Nebraska Day 4

Today we got the chance to go to Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. They have many exhibits that we can’t find in Wichita such as the Desert Dome (a massive glass geodesic dome housing the world’s largest indoor desert!), Creatures of the Night (a series of realistic indoor caves and an indoor swamp, all underneath the dome), the aquarium, a butterfly pavilion, and sea lions. The habitats were done extremely well and were very realistic for the animals. There were a lot of habitats that included snakes, which Ann was “thrilled” with. There was a newborn sea lion on exhibit and it was very cute, snuggling up by his mom. Kenzie got to pet a stingray and they are apparently the silkiest things ever. The Aquarium had some of the craziest things, like a giant, lime green moray eel, or jellyfish that pretended to be miniature coral plants, not to mention the walk through shark tank or the penguins. It was the perfect day to go to the zoo, but there were so many things to see that the two and a half hours we had wasn’t even close to enough time to see everything.

 

At the church we set up the puppet stage and waited for the kids to show up, then we had some amazing tacos and enchiladas. After we were done eating we put on the Jonah puppet show and sang our theme song. Then the Avery people sang us some fun Mexican songs. It was a great way to end the week, and a fantastic opportunity to celebrate with the families we had been working with and the Avery volunteers. One more big thanks to them, and all the hard work they did, and for getting us into the zoo!

 

Late Wednesday night, we had a nerf gun battle. Matt went out and bought each person a nerf gun, but he had to be extra and bought himself a huge one that gave him a slight advantage. We turned all of the lights off in the building and ran around the basement and shot each other. Since it was dark, we accidentally shot poor Dana, who was just trying to go take a shower. When we first started the game, the teams were boys vs. girls. This setup was perfect because the girls were planning a prank on the boys (the Saran Wrap from yesterday’s blog post). Unfortunately, the boys were not phased whatsoever. Wednesday night was crazy, but not as crazy as Thursday night. Here is what happened: those of us who hadn’t chosen to go to bed early (spoilsports) wrapped Lily in saran wrap and we (figuratively) tortured her. First, Brooke and Matt put her on a cart and wheeled her in the kitchen, turned off the lights, and shut the doors. After a couple of minutes, we wheeled her out and gave her a snack. Lily ate a whole bowl of cheerios without her hands. After about half an hour of torture she finally broke free and is alive and well. We had a lot of fun on our last night of our trip and all of us are sad to be leaving in the morning. God has truly blessed us with lovely weather, great kids, and most importantly a wonderful group of team members!

 

We can’t wait to see everybody tomorrow, and tell all of our friends and family about our great trip!

 

Love from Nebraska, one last time,

 

Lily, Luke, and Brooke along with the Avery Team