with that many teeth you really could become the Taste of Omaha.

On a less intense note, the kids got some adorable balloon animals.  Brooklyn wanted a monkey...

 Eli preferred a puppy...

...and Talia posed with both.

Last but not least, here's Papa K and the crew with Penelope, the balloon creator.


Meanwhile, NomiAnn  got plenty of exercise watching Annika.  While she was far too busy chasing after her to shoot any pictures of her cuteness, you can be sure that she was up to the same thing she's always up to at home...
Trouble!

2 comments:

Julie L said...

Fun! I had a nightmare about an alligator last night - this post just made me remember that! Hahaha. They really don't scare me. I could maybe handle the spider but the roaches and the snakes???? Totally would have had to carry me out on a stretcher! You were a great sport!

Erin said...

Not a fan of spiders or cockroaches, especially those enormous ones! I'm impressed.