The Bleak Family

Fall Break day 2, Oct. 21st

A butterfly landed on Tanner in the butterfly exhibit at the zoo, he was curious about it but let it hang out.

After about 5 minutes of looking around, it was still hanging out on his jacket. We were ready to leave and I had tried shaking it off and it wasn't going anywhere. That's when Tanner started to freak... luckily it decided to finally fly away.

In "Kingdom of the Nights", by the picture you can't tell how dark it really is in there. Tanner was scared for me to set him down.

Don't get to close.

Handsome little devil!

Benson keeping warm as it started to rain.

After the zoo and the weather turning rainy. Andrew busted out his childhood race track. After messing with tinfoil and some major skills. He got it to work. Tanner and Daddy spent the rest of the day making new tracks and racing the one car he has around it!

Vala's Pumpkin Patch, Oct. 20th

Andrew's first day of Fall Break was packed with adventure. After the Wildlife Safari we had a little picnic with food we had packed from home and headed over to Vala's Pumpkin Patch. Tanner was a little tired but was a good sport and we all had fun. This is a "Scarecrow Band" that Tanner liked and probably would have sat and watched the whole time but we convinced him to see what else they had.

Here Andrew and Tanner are racing ducks by pumping out the water.

These were huge bubbles to jump on. They were pretty cool and Tanner loved to jump and run across them.

Awkward jumping pose

So instead of go-carts of bumper cars they have peddle cars. We thought it was a good idea. Check out the people in the background. This dad came peddling in and spun around fast and his daughter went flying off the side. It was kind of sad but funny after I knew she was OK!

Taking a little tracker ride. There was a fake old lady singing and making pies. Tanner said, "Look mom... it's grandma!" I don't know what grandma he was talking about, but Andrew said he was bagging on my mom! I think he was just noticing it was an old lady, because my mom doesn't look like that!

Mickey Mouse

Andrew had a little trouble with some food he ate and had to make a pit stop! ;)

Enjoying some yummy Kettle Corn as we watch the Scarecrow Band... again!

What a woman!

Tanner wanted to ride this one but was obviously too small. So he just sat on it for at least 5 minutes. So Andrew and I just relaxed on a bench with Benson until Tanner had enough!

Although we had fun, we probably won't go again until the last year we are out here. It was a long day full of fun.

Vala's is pretty big, a 152-acre operation with nearly 55 acres of pumpkins planted each year. It has haunted houses, a train, hay, and tractor ride, 5 acre corn maze, lots of games, foods, and other fun stuff! The parking lot looked as big as the zoos. Which was so weird because we were out in the middle of nowhere, basically fields just west of Omaha.

Wildlife Safari- fall break day 1 , Oct. 20th

I love this picure. It's my favorite!

Cranes

So this is closed for people this year, but I totally recommend it for next year. You just drive your car through fields full of elk, bison, and other animals. Then there is a look off for bears and wolves. We saw a bear but didn't get to see any wolves. Tanner loved it almost as much as Andrew. It was pretty fun! But the elk were my favorite bugling back and forth to each other.

When we got out to see the bears, it was decorated for Halloween, Tanner didn't like the skeleton.

Andrew walked right into this bat hagging, hitting him right in the face. So he picked up Tanner to see what Tanner would do. Tanner is ducking as far as he can!

A white/yellow bison

This one walked close enough to our car I could have put my hand out and touched it. I tried to take a picture but screamed a little (because my window was down) and it was about to put it's head in, so Andrew drove forward and I missed the shot!

We had only saw one bison up under some trees and I was disappointed thinking it was all we would see when at least 10 walked across the road right in front of us!

The Bridge to Nowhere

The Pedestrian Bridge- the only bridge linking two states.

The boys

Teepee by the bridge on the Omaha side

Tanner is looking on the edge.

Looking towards Omaha

Tanner's snap shot of the rest of the family.

A few weeks ago our family took a walk over the new Pedestrian Bridge from Omaha to Council Bluffs over the Missouri River. We had fun but were a little nervous when we could feel the whole bridge sway with the wind or bounce when someone walked past us.