The best exhibit was the Desert Dome. And underneath the Desert Dome was the Kingdom of the Night, the cave and my favorite exhibit the swamp. Ok. I had more than one favorite.
After lunch we explored the jungle. This involved a rope bridge. How cool is that. 
Ack. What kind of creature is this.
Our first stop was the Omaha Children's Museum. Lauren really enjoyed the theater and it's costumes.
They had a great exhibit about presidential campaigns. Jackson is practicing his hand shaking.
This is my beautiful sister and best friend Debbie. We journey together not just on spring break trips but in life.
Hotel pools are great. Whole vacations of our childhood were planned around hotel pools.
Bodies that have sat in the car for hours need to wiggle and jump.
This was Erin's first stay in a hotel. She was wild. The rest of us were nestled in our beds with the covers to our ears and our eyes were heavy. But not Erin she was demonstrating jumping jacks. She was a bit confused. She thought maybe we were all just napping or something. She announced "ok guys 2 minutes." Jackson finally hopped up and opened the curtains to show her that it was dark outside and tried to explain once again how the hotel thing worked.
I just love wearing my jersey. It's such an amazing feeling being in a crowd of 19,000 plus people who love the same thing that you do. People who go to bed wondering about the need of a better back up goalie. (no offense Ben) Who sit in traffic hoping that Murray will play the kid line together. Who find themselves suddenly cursing perfectly good cities like Columbus or Nashville. And there is no prettier place in the spring than Market street. It's lined with pretty little pear trees that bloom in the race to the playoffs and rain down soft petals and the smell of spring. We saw their fresh little buds and know that spring is coming.
Before we went to the ball we went to the zoo. St. Louis has a great zoo. And it's a great way to enjoy a perfect spring afternoon.
The animals were almost giddy with spring. This adorable baby elephant ran and played, flipping his sweet little trunk around in delight, and even swam in his little pond.
These penguins had just been fed and were in the middle of a roising game of tag. It's not every day that penguins or hippos or elephants play within a few feet of you. But what was even more breath taking to this midwestern mama......
was this. We haven't measured Jack recently but John is 6'2". Oh Lordy. That's my 13 year old. All grown up right before my very eyes.
Somehow in our reporting of the trials and headlines of February we left off Moses. And he just might have been the best part of February. The boys brought him home on a Friday after school. John had seen him running in the neighborhood the day before. He stayed with us the weekend while we frantically tried to find his owners. The whole bang... posters in the neighborhood, ad in local paper, listing with lost dog registry, even a trip to the vet to check for microchip.
We did find Moses owner. Our friends and next door neighbor fell in love with him. And boy is it easy to do. They've named him Moses cause he was lost in the wilderness. He's loved and is loving his new crib. Well everything but that darn frilly sweater and that was a pretty cruel thing to do to a fellows privates. Clip clip. Little Moses is best friends with their beagle Shiloh. We can look out the window and watch them playing in the yard. And instead of having to sleep under someone's porch he gets to curl up with his new human pack. Don't ya just love a good ending.
