Fontenelle Forest and the Great Bug Adventure

Our playgroup went to see the big bugs at the Fontenelle Forest. It was a perfect day, mid-70s, slight breeze, overcast, and hardly any other people there. The Fontenelle Forest is a beautiful wooded area that has a nice nature center with a fun basement kids area, a one-mile boardwalk loop, and an outdoor kids nature playground. It's a great place to take the family, even though it is a bit pricey. Playgroup dues are totally worth it at times like these. And our next two playgroups are an apple orchard and pumpkin patch. All three of these activities are definitely out of my price range, but a playgroup covering the entrance fees sure makes for a nice day!

Ryan "looking" for the big bugs: "I no see them, Mommy!"

Jamming on the wooden xylophone

Enjoying the view of downtown Omaha from the top of the boardwalk loop.

(You can just barely see the shiny desert dome at the zoo.)

Bugs Part 1

The bugs were really cool! I took pictures so Ryan could show his daddy, and thought I would share them:

This praying mantis is 1200 lbs. and 18 feet long and 20 feet tall.

They look so tiny when they are crawling on my mailbox as babies....

That web is fifteen feet across. Ryan was not concerned, though.

At all.

Unlike his mom, who was a little grossed out.

Or a lot.

This ant is 25 feet long and 10 feet tall and weighs 725 lbs.

All I could think of was Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

This dragonfly weighs 175 lbs. and has a 17-foot wingspan.

Bugs Part 2

This grasshopper is 11 feet long and 4 feet tall.

This is an assassin bug that weighs 150 lbs. and is 7 feet long and 3 feet tall.

How would you like that bug sucking out your liquid insides?!

This daddy longlegs is 12 feet tall. *shudder*

Did you know they are really called harvestman and there are 6400 different species?

(See, I'm educational, too!)

This ladybug is 7 feet long and 4 feet wide.

Tiny Town

We've had some really fun playgroups lately! I'm a member of HOAA, the resident spouse association here in Omaha, and the playgroup goes to some really fun places. We recently visited a great little place called Tiny Town in Gretna, Nebraska. It's a little kid playground, with tons of little play houses, a sandy play area, a splash pad with spray guns, a train, a school bus, a speed boat, a tractor, a firetruck, not to mention several playgrounds. It was perfect for Ryan, with so many things to explore. We spent the majority of our time in the school bus and on the little plastic roller coaster. Ryan had a blast, and I got to chat with my mommy friends. (And I may have snuck in a visit to a cute little quilt store called The Quilted Moose!) A good day all around!

Ryan driving the school bus

Smiling in the mirror -- I love this picture!

I have to get one of these little roller coasters.

Ryan couldn't get enough of it!

Having so much fun on the train ride

Amy and Hermes Came For a Visit!

Amy and her new friend!

A few weeks ago Amy and Hermes were traveling from North Carolina back to Idaho, so a stopover in Omaha was only natural! We really enjoyed our time with them, especially since we haven't seen them much in the last few years.

Jason was unfortunately on call the night they got here, so they got to say a quick hello to him the next afternoon when he got home before he needed to get some sleep. It happened to be kind of a drizzly day, but we decided to brave the zoo, anyway, to get out of the house and leave it quiet! The rain pretty much stopped by the time we got there, and it was the most perfect day at the zoo ever! Hardly any people were there and the animals were really active because it wasn't anywhere near as hot as it was the week before (sorry Nate and Alysha!). We had so much fun interacting with the animals. Hermes, who is self-admittingly part gorilla himself, really had the gorillas going. First they would just ignore him and give a cold shoulder, but then he would get them pounding their chests and banging the glass. He got some really cool videos of it, too. We quickly left when we noticed that the visible cracks in the glass were stretching higher and higher -- scary! We also had quite a fun time in the bat room -- I should have gotten some of those pictures from you guys before you left! They were amazingly scary, with the bat fangs and beady eyes and wings.... Our favorite part was when Hermes was having fun with the white tiger. It was so scared of him! He would hide behind a bush and the tiger would pace back and forth frantically searching for him. Hermes would pop up and scare the tiger so bad it would growl at him and then run away to the back of the cage! It was really quite entertaining. Poor tiger.... hee hee!

We had a fun few days full of good food and talking and general relaxing all around. Thanks for the visit, guys!