somethingreal: vacation staycation

so we vacationed in my in-laws basement. it was not lame. it was perfect. we did all sorts of not so exotic things... which was exactly what we wanted to do. plus there was someone upstairs making pancakes in the morning and cleaning up orange juice spills and
it wasn't me. what follows here is a gigantic photo diary of all things

vacation staycation 2010....

driving... even on staycations.. in nebraska there is ALWAYS driving...

meeting fun friends for yum food....

stock up trip to whole foods...

the closest whole foods is 3 hours away... i hoard cracked bulgur like it's december 31st 1999

of course we had fun baby shoots...

this is reality people... spit happens.

and then baths happen... because mommy may have taken her sweet time crawling up off the floor to get a paper towel and the baby may have rolled around in it for a little while. ew.

we took a grammy and grandpa sponsored trip to ride the rails... grayson's 2 year old version of heaven. over sized ball caps provided from grandpa's collection.

ari and i found this little guy and watched him for awhile. thankfully gray did not see what we were doing. he has an amazing ability to trample the exact thing he is looking for. after the trains we found what looked like an albino butterfly. notice there is no picture of said butterfly. we were all huddled around looking at it on the ground and grayson came running up 'ca ni see, ca ni see?' splat.
just happened again yesterday with a big ant ari and i were looking at.
bull in a china shop... that's bubba.

we of course went to the zoo. can you vacation near the zoo and not go to the zoo?

impossible.

grayson in the butterfly house.. was not too sure he liked all these things flying over his head.

there was a butterfly 'growing center' where you could watch them break out of their cocoons and in different stages of growth. then there were all these boxes of dead ones displayed. i really couldn't decide if it was creepy or cool. i think somewhere in between.

ari refused to cross the dangly bridge. she has a very limited interest in physical risk. as in zero. if in her head the outcome could in any way be possible bodily harm her response is freak out, face contorted, hold on to the nearest stable object, screaming, people staring, call the police they are hurting that child scene. it is something we are 'working' on. :)

it would seem ari was a little more excited about cross species friendship than her primate friend.

what is it about meerkats? i love them.

and how did luci spend the day at the zoo you are wondering?? in the drivers seat. :)

we did a day at the pool/splashpark with cousin wyatt

this water tower thing was insan-o. you would just be hanging out watching the kids play with your baby when suddenly a whistle blows and you think--

i wonder what that whistle means??

then...

aaaahhh! run!!! this water was not a sprinkle. this was a deluge.

a hit you in the face, hope you keep your top deluge.

i bribed ari and gray to stand under there with me and then while the water just kept pounding on us i thought...

hmmm.. maybe i should have tested this out first.

but we all survived. :)

but really the best part was the doing 'nothing'...

staying home and watching the clouds roll through off the deck

naps... grayson and daddy under daddy's handmade by grammy childhood airplane quilt.

picking out movies... and getting barney vetoed

grammy even taught me a nifty way to do sham cases and i finished my couch pillows... which makes the daddy very happy. apparently he doesn't like fabric just laid over pillows for 6+ months... ?