Road Trip/Day 3 - July 23rd - Destination = Omaha, NE

My run in Lexington, Nebraska, was quite miraculous.  I started my run with 2 shoes filled with toilet paper and I finished WITH the toilet paper. I ran past corn fields and some beautiful neighborhoods.  I met a nice Asian man that didn't speak English.  Somehow, I talked him into taking a picture of me in front of the corn.  People in Nebraska are so nice.

I ran back to the Holiday Inn Express to wake the kids up for their run.  They cried the whole time.  "It's hot.  It's humid.  I'm tired."  

They seemed fine once we got back to the All-You-Can-Eat Breakfast buffet and the pool!

Ian was the King of the Day.  What a king he made!!  He was a dictator!

For some reason, we all thought it would be fun to go shopping at Goodwill, which was right next door to our hotel.  Who goes on a road trip and chooses to go to a thrift store for hours?  The Hebers do!  We loaded up on school clothes and Ian tried on a bra.  It was quite exciting!

Next we headed to WalMart to ride the horses and try on random hats.  Can you tell we were trying to waste time?

 To add a little more excitement to our day, we headed to the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles.  What an adventure!!

 After spending lots of time with the artillery, we walked to the gift shop, where they were selling Bee Pollen.  The workers claimed that bee pollen gets rid of allergies, increases sex drive and works like a steroid.  I thought we'd better try it.  You can see the kids' reactions below:

 The bee pollen tasted like horse hay and made us all very thirsty.  My muscles just appear more lopsided.  I don't think that bee pollen had any positive effects on the Heber family.

After pumping ourselves up on bee pollen, we headed off to Omaha, Nebraska, to visit Cousin Susan.  We stopped at Spaghetti Works for dinner.  Kids eat FREE there.  Absolutely amazing deal.  Of course, I had to have ANOTHER gluten free salad.  Dinner ended with lots of TOOTS.

Road Trip/Day 2 - July 22nd - Lunch in Laramie, WY and Dinner in Lexington, NE

We woke up bright and early Sunday morning in Laramie, Wyoming.  I had plans to go to church.  The kids had plans to swim.  So . . . we did both.  We swam, Ian slept in the hottub, and we found an LDS church that met at 11 a.m.  

After church, we were all famished.  We looked on Yelp (the most awesome app) for restaurant recommendations.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints asks its members to keep the Sabbath Day Holy.  One thing we do as a family to make Sundays special is to not eat out on Sundays.  I thought I'd make an exception since we were on the road traveling and I didn't feel like eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  

I found four restaurants that got 4 stars.  They all sounded FANTASTIC!  I called each restaurant on my list:  ALL were closed on Sunday.  What?!  We weren't in Utah County and I still couldn't break the Sabbath no matter how hard I tried.  (It actually taught me a lesson to be prepared with a cooler of food just in case. :)

With 3 starving children crying in the backseat, I continued to call more restaurants further down the list that received only 2-3 stars on Yelp.  I finally found one that was open . . . The 17th St. Cafe.  And . . . they had a special on Fried Chicken!!  If any one knows me at all, they know I despise chicken on a bone.  I just cannot wrap my head around the idea of gnawing on a bone of any animal.  I figured they must have something else on the menu I could order, so we headed toward the cafe.

We arrived and our waitress seated us.  Everyone ordered the Fried Chicken Special, except for difficult me.  

Here's how the conversation went between me and the waitress:

Me:  Do you have anything gluten-free?

Waitress:  Gluten what?

Me:  Do you have anything without wheat or flour in it?

Waitress:  All we've got like that is a salad.

Me:  OK.  I guess I'll take the salad without croutons.

Waitress:  No croutons?

Me:  Right.  They've got wheat in them.

Waitress:  OK.

(Food is delivered to us 15 minutes later.  Everyone's chicken dinners come first, and finally, my salad arrives.  The waitress sits in down in front of me.  I stare at it for a moment in disbelief.  There are croutons tossed through the entire salad.  Not just sitting on top.  One second later, the waitress notices the croutons.  She grabs my plate away from me and screams . . .)

Waitress:  Oh, crap!  They put the croutons on it.

(She runs away with my plate and disappears back to the kitchen.  I hear her yelling at the kitchen help.  She reappears 3 minutes later with the SAME salad.)

Waitress:  We picked all the croutons out.  Sorry about that.

Me:  (Silence. . .  Really???)

After my disappointing lunch, we got back on the road, heading towards Lexington, Nebraska.  Mom was a big help with the driving.

Carson was King of the Day!  He chose to eat at San Pedro's, a delicious looking Mexican restaurant, for dinner.  We took pictures in front of the restaurant, walked inside, and the owner looked at us and said, "We are closing!"  Ooh!  So disappointing!

So . . . we headed to Wendy's, Carson's 2nd choice.  Wendy's cups and fry holders all claim to be the "hottest, juiciest, and freshest!"  Unfortunately, my baked potato was a few days old and turning grey.  It was a sad day of eating for this girl.  It gave the kids and I lots of stories to laugh about over the next week of the trip!

Road Trip/Day One - July 21st - Destination = Laramie, WY

Ian got home from a weeklong Scout Camp on Saturday around 2 pm.  We sprayed him down, loaded the car, and headed off to Nauvoo.  Well, at least we headed towards Little America, Wyoming, where we spent far too much time browsing gift shops and hanging out on the buffalo statue.

Next stop:  Rawlings, Wyoming.  Nyah was "Queen of the Day" so she got to choose the restaurant for dinner.  The choices in Rawlings were:  1) a nasty Chinese buffet and 2) an even nastier KFC/Taco Bell.  She chose the latter.  No one enjoyed their meal.  Everyone stayed in the restroom far too long.  The rainbow we saw when we pulled into town was the best part of the town by far.

We finally arrived at the hotel in Laramie, Wyoming late that night.  No time to swim.  Time to sleep.

Hike to Stewart Falls

It was a first for me.  Riding up the tram to the starting point of Stewart Falls hike.  I was scared to death that the kids were going to slip off the tram and fall 1000s of feet to their death.  Our friends, Jill and Tori joined us for the day's adventure.

Heading up.

The scary trams.

Made it to The Falls.  Nyah's knee got skinned up on the hike there from a "bear scare".   Nyah and I had stayed behind the rest of the group for a "pee break".  After she stood up, I heard a "GRRRR!"
 I yelled, "Nyah, run!  Don't stop.  Don't look behind you.  There's a bear!"  We were running so fast down the trail, that Nyah tripped over a tree root and fell.  I yelled again.  "Get up.  Keep running!"  It was the most terrifying moment of my life.  (Well.  One of them.)

Was I going to make it to the picture rock without slipping and falling?

Almost there.  I'm not the steadiest on my feet.  Nyah was tired of waiting for me.

Nyah decided to try the "fresh" mountain spring water.

She kept asking, "Am I going to get sick?  Will I catch a parasite?"

She went for it.  No parasites.

Almost done with the hike.

Nyah and Tori had on the same biker shorts.  What a coincidence!