Trip to Iowa and Nebraska 2014

Last week my wife, kids and myself all drove to Omaha, Nebraska to visit my sister Kelly and her youngest daughter Jazz. They drove out from Denver. We had a lot of fun and stayed on Carter Lake in Carter Lake, Iowa. We really enjoyed ourselves. We lit off a lot of fireworks, went to the zoo, ate lots of food, visited a museum, and even did a bit of fishing.

The only bad part for me was that I was fighting off a nasty infection near my jaw. I have been on amoxicillin clavulanate for over 30 of the last 45 days. I hope it eventually goes away, I don’t know how long it is OK to take those meds. Most people only take them for 10 days but not me.

The fishing was very fun. I kept catching large bluegill and nice size largemouth using one of my surface poppers. Surface popping is probably my favorite type of fishing.

We found that some of our firecrackers would ignite underwater which was very, very fun. I don’t know how many firecrackers we watched go off underwater.

I will stop typing and just post the pictures. #GoodTimes

: This is the lake that we stayed at as seen by my phone.

: Kelly asked us where we were and this is what I sent back to her. Blazing our trail through the state of Iowa.

: This is the lake house we stayed on. We were right on the water. It was very fun yet simple.

: Chase, Cody and Jazz. Playing a board game.

: Cousins Cody and Jazz.

: We ate at Old Chicago’s. I hadn’t eaten at one of these since we moved to Chicago. I looked around and snapped some pictures of some of the photographs they had hanging on the wall.

: What do you know? Caitlyn is watching Frozen on the road trip.

: Caitlyn loves her Jazz. She couldn’t get enough of her. In fact, we asked Cait if it was OK to trade Colton for Jazz and she said “yep.”

: Jazz slept in a crib a couple of nights. Didn’t seem to bother her, in fact I think she liked it.

: Cait with one of her first fish of the trip.

: Cousins. Chase, Cody, Jazz, Cait.

: Jazz pushing Caitlyn in a stroller around the lake.

: Storm clouds rolling by.

: Chase, Cody, Jazz and Caity on one of our walks.

: A view of the lake at sunset.

: Colton giving his momma a nice smile.

: Kelly did Caitlyn’s hair and then took a picture of her.

: Caitlyn playing at the Omaha Children’s Museum.

: Cait and Jazz at this very same children’s museum in Omaha.

: Caity shopping at the children’s museum in Omaha.

: Cait trying to decide what color to have her nails painted.

: Cait never was brave enough to have her nails painted. She decided to watch Mommy, Kelly and Jazz go first.

: Largemouth off surface popper in Carter Lake, Iowa.

: Just getting into the Omaha Zoo.

: Cait and Jazz. Omaha Zoo.

: Cait posing and picking with a largemouth.

: Largemouth caught on popper in Carter Lake, Iowa.

: Cody, Cait, Jazz and Chase. Omaha Zoo.

: Standing in the parking lot getting ready to go into the zoo.

: Chase standing next to the water.

: Rhinos as seen from above at the zoo in Omaha.

: Cody, Chase and Jazz in front of us. This was some of our view going through the zoo.

: Jazz, Chase and Cody getting off the ride at the zoo. Omaha, Nebraska.

: Monkey crossing the water on a rope trying to get to monkey island at the Omaha Zoo.

: Kelly and Caitlyn riding high at the Omaha Zoo.

: Still riding high at the zoo. They accidentally got off on our round trip so they ended up behind us.

: Our view of Monkey Island, or so we called it. Omaha, Nebraska.

: A giraffe at the zoo as seen from up on the ride.

: More views from above at the zoo. Omaha, Nebraska.

: Jellyfish at the zoo in Omaha.

: Jellyfish in another tank at the Omaha Zoo.

: Jellyfish at the zoo in a third tank.

: Rhino from above at the Omaha Zoo.

: Bird chilling out at the Omaha Zoo.

: The aquariums were very nice at the Omaha Zoo.

: A large disgusting grasshopper in the insect side of the Omaha Zoo.

: Fish in an aquarium at the Omaha Zoo.

: Caitlyn enjoyed some chocolate at the Golden Corral in Omaha.

: Strange animals at the aquarium. Omaha, Nebraska.

: Omaha Zoo post card.

: Jazz posing with a bear.

: Petting some stingrays at the Omaha Zoo.

: This picture was from Kelly. They snapped a picture of Caity eating a big box of popcorn by herself. She likes her food.

: Marshmallow dipped in chocolate at the Golden Corral in Omaha.

: Jazz and Cait getting some snuggles in. Cait sat with Jazz and opted out of having strangers paint her toes.

: Kelly squishing Cait’s face up while hanging out at the house. Caitlyn loved Jazz and Kelly but said Kelly said to many bad words like “pickle butt” and “winter face.”

: Cait laughing with her aunt and cousin.

: Cody and Jazz.

: Cait and Jazz. Sitting on a turtle at the Omaha Zoo.

: Cody is the big brother of the family. A good picture of all four of my children. 🙂

: We got to see downtown Omaha as well after eating Old Chicago’s. Much nicer than we were expecting.

: Baby Colton sleeping.

: Baby Colton showing off his new grin to the camera. He hasn’t been smiling too long. He was only born last April.

: Chase, Cody, Colton, Jazz and Caitlyn. At the zoo.

: Cait got to see her first gorilla.

: A gorilla was looking down at us through a window at the Omaha Zoo. Good times.

: Cody, Colton, Chase. Omaha Zoo.

: Cait on a firetruck at the Children’s Museum.

: Cait on the firetruck. Going into Children’s Museum. Omaha.

: I am thinking the kids would like to have something like this to play with. Snapped a picture to remember what it was called.

: A picture hanging in Old Chicago’s. This is the Water Tower.

: Nice view of downtown Chicago hanging in Old Chicago’s in Omaha.

: One of the more interesting self-portraits I have seen a person do recently. She was bored and snapped this picture while here and her mom were driving out to Omaha.

: The lake that our house was sitting on. (Carter Lake)

: Happy to have gotten some fishing in while we were there.

: Caity enjoyed the fishing. So did I, but probably more.

: Cait fishing.

: We walked around at the lake a couple of times. These were some of the benches they had sitting out for folks. Cait loved Jazz so much.

: Cody and an armadillo statue.

: Cody on the firetruck going into the Omaha Children’s Museum.

: Jazz and the same armadillo statue. I am thinking that this was at the zoo. My memory isn’t as great as it used to be.

: Dinosaur in the Omaha Children’s Museum. Caitlyn wasn’t too sure what to think.

: My boy Cody hanging out at the house in Carter Lake, Iowa.

: We got some fireworks while we were there and the kids had a lot of fun lighting them off. Here are some smoke bombs.

: Two smoke bombs at once.

: Smoke bomb floating out into the water.

: Jazz picked this out. It does pretty much what it looks like it would do. Expels some carbon compound containing ash for its poopoo.

: Lignting more fireworks. Good times.

: Chase loved the fireworks.

: I liked them too.

: Cody squatting down to light something. I think it was a fountain.

: Sparks from a fountain on Carter Lake, Iowa.

: Jazz lighting a firework. We all enjoyed it.

: More from another fountain.

: Posing on a large reptile at the zoo.

: All five kids we had with us on our adventures in Nebraska/Iowa.

: An interesting bird at the zoo in Omaha.

: Bird at the zoo.

: One of the cats at the zoo in Omaha.

: Another bird at the zoo.

: Duck swimming around at the Omaha Zoo.

: Turtle at the Omaha Zoo.

: One of the huge gorillas at the zoo. I stood right behind him and was surprized by how large his shoulders were. I think I see Chase and Caity in the background too behind the gorilla.