Omaha in the Fall

After several days in Minneapolis, we drove down to Omaha. Here's Caleb eating dinner at a rest stop in Iowa.

One day while there we visited Uncle Evan at work at Union Pacific.

Then we went to the Children's Museum. They had a superhero themed exhibit, so the girls got to make masks and capes, which they were very proud of, and wore for the whole rest of the day.

Later that day we went to see the trains at the entrance of the city. When you're driving into Omaha on the interstate from Iowa, these two trains from different time periods are on the bluff overlooking the highway. They look impressive from the highway, but you really get a sense of scale standing beside the engines.

After that we went to cousin Emery's birthday party. It was a minion theme.

Although she looks like a zombie minion here, Sabrina actually is looking "at an apple on top of my head."

Another day we went out to a farm and orchard for some fresh apple cider slushies, apple and pumpkin doughnuts, to walk around the pumpkin patch and corn maze, and to take a tractor ride through the apple trees.

There was also a little playground there. Celia, as usual, showed off her prodigious skill on the monkey bars.

Caleb had a little trouble with the slide, though. I think it was a little too steep for him.

He was a little more at home in the tire tunnel.

That night we had a birthday party for Sabrina.

She had very specific requests for her birthday cake. She wanted a purple cake with purple frosting and an orange Jack Skellington face that said "Happy Birthday Sabrina" in the mouth. I think we pulled it off pretty well.

In keeping with the Halloween theme for the party, the kids made some Lego Halloween decorations. The main one the kids worked on for a while was this graveyard.

We also had an epic glowstick dance party in the basement.

Just a few days after we got back to Alaska it was Halloween, so we carved pumpkins. (Next year we'll probably need to carve one for Caleb, too.)

Sabrina wore two costumes this year. She went as Ariel to preschool.

Then both girls dressed as "vampire princesses" on Halloween night. They were very excited about the black hair dye and makeup...sort of. Sabrina hated the way the fake blood felt on her chin so she wiped it right off. They both only kept the fake teeth in for a few minutes. Then it took 4 or 5 washes to get all the dye out of their hair, and it turned our bathtub black for weeks. So we decided against the spray hair dye for the future. Caleb was an adorable little pumpkin.

Then a few days after Halloween we had some snow, so the girls thought it would be fun to run around in their swimsuits before then went to swimming lessons.