20 Years in Omaha

20 Years in Omaha!

The fall is just flying by which it often does. I used to say spring was our busy season but now it's surely fall with Austen and Peyton in two sports each this year and Hailey doing soccer and Girl Scouts. I'm helping to head up all extra curricular things related to soccer for the high school and we are still required to put in volunteer hours for club soccer and Peyton's swim team as well as chairing the Room Parent Committee at Hailey's school and serving as her Girl Scout Treasurer. 

At any rate, we were able to piece together about 12 hours together with the help of Austen and Papa. So what did we do? Well, Southwest was having this nice companion fare deal if you fly somewhere before 9/30 then you get to take someone for free anywhere for the months of Jan - early March. Thinking Austen was going to have lots of soccer games in faraway places during this time, we decided to book a trip. 

So what were our parameters? One - we didn't have much time (only about 12 hours to be exact) so it had to be within a 2 hour flight. Two - I've been to almost every state in the U.S. (almost) so I wanted to knock another one off my list and couldn't see us taking any type of family vacation to Nebraska anytime soon so we decided on Omaha. 

Straddling Two States

We got the kids off to school and took Sadie out then headed to the airport for our 10am flight to Omaha. We landed just before noon and picked up the rental car we reserved and then drove around downtown Omaha, visiting Creighton University (too urban for Austen) and getting our bearings on the layout of this small but quaint city. It was a gorgeous day (much like our wedding day) and we stopped and enjoyed a coffee outside together before driving by the home of the College World Series and then up to the Bob Kerrey pedestrian bridge which joins Nebraska and Iowa over the Missouri River. We walked the bridge and the riverfront before getting back in the car to visit the Dundee neighborhood and have a late lunch at M Pub in the Old Market district. We splurged for ice cream and enjoyed browsing the cute shops in the district and just having time together. No kids fighting, no sports to watch and a little adventure for us!

The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge

Back at home, Austen had early release so he was home by 2pmish and let out Sadie and fed her then he was off to his soccer and football practice. Papa arrived just before he left around 3pm to be home for the girls when they got home from school. Hailey first and then Peyton. They had snacks, did homework and then Papa shuttled them to their swim and soccer practices before heading back to our house to pop in a dinner I had left for all of them. Then it was Austen on duty to go directly from football practice to pick up Hailey at 7pm at soccer practice (he was a few minutes late and Hailey was calling him!)  and then home where Papa had food ready for them. They ate and Hailey got ready for bed and Austen went to pick up Peyton from swim practice at 8pm.

Meanwhile, we boarded our plane at 6:30pm, landed before 8pm and were home by 8:30pm. A quick trip but I'm glad we had a little time to ourselves and a little adventure to remember our 20th anniversary!