More Nebraska

Last night we stayed at the Ramada Tropics Resort in Des Moines. I snickered as we pulled up, wondering what kind of "resort" could really be waiting for us in Des Moines. I overheard the receptionist tell someone on the phone that they were booked for the week. Really?

But after getting up this morning and walking around, I could appreciate the humongous water area they had in the center of the hotel. There were several different pools at varying depths and a number of water slides. So at the cost of setting out later, we decided to let the kids enjoy the pool.

It's hard to see, but this (above) was a pretty impressive pirate ship that was in a pool area 1.5 feet deep with slides on the other side going out to an area that sloped to 0 depth. Great fun for kids -- though not our kids, as they don't like getting splashed all over, which comes with the slide territory. What we didn't take a picture of was this HUGE water slide (3 stories high)!

So we hung out at this pool area, where there were some balls to play with and a net set up (for volleyball in the water). The kids enjoyed having their Puddle Jumpers on, which kept them afloat. Emma was not able to play with this beach ball that Josiah's going after in this photo. Whenever she held it, it buoyed her up too much, causing her to tip backwards and she'd lose control of directing herself. haha.

On the drive last night, we kept seeing trucks carrying these super long blades... wondering if they were airplane wings??? But then there were so many of them, it seemed odd. But this morning we discovered what they were for. These windmills:

Great numbers of them in concentrated areas.

This is a terrible picture, but it was our welcome to Nebraska. Woohoo! Which meant that the kids could color in another state on their U.S. map! I printed maps for each one of them so they can color each state as we drive through. Keep in mind that it makes for very slow coloring... both Abby & Emma didn't want to wait, so they had already colored in Nebraska back in Iowa.

I considered printing something for them to color all the states we see license plates for. I'm glad I didn't, as I seem to be the only one interested in this, possibly because it's difficult for the kids to get a good look as we drive by. We saw a whole host of various states today; I've been keeping track (like a nerd), but don't have the list with me. From what I recall, we've seen cars from:

• Arizona
• Iowa
• Nebraska (of course)
• Florida
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Wisconsin
• California (!)
• Illinois (yay)
• Idaho
• Colorado

So as Ben mentioned in a previous post, we stopped at the Strategic Air & Space Museum in Ashland, NE. It was a blazing hot day with no mercy from the sun. But it was pretty cool to see all the planes. Here are a bunch of photos:

Abby waving from inside a cockpit.

1950's era Hydrogen bomb. :(

The girls weren't terribly interested in the museum, so they were delighted to discover a play area complete with a playground structure (slide, monkey bars...) Josiah had fun there, too:

Apollo capsule

Here's a shot Ben took of the sunset. It's amazing how bright it stays past 8pm!

For the most part, the kids have been doing really well in the car. But then again, this is our first full day of driving. The kids were good about eating ham sandwiches, cold carrots, raisins, Teddy Grahams, and of course, drinking MILK. Gotta have the milk! But I think they'll tire of ham sandwiches, so it's good that we're just about done with it. I have a bag of goodies to unfold as we continue our drive, but they've occupied themselves with activity books, Travel Hangman, and CDs to listen to. They love listening to their music! Here's proof:

Alright, sorry for the long post. Good night!