Spring Break and Off to Omaha!

We try to get to Omaha at least once or twice a year to visit friends. It has been way too long, but we were glad we could finally make it! It was so much fun with Laela on the airplane, seeing old friends again, and meeting the newest edition...Finn. WOW! He is a fantastic baby! We did not take many pictures, as we just tried to visit as much as possible.

We left early Saturday morning. Laela was in a great mood. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We enjoyed a nice little McDonald's breakfast and then let Laela run up and down the terminal a few times. I knew she was about to sit for almost two hours so we wanted to work off some energy. Then she found the escalators and loved riding up and down. We made it into town and thankfully Laela fell asleep in the car, so we drove around for awhile as she napped. Afterwards, we check in to the hotel and then headed out to see our friends.
We headed over to Nick's house to visit him and his girlfriend, Leah. We love Nick! He is a great guy and Leah was super sweet. For goodness sake...she made it through all of Ro's horrible jokes and she even hung out with us the next day too! Laela was not sure about them at first, but felt more comfortable about 30 minutes later. It was great catching up on old times and just hanging out. They were off to a wedding reception so we moved on to the Hasenkamp's house. Kim, Greg, Gabby, and Finn were thrilled to see us...as we were thrilled to see them too! The girls were not quite sure of each other at first and then...next thing you know...they were like long-lost girlfriends. They were sharing toys, running around the house, and jumping on Gabby's big girl bed. Laela loved that she could get in and out whenever she wanted! (Kinda blurry, but I thought it was a cute picture!)I was excited to see some of Gabby's toys and get new ideas for Laela. One thing Laela LOVED was the vacuum cleaner. This thing looked real. It had an on/off button and it sounded just like the real thing. It did not pick up anything, but they say there is one that does. I will check into that in a bit! :)Oh! Of course my mom sent Gabby and Finn hats. Gabby wore her hat ALL weekend. She loved it and Finn's camo hat was adorable!It was so interesting seeing how Laela interacted with Gabby. It was like monkey-see, monkey-do. If Gabby had to go potty, then so did Laela. Fine by me! If we stayed a week, I think Laela would have been potty trained! :)What a fantastic evening we had with the Hasenkamp's. We ended the night about 9:00pm, but the time change was not good. Laela stayed awake until almost 10:00. We tried ot put her in the pack-n-play that was set-up in our hotel room, but that did not work out so well. SO...for the first time in Laela's life...she slept in the bed with us. OH MAN! That child loves to sleep sideways and her mommy and daddy did not get a ton of sleep. Oh well. We lived. The next morning came fast and little miss Laela was a bit grouchy because she missed about 4 hours of her beauty sleep. Well...that is what happens when you are on vacation!
Isn't Gabby so beautiful? Back to the Hasenkamp's house for some more play and talk time. We had a lot to catch up on and the girls had a lot of playing to do! Kim gave Laela one of Gabby old pair of shoes she grew out of, but Gabby has the same pair in a new size. Well, of course, when Laela tried hers on...Gabby needed to put hers on too!
Then they ran around together in their matching shoes! The little girls took a short nap and the boys listened for them while Kim and I went shopping! YEA for shopping with Kim and no kids! :) It was so wonderful to get to talk and shop. Oh how I would love to spend girls' nights with her on a regular basis.

Already it was Monday, which meant it was time to pack up and get ready to head out of town! The hotel had a serve your-self breakfast bar which we loved! Laela had a bit of cereal, yogurt, and juice. It was awesome! While we got ready, Laela made herself a little spot on the bed to journal about her weekend events. (I think she liked it! OH...by the way...do you think she looks like her mommy, yet?)
So lunch with everyone for one last eating fest (I forgot to mention that we planned everything around food while we were in town. The Old Chicago pizza rolls still make me drool just thinking about them!) Then we drove around town so Laela could nap in the car. (Actually, we pulled over and all three of us napped for about 45 minutes. Sounds weird, but sometimes sleep is priceless!) Then back to the airport where Laela did great once again! She was able to run around and play a little before we boarded. Then we were very lucky because the flight was not full so she was able to sit in the seat between us. (The next time we fly she will be over two and we will have to pay full-price for her seat! YIKES! That will be crazy.) Anyway, she loved having her own seat. She made a few phone calls to Nanna and Allie Mae...we think she warned them that we were on our way home.
Then she played with books, pen/paper, magazines, snacks, etc. Not too bad. 3 days was perfect! We were not gone too long, but it was just enough for our Little Laela. Now we are working on getting our sleep schedule back to normal. :) Thank you to our Omaha friends for being so welcoming to us when we visit. We love seeing you guys and hope to see you in Texas soon!