Omaha. Somewhere in middle America.

Yes, you know it.  I sang this song in my head and out loud for about 2 weeks before coming home to Omaha.  Thank you Counting Crows.

Since we spent 2 weeks in February back in "The Good Life", I have a ton of pictures to share.  So I will split the blog entry into two in hopes that I can upload pictures and not crash the blog with an overload of information all in one post.  Without further ado, here is part 1 of our adventure back on the mainland (in Omaha) where our hearts will forever belong.

We left February 3rd and took 3 separate flights home.  Gracie is such a trooper.  She should have earned some kind of award for being such a great kid and flyer for around 14 hours of travel (a free plane ticket would be nice).  We left Honolulu at 10:30 p.m. on Friday, which was 2:30 a.m. Saturday Omaha time.  We flew for about 5 1/2 hours to Los Angeles and had about a 2 hour layover.  We had been praying and trying to stay hopeful that all of our flights would stay on time since Denver was getting pounded with snow and that would eventually hit Omaha.  We were so pumped that our Denver flight from LA left on time and was scheduled to land in Denver with no problems!  Our next concern was getting to Omaha.  Denver had there white stuff cleaned up quickly and since Omaha is no Denver, we were a little more concerned.  Eventually, we were pleased to see that our flight home would leave on time and again without any worries about landing in Omaha.  When we touched down in Omaha at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, I can't tell you how relieved I was to see the ground even with the multiple inches of snow on it.  We were all so excited to be HOME!

FYI- I think Omaha received around 10 inches of snow that day.  Talk about perfect timing to come home.  They were in the 40s and 50s the week before!

Here's our trooper playing with her cars in Denver.

We were happily greeted by Justin's dad, Mike, who brought our winter coats and Gracie's car seat.  Gracie was so excited to see him after being away a couple of weeks since his visit.  Once we got our rental and put our luggage in the car, we were off to Grandma Linda's house where my whole family was waiting to see us.  Our drive to her house reminded us of how lucky we are to not have to worry about snow out here.  The streets weren't too bad, but man, there was a ton of snow which always makes for a slower, longer drive to your destination.  Sadly, I did not get any pictures at my mom's house.  I was too excited to think really and even more excited to eat some Godfather's pizza.  Our last stop for the night was Grandma Pam's aka Grandma P's Suites. :)  Gracie got to open some Christmas presents that Grandma P had saved for her to open when she got back.

She actually remembers wearing this sweater to go out and sled :)

The first few days of being back, Justin did not have to work so we hit the town.  We visited his Grandma on Monday and ran some other errands.  On Tuesday, we also ran some errands and made one very important stop.  Gracie talked about it constantly before we left.  We went to Pump-It-Up, or "Bounce House" as Gracie calls it, to show Daddy why we love it and miss it so much.  I wish we had a place like this on the island.  Nothing compares to it!

Climbing the slippery slope

Daddy trying to help

First time climbing the rock wall!  She loved it!  She is so adventurous.

Coming down the gigantic slide!

Justin and I also got our haircut with Ashley!  Here's Gracie entertaining herself.  She's pretty awesome!

Her silly face

She played a ton every single day!  We were always out of the house finding things to do or seeing friends we miss.  Here's her and Uncle AJ playing some good ol' fashion Nintendo 64.

Concentrating 

Another thing I had planned during our trip back was a baby shower for one of my best friends in the whole wide world, Emily.  We are literally due 3 weeks apart.  She is due on April 15th, and I can't wait for that little bundle of joy to join this world.  With the help of her sister-in-laws, Katy and Karen, we planned a bumble bee themed shower for the Mommy-to-bee.  See how clever we got! LOL  Katy and Karen did a fantastic job of decorating and preparing everything for the shower.  They were busy bees!  I'm so lucky to call them friends and that they were so willing to help and do so much work.

Here is one picture from the shower.  The four of us (Chelsea, Emily aka Mommy-to-bee, Myself, and Emily) met in high school (Flutter, flutter!) and have remained friends since.  It's amazing to me how much our lives have changed and differ from one another since we left Mercy.  Yet, we have remained friends through it all and have grown together even more.  Gosh, we are all married now and all have babies!  Our 10 year reunion is in June (totally bummed I can't attend) and it's hard to believe it's been 10 years since we left MHS.  Doesn't seem right.  I am so lucky to have these girls in my life.  I know for a fact that I would not be who I am today without them.  Love you all!

The next day we celebrated Gracie's Great-Grandpa's 70th Birthday.  She ended the party with some tea (cream soda).  She is a classy little girl.  She now tells me she needs a tea set.  I convinced her she has to wait till her birthday or no one will be able to buy her a present.  She is so much like her dad in that when she wants something, she has to have it right away.  That makes it difficult for people to get her presents.  We are starting her birthday wish list.

Pardon me.  Do you have any Grey Poupon?

Sipping her tea on special China at Uncle Steve's and Aunt Steph's house

Later that night, we had dinner with the Krebs and Griesmans.  Gracie was more interested in playing than eating.  Mom and Dad were more interested in eating than playing.  Typical.

Gracie and Millie...birthday twins, one year apart :)

Hugs!  Best friends!

One thing on our to do list was to let Gracie play in the snow.  Obviously.  We bought some boots and snow pants and bundled her up like the kid in A Christmas Story.  She was so excited to go sledding!

Now, we did not have a sled at Grandma P's Suites so we tried to be creative and use a lid from a storage container.  It was not successful.

Walking to get to the slope/hill

"Snow is frozen water."  -Gracie-  Daddy taught her that.

Falling off the makeshift sled

Sledding...fail

She liked scooting down the hill on her butt better than the no-go sled.

Since the lid was unsuccessful, Justin and Uncle AJ went to Walmart to buy one.  While they were gone, we built a mini snowman. Seriously, a foot tall.  Sorry peeps, I did not grow up making life size snowmen.  This was the best I could do.  And yes, I forgot to take a picture of it.  Another fail.

Daddy and Uncle AJ returned with a blow up tube sled...Success!  Gracie got to really experience sledding!

Let the fun begin!

Mentally preparing

Trying to scoot again :)

Loving the ride!

Having a blast!

All in all, the first 1/2 of our trip home was a success.  We saw a ton of family and friends, went to places we missed (Farmhouse and Runza included), and made sure Gracie got her winter experience. Next post will contain more pictures and words from our trip home.  Stay tuned...