Omaha - Family, Friends, & Frozen Custard!

As you saw from John's earlier post - we recently returned from a trip to Omaha, Nebraska. For those of you that don't know, John was born and raised in Omaha, and to this day many of his close friends and family still live there. My first trip to Omaha was almost exactly a year ago - at that time we went because John was the best man in one of his closest friend's (Josh) wedding; this time we went to attend the wedding of another of his close friends, Erin. Erin is an amazing young lady, and not surprisingly she married an amazing young man by the name of Jeremy. We met Jeremy at Josh's wedding last year, and beyond his obvious good looks you only have to talk with him for a minute to find out he's both extremely intelligent and compasionate. The wedding was an absolute blast - everything you'd expect from a couple that met in a rehearsal for an Omaha theatre company - and we wish them the best in the many, many years to come.

We spent four days in Omaha so we got to spend some real quality time with family and friends. We arrived on Thursday, and spent the afternoon and evening with John's parents. We ordered pizza (from the famed Valentino's pizza I'd heard so much about), chatted about life, adoption, etc and then watched the most recent episode of Greys Anatomy. It was very relaxing. Friday we spent the morning at the zoo with John's cousin Katie and her daughter Cambell. Cambell is about 14 months old and has to be the cutest little girl on the planet! She's got an amazing personality, is always happy, and is at the age where everything she sees is amazing to her. She loves to point at things, and as we walked around the zoo she would swing her arm around pointing at pretty much everything that moved. She was SO cute! I was also very impressed with the Omaha zoo... I'm told it's rated number three of four in the country - and it shows. It definately puts the Atlanta zoo to shame (although we do have Panda's in Atlanta)... after we adopt we'll definately be taking trips to Omaha, and we'll be sure that our child get's to experience that great zoo!

We also got to spend some time with John's friend Josh... we met up and had lunch at a great little restaurant downtown called M's Pub (www.mspubomaha.com). It was really great. If you're ever there you have to try the Thai Lavosh - yummy! I continue to be impressed with Omaha. Not being from middle america it has certainly surpassed my expectations, and is in fact much more interesting than a lot of similar sized cities that I've been to. We walked all through downtown and I came to realize that Omaha has a very nice artistic community - not to mention the music community. Very impressive! All that aside it was great to spend time with Josh - he's a great guy!

We offically have a new tradition when we're in Omaha - visiting Sheridan's frozen custard shop (www.sheridansfrozencustard.com). We went there for the first time, last year... and this time we managed to sneak in three visits in just four days! You really have to go to get the full affect, but I'll try my best to explain. Each dessert starts with a base of some kind of frozen custard - usually vanilla or chocolate. Then they add various ingredients to make up the final product - the only difference is that they add GREAT ingredients. My favorite is called "wedding cake." I watch through the window as they scoop the frozen custard into the cup, and the litterally blend an entire peice of wedding cake into the custard. John had the season pumpkin dessert in which they blend an entire slice of pumpkin pie into custard. Needless to say, the quality adds up to a great tasteing dessert.

Saturday night John's parents hosted a little get together for the family. It was great to see everyone again. It easy to see why John speaks so fondly of Omaha. He has such a great family... and he was so lucky to grow up with so many family memebers so close. They are all caring, intelligent, funny people. I'm so happy to be part of such a great family!

Sunday, before we left, we had brunch with newly weds, plus Josh and Katie. Having all them together in one place is a total blast... They are all so funny (& interesting). A great time was had by all!

John and I look forward to our next trip to Omaha - hopefully our next trip will with our future baby!

Thanks for reading.
~W