What's Up With The Wheelers: Omaha: We Don't Coast

Moving right along with summer, we had a great time exploring all that Omaha has to offer before leaving the Midwest behind.

Thanks to an invitation from a great friend, Jessica, we discovered this delightful splash pad in Papillion for the first time.

The kids knocked out their hours for the Summer Reading Program in no time at all, thanks to audio books during our long car drives. Here they are enjoying the fruits, um, I mean bagels, of their labors.

The Omaha Children's Museum has a new exhibit all about Pirates and Mermaids. And big teeth too, apparently.

Gotta love that starfish!

Watch out Eli! You'll get devoured by that shark.

Talia swimming in the blue.

Here's Brooklyn at Mormon night with the Stormchasers. We were lucky enough to enjoy a few Stormchaser games this season. If only they'd been lucky enough to win...

Annika painted regularly in her very own kitchen art studio. I was so excited because she was using her left hand! That is, until she switched to her right.

Of course, playing so hard can certainly wear a gal out.

Talia participated in summer gymnastics at Sokol, and is looking forward to finding a gym here in Salt Lake too.

Even big girls get exhausted.

Awake once more, here's our Talia learning some computer code using Raspberry Pi.

Back at the Andrus home, every day is craft day, even with NomiAnn out of town. This kitchen table was concurrently hosting diorama construction, playdough, and jewelry making.

Some of our amazing friends hosted a good-bye swim party for us at Prairie Lane pool. It was the sweetest thing! (Not to mention lots of fun too.) From left to right, here are some of our Crestridge friends: Jaden, Estefania, Elena, Johanna, Eli, Thomas, Andrew, Scout, Brooklyn, West, Lily, Adelle, Talia, Annika, and Dove.

Here's Talia again with her matching pal, Everett and his mom, Metta. Gosh dang it, we will miss all our friends!

While saying farewell to friends is hard, sometimes you get lucky and get to say hello again! Here's Eli with Chloe, his best friend from St. George. Her family stopped through Omaha on their way back from an epic road trip.

Athletic Chloe was first in line to show us how the zip line is done.

Wowzers, that's a lot of legs! (I don't suppose that might explain why the hammock is currently disabled.)

Looky here, Talia has a shiny new bike! (Courtesy of the Earn-a-Bike program.) Way to go Talia!

Back at the Old Market, Eli wasn't the only one enjoying the Heartland of America waterfront.

Omaha was transformed for the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials.

Pretty amazing!

Inspired by all the prospective Olympians, our munchkins were eager to head downtown and check out the AquaZone.

Stars and stripes from a swimmer's angle.

It was a long line for the Key Log Rolling, but the kids found it worth the wait. Here's Talia trying her luck.

Splash! You can see Brooklyn rolling in back.

Eli was a natural, being so low to the ground.

But even our little man got wet.

Supporting the team with our signatures. Almost as cool as signing the Flip Flop.

Both Brooklyn and Talia got a chance to train like Michael Phelps in a swim spa. Needless to say, they fell a tad behind his pace.

Nevertheless, they survived the challenge! (And got a free T-shirt to boot.)

Omaha: We Don't Coast.

While I'm sure there's no need to brag about Omaha's coastless coolness, I still want to show off some pictures of the zoo's new splash pad. It's pretty impressive without water...

...but way more fun once the water's turned on. Splish!

Spurt!

Spritz!

Splash!

Soak.

Savor.

Definitely the place to go for a whale of a good time.

Plus, the live animals at the zoo are worth visiting too. Nice job, Mr. Goat.

On a different day, we met up with our friends Samantha and Jesse for some slurpies and playtime at Elmwood Park. I asked Eli to sit on the same step as everyone else, but he was feeling non-conformist. Can you blame him?