kansas 2014

this is our "kansas year" so after a last minute reschedule a few weeks ago (due to matt's workload), last saturday night we headed off to visit papa and nana in kansas for a week. it was a packed week so i am just doing one post instead of like 20 because it seems like it might be 'faster' - hold on, here we go!

the plan was to leave around bedtime after eating dinner and giving the kids baths. well, matt couldn't nap so he wanted to hit the road. yikes! i had to race around to finish shutting up the house and packing. when we got to kansas i learned that there were several things that i went to get, that i might have even had in my hand, that did not get packed. i have never left so many things behind before! oh well. it didn't damper our fun at all!

matt drove us all night to get there. we left here around 7:30pm and got there around 7:00am (6:00am their time) - waking them up. we ended up only stopping for gas overnight which is nice but we don't think that we will be doing that again. it is nice to have things to look at and 'entertain' during the day instead of just watching a dark road for 12 hours.

the kids were all waking up around the time we arrived. by 9am they were bouncing off the walls and becoming a danger to have around all of the glass in the house. a quick search later and we were at a local park to play. the park was adjacent to an elementary school and between the school and the park, there were four play sets! we couldn't believe our luck! i was joking that mason was dressed for pictures in all his green on the green equipment.

manning actually sat down to PUT rocks IN his shoes.

this was the first time madelyn has ever been able to hang upside down like this and she was pretty proud of herself. manning wanted to give it a try too, but thankfully, he didn't.

since we were in the neighborhood, papa wanted to take us by one of his favorite spots - an overpass where you can watch the trains. we just missed one when we got there and weren't sure how long we might have to wait - especially since it was a sunday - but we didn't have to wait long. the kids did think that it was neat to have the train race under them.

that evening, matt and papa took the kids out to play baseball on the golf course (golfers, try not to cringe). it was so cold in the house that my camera kept fogging over and i had to wait about 15 minutes outside for it to warm up enough for a picture.

monday, i took the kids up to my old office to have lunch with my co-workers turned clients (and great friends) while matt and his dad were golfing and nana worked on getting us passes for their pool. unfortunately, i failed to remember to take a picture with them until i got all of the kids buckled in the car. maybe in two more years... when we came back, mason lost his second tooth! we were all a little excited to have it out - and that he didn't swallow it!

nana got out several of daddy and uncle derek's old toys including some legos. madelyn, our "master builder," made this pretty impressive robot of her own invention.

once daddy and papa got back and had a quick lunch, we were ready to head to the pool. we had a great time at the pool. it was a really hot day (heat index around 105 degrees) and the pool felt great. unfortunately, the pool is also were matt and i picked up a few ticks! what is it about us and ticks in kansas? the pool is in a wooded area and was the only place outside the house where matt and i were together, so that is where they must have come from. this is my first tick bite ever. yuck!

but i did get this cute picture with madelyn

tuesday papa had to take a meeting in the morning so we stayed close. they had a nice nature center with trails close by and we went to have a walk. i know. after the ticks yesterday, you might think that a walk in the woods wasn't high on my list of priorities, but i was looking forward to a long walk.

inside the nature center maddux found some toys and decided that the frog needed to eat the bug.

manning was quite content to just watch their bird feeders and a squirrel

the nature center had several life animals including a few kinds of owls and turtles which we enjoyed getting to see so close. and then we were off. it was a beautiful property and a lovely, cool morning. i think we walked around 2-3 miles total

i love this one of all the boys conferring with the map

madelyn found this leaf and said it looked like jasmine's castle

we were starting to get hungry so we went over to daddy's (and my) favorite barbecue restaurant (yes, there was very little vegan eating on this trip - we plan on eating nothing but veggies this week at home to recover from all of the delicious eats). madelyn wasn't interested in eating there so she nibbled a few fries and waited to get back to papa and nana's for a pb&j. i told her i was so proud of how she handled it. a year ago she would have cried and pouted the whole time about how she didn't want to be there. this time, she was even the one who suggested the alternative. it was so refreshing.

our plan was to go back and pick papa up after his meeting and head to the moon marble company. nana had been there but had never seen the marble making demonstration. papa had never been but was curious enough to want us to wait for him and go in the afternoon.

we got there right as one of the demonstrations was letting out, so we had about 15 minutes or so to explore the jam-packed toy store. there was way more to see than we had time to take in. i would describe it as the fantasy toys of our parents' childhood. very nostalgic style toys. a very cool place. and then it was time to see the marble making demonstration!

we all enjoyed this sign

the glass artist was fantastic. not only was he talented (he made it look SO easy) but he was also very funny. he told us that he has been working with glass since he was 6, because his father was a glass artist, and had only burnt himself twice in the 100 years since (an obvious exaggeration). the first was 25 years ago and the second was last thursday. he added that he used to be worried about loosing his driver's license in aging, but was not worried about loosing his torch.

i didn't take enough pictures because manning was having a mood and being VERY vocal. if we had not been sitting in the very middle of the bleachers, i would have got up and left with him. but even with manning, it was a really neat experience to watch how a marble is made. i would like to go back some time.

on our way out we let each of the kids pick from the 'wall of marbles'. while we had seen an artful marble made, the wall contained machine made marbles. they were still really pretty and the kids were thrilled - all four of them! maddux' were almost all orange and manning's were almost all blue - i think he has selected this as his 'favorite' color.

once back at the house, daddy and the boys went out to golf a little (madelyn wasn't interested).

these boys just love each other so much

manning invented a rocking game by sitting on daddy and then 'rocking' one of his siblings back and forth on his own lap. i tried to take a video but the game had dissolved to arguing about who got the next turn.

wednesday was one of our longest days. first stop - the kansas city zoo. in all the years we lived there and all of the time we have visited, we had never been there before! we tried to get a family picture out front but it was impossible with the sun behind us. (note to attraction planners, when their is a photo op out front, do not situate it so the morning sun is behind it. no one wants to take their pictures on the way out when they are all sweaty. they want to take it when they are fresh and clean on the way in.)

we got tickets that included lots of 'rides' - train, tram, boat, sky safari, carousel. it was a perfect day for the zoo, sunny and cool. we don't know how we timed things so perfectly weather-wise! it is never this nice and comfortable in july!

manning pointed out every animal all day

when i saw the monkey with crazy hair picture in this architectural feature, i suggested i get a picture of maddux with his hair double. and suddenly, we were taking multiple pictures at every single one we saw all morning.

they had a little puzzle station next to the bathrooms which was really nice

we really enjoyed the short boat ride

at vbs, madelyn's class animal was the crocodile, so she had to have a picture to show her teacher

the kids (and i) were really excited about the sky safari. and then i got on the sky safari with manning. up high, with no seatbelt and holding my flipflops. yeah. it was stressful. but, thankfully, manning was not trying to jump out or crying. he just wanted to scoot forward to bend his knees in a normal seated position and then he kept wanting to turn around and see the animals we had already passed - especially the geese. yep. the everyday canadian geese.

pointing out a giraffe

i obviously wasn't too worried because i took a picture with him. he was in a bear hug almost the whole time.

we had seen almost everything we were hoping too and started heading back towards the front to head to our next destination. but we couldn't leave without a ride on the carousel first. we were let in to ride but there weren't any animals left so we had to go back out and wait for the next ride (we weren't alone either - they were obviously not counting how many they were letting in!). but it worked to our advantage because we had first pick of the animals and everyone got what they wanted near each other.

as we were almost out the gate, i told matt that i was going to take manning over for a picture with the giant polar bear. he had pointed it out each and every time we had passed it and i knew he wanted to get close enough to touch it. and then he broke out this pose!

he posed like he had just wrestled this bear and won. i just loved it!

now on to our next stop in this part of town - legoland! (well legoland discovery center.) mason had been waiting for two years to come back here and has been talking about it every day for a few months now.

his excitement is not captured at all, but it is a map of the attraction for those who might be curious.

we stopped to watch the master builder work and we surprised to see him using "kragle" (krazy glue for those who have yet to see the lego movie) since it is what they are fighting against in the movie. although, really, they must use it for some of these attractions to not be roped off - the the proof in the pictures below.

we had to measure off to see how tall they had grown since last time.

and then off to the most talked about ride since last year - "the shooting game." this year manning and i were able to ride too. i didn't think that it was as impressive as to have talked about it for a full two years, but it was fun to try and beat daddy's score with my mad "duck hunt" skills that have long been dormant.

new to us this time was a star wars exhibit. the kids are only just starting to be exposed to star wars (they haven't seen the movies yet, only a few easy reader books) but had a general enough idea to be excited about the exhibit.

once manning found this little window exhibit, he stayed put, wouldn't let anyone else look and had to be physically removed. you can sort of see inside in the picture below.

we were pretty excited to find a second birthday cake on display! it might have been for their second year in kansas city but for us, it was for manning. none of the pictures are clear. i just loved his poses - especially the last one.

and here are some pictures of 'day' and 'night' in the kansas city display.

now it was time for the real fun - legos!

a highlight of the trip

we took a break to catch a showing of the 4d chima movie. it was pretty entertaining but manning didn't care for stuff falling from the ceiling on him (foam and water droplets) and soon climbed on my lap and fell asleep (the movie was only 15 minutes).

after the movie, we rushed over to the "master builders class." basically building a lego set without paper instructions but a live instruction. we worked on building a dragon. it was fun and the instructor was very entertaining. madelyn already considers herself to be a master builder so she was pretty much ready to lead the class. and then they all got a certificate at the end to certify them as a "lego exert."

last, we spent at least an hour in the general block area making cupcakes, building and racing cars and building towers.

madelyn discovered that this piece was shaped like lord business' hat in the lego movie

dinner was at another favorite where trains bring the food to your table. manning, in particular, was amazed at this and waved and called "hi" while waving every time the model train went by (there was a model train on a suspended track also).

and what would a super full day be without some icecream?

dirt and worms

chocolate teeth - yum

thursday was another pretty full day for us. and we were having another treat - a visit from my uncle rob and aunt blake! usually we have driving to meet them in topeka (where they live) or in lawrence (a half-way point), but this time they came all the way to us - and early! we met them at an educational farmstead that is free to the public during the week (only $2 or so on the weekends). as always, it was lovely to see them. and they had lots of patriotic gifts for the kids - so sweet.

the boys went off with daddy to watch the running of the goats (they release them from their night pens to the petting zoo area) and madelyn got to pan for gemstones and minerals with uncle rob and aunt blake.

she was delighted to find her treasures when the sand washed away.

manning watches so sweetly the whole time. he really loves water.

next we went into the barn to watch the cow milking. a baby goat jumped up on this stump while we were waiting. it was pretty neat to see the pump milking. took me right back to nursing and pumping... they get four gallons from her in the morning! they then use it to feed some calves.

the three bigs rode ponies. once again, we were monopolizing the rides with all three ponies occupied by our children.

manning was very happy to feed the ducks. the incline of this water's edge was crazy steep, we were super worried that manning was going to go swimming on one of his thows.

aunt blake and nana watching us feed the ducks

we enjoyed watching the blacksmith work on a horseshoe (i think he said that the equipment he was using dates back to 1890). madelyn won a wooden 'coin' at the bank for correctly guessing the number of pennies in a jar - with a little help from nana, uncle rob and aunt blake.

mason asked me to take this picture

one of the few pictures maddux posed for willlingly

manning loved this little house and was just walking around it happily singing

manning with a big no - mason can't be in my picture

uncle rob photobomb!

papa was having a quiet moment...

we had a leisurely lunch with uncle rob and aunt blake before saying good-bye and heading off to our second destination. there is a new living, dining, entertainment, shopping complex near-by with a museum so we thought we would just stop by and check it out.

a huge print on the side of a building

the museum is called prairiefire. so pretty.

inside you can use touchscreens to 'find' fossils, then name the dinosaur you found before you go out front to see it 'walk' next to you on a large screen in the lobby.

i couldn't get my camera to flash for the life of me in front of the t-rex but the glass was so beautiful

manning was perfectly happy watching the landscapers working

in the gift store maddux picked out all the orange rocks from the bin

next we walked over to a fancy chocolate and coffee store (smelled heavenly) and next door was a very cool toy store. this little rocking seat with suction cups on the bottom was a huge hit!

happy forth of july! daddy and papa headed out to golf pretty early and we played around the house.

matt and i had gone on a date the night before. while we were out, we went to walk around the mall. we found that it now had an american girl doll store, a lego store and a disney store. we knew that there was a disney store and the kids have been in a few of them before but they had never been in the other two. i ran it by nana as something to do while the guys were golfing and she was game. we were planning on going out to lunch anyway so we just left a little earlier and browsed around.

another clue to manning's preference for blue

nana had decided to get the kids a small something each. madelyn picked a mini american girl doll (marie-grace) that was on sale for $10. mason selected a captain america lego set. maddux picked out (with no second guessing) an orange dusty (from planes movie) headset (see the rest of our pictures). and manning picked out a little toy jake and neverland pirates camera.

back at home nana and papa got out some special sand that packs without water but doesn't stick to your hands (sort of like brown sugar consistency).

and then we started celebrating! instead of sparklers and fireworks, we used a rocket launcher toy papa had purchased at the toy store yesterday. it was WAY better!

a scrumptious dinner from nana and we were ready for fireworks!

the flash was a little bright.

we had forgotten that maddux is not a fan of fireworks. he cried and begged to go home before finally falling asleep.

how about these little angels?

and so ended our kansas visit. we loaded up and headed out for home. it didn't take us much longer to drive during the daytime. during our lunch stop, we picked up some 'magic marker' books for the kids. these were always my favorite part of road trips as a child. they were all pretty impressed.

and there are always movies. look at that sweet face watching the lego movie - again.

these boys loving on each other at our dinner stop

we had such a great time in kansas! thank you to papa and nana for letting us come! love.

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