Morning at the museum

Children's Museum

Two little kitties at play

Children's Museum

 Required photo in the big chair

 They could play in these gopher/prairie dog holes for hours!

 New fireman pole was a hit

 We were so glad to bump into our friends there!  Here's Andrew driving his classmate Ethan.  :)

Keep the summer fun coming!

Day at the museum

 With just a few days left of summer & still a handful of freebies to use up, we joined some friends & headed for the children's museum.  After lots of airtime at the "airport", the big boys headed over for the space station & the girls settled in to paint their faces. 

 Yikes!  I mean... beautiful purple faced girl.

While the girls scuttled about from station to station, the boys were determined to just pick one or two places per floor & play there the whole time.  This new water exhibit if pretty awesome.  They sure had fun!  Thanks for a fun time, Jamie & Stephanie!

Kansas City - Day 2

 We stayed at the Sheraton connected to Crown Center.  It was huge!  This was the view out our 24th floor window.  I can't imagine what it would have been like on the 40th floor!

 We're pretty consistently Comfort Inn guests, but this was such a great combo deal with hotel, parking, Legoland, & Sea Life Aquarium tickets all together.  Plus, we were able to walk everywhere!

 We packed up early & enjoyed the fountains in the lovely "cool" morning weather.

 Then we got in line for Kaleidoscope.

 There were lots of families (& a few day cares) in line to enjoy the free Hallmark remnants that would spark our creativity.

 It was decorated very cool with different stations set up all over that would get your imagination working.  Most papers were just leftover cut-outs from cards, strings, ribbons, & stickers.  But these masks were pretty cool.  We all painted one.

 You could also draw your own picture & have it cut into a puzzle!  Very cool.

 Afterwards we headed to the Sea Life Aquarium just across the square.  I wasn't expecting much, because I think Henry Doorly is pretty awesome, but I was impressed!  They had it all laid out in such creative ways.  This touch tank was a definite highlight.

There was a guide for the kids to find the answers to questions throughout the aquarium to turn in at the end & we learned a lot of cool facts, too.  After all that hard work discovering, the single sticker prize at the end was a little disappointing, though.  Or as Andrew put it,

"That was a kind of lame."  !!!

 Then it was over to the Crayola Cafe for lunch.

Our final stop was the WWI Memorial museum.  It's very well done.  They had a scavenger hunt for the kids, too, to find different artifacts throughout the museum, which was fun.  Definitely not the same kind of war anymore.  I think that the neatest & most sobering exhibit was under a glass bridge we crossed as we walked in.  There was a field of 9,000 poppies each representing 1,000 combatant deaths during WWI.  Overwhelming.

Soon we were back on the road again with three very tired kiddos.  They ALL slept for at least two and a half hours!  With them all asleep, it was kind of like a date.  :)  What a quick but fun vacation!

Reunion

 Hastings is a pretty common destination for us & always a lot of fun.  But RARELY do we ever go there for anything not related to my sister Melissa's family.  They are so much fun & keep us busy, busy, busy without even trying!  :)  Well, they were out of town a couple of weeks ago when a college friend invited us up for a visit.  We're there so often & yet we never get to see his family.  So, this was the perfect opportunity.

I hadn't been to the Hastings Museum since high school & it was a new experience for everyone else.  Andrew was especially in love with all of the military vehicles & weapons.

 The old cars were fun to look at & imagine our family riding in one!

 They have very cool animal mounts & replicas all over.  These prehistoric swimmers were HUGE.

 We also had our first planetarium experience with the kids.  Rebecca thought it was awesome.  Andrew was moderately interested.  Teresa just kept saying that she wanted to go home!  I had to bait her with snacks from my purse.  :P  They all enjoyed digging & pretending in the discovery room.

 Afterwards we met up with Jeremy & his family at the park.  I really wish we had a free splash park like this here!  The kids had a blast & we all had a nice time chatting.

 We dried off, hopped in the van, & drove across town to a reunion of many old Newman Center friends with their families.  Most were alumni by the time I got there, but I still knew almost everyone.  What a great group of people.  It was amazing how many kids were running around there!  Certainly a different kind of party than we used to have!

 So, we all hopped back in the pool, gave a lot of hugs, ate some delicious dinner, danced a little, & caught up with lots of friends we hadn't seen in a very long time.

Thanks for inviting us, Jeremy.

We had so much fun!

Adventures

 After a quick stop at home to unload our bikes, we headed out to the children's museum to meet up with more cousins for the day.

Lots of fun!  Follow that with a pizza lunch & we were ALL ready for a nap. 

Adios, cousins! 

So glad we could be with you!