Kansas City

Next stop: Olathe!

Grammy and Pop-Pop's house!

Somehow I always manage to not take too many pictures of Grammy and Pop-Pop. I don't even have one picture of them with the boys. Oops! We did have an awesome week though. :) My sister and her girls came to Olathe from Albuquerque, so we had an awesome Cousins Week together. We had something planned every day, and after it was over I think we both felt like we needed another vacation, but I wouldn't have traded any of it!

Here is a basic rundown of the days:

1. You must have priorities...so the first day we spent in Lawrence!

2. Day #2: Kansas City Zoo with Uncle Dan. Turns out there is a lot of walking at the KC Zoo. Fortunately, Uncle Dan was awesome and gave lots of piggy-back rides. At one point we decided to stop and have a SpongeBob popsicle to cool us off. The idea was better in our heads than in actuality. Turns out the popsicles melted very quickly! Even the adults had melted popsicle running down there arms. That being said...imagine what the 2, 3, and 4 year olds looked like! We were all a mess, but even as we ate it was funny.

3. On the third day I got pampered! Kelley and Mom had a Baby Day for me, complete with cake and games. The kids played balloon games, and I got lots of awesome presents for the new baby. I was totally spoiled! I still owe you guys that thank you note...

4. Jenna's 2nd Birthday! Grammy and Kelley had a party for Jenna at Zonkers (similar to Chuck E. Cheese, but with small rides for the kids). It was a total blast! The adults ended up winning so many tickets (yes, we were as bad as the kids), that the kids got to pick out some pretty cool prizes. Nate's plastic green sword is now the coveted weapon in our neighborhood.

5. Today was supposed to be the Worlds of Fun day...but due to a highly aggressive game of Keep-Away (kids and adults on both teams)...there was a slight mishap. Angie and Kelley had a collision which resulted in a fractured toe (Kelley's poor toe). So, we decided to skip out on the amusement park and instead opted for inflatable slides at Monky Bizness.

6. Day #6: Mom/Grammy takes the day off! We took full advantage of our day together and went to a really cool farm. The kids rode a pony and they fed goats. It was great! Afterwards we went to the overwhelmingly popular T-Rex Cafe.

Day #7: Time to head back to St. Louis for a couple days. We all had lunch together at McDonald's and then we were off. It was so great to see everyone. I miss you all already!

St. Louis, part 1

GRANDMA AND GRANDPA'S HOUSE!

We spent some time in St. Louis with Grandma and Grandpa, and it was really great to see them! We spent about four days, then drove to Olathe for a week, then back to St. Louis for a few days. Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to keep our dog, Shelby, for us while we were in KC.

We went to the City Museum while we were there...and it was a HUGE hit! What's not to love about 5 story slides, a ton of metal tunnels to crawl through, big ball pits, and a room full of skating ramps made just for kids to run around on? Turns out it was a TON of fun for the kids...but a bit harder on Mom. Fitting through some of the tunnels was near impossible and I felt a bit old. I am pretty sure the kids were laughing at me, especially when I dropped my flip flop through the hole I just spent 3 minutes getting through. Fortunately, some 19 year old (who probably thought it rediculous I was in the tunnels at all) returned it to me.

Awesome slides!

Just some of the cool things we got to do!

SUMMER TRIP (minus Mr. Mack)

It's time... Andy goes out to train Cadets "down range" at West Point from now until the 17th of August, so the rest of us will take off and visit our kin-folk on a Midwest whirlwind tour. Laura & the kids will visit St. Louis from 19-23 July, Olathe, Kansas from 23-30 July and then back to St. Louis to launch back to NY on the 1st of August. We'll post lots of fun stuff when we get back... and maybe Andy will post a few pics of cadets training. Our cell phones are ON and our home phone is OFF; but we should also have time to check email & this blog. We'll update you soon!

A Day in the City

Andy had some time off work, so we decided to spend a day in the City. To add to the adventure, we took the train. It really was a beautiful ride along the Hudson River then into the City. Now for the fun stuff!

First stop: Toys 'R Us! First adventure: a ride on the cool ferris wheel that's inside Toys 'R Us.

Strategic not only because it gets people in the door, but also because (as you spend your 10 minutes loading and unloading) the kids get a wonderful view of all the cool toys they need to go buy! Our impulse buy, though, had nothing to do with the kids. We forgot the camera so Andy bought a SpongeBob Digital Camera while we were there...the rest of the pictures are compliments of that camera. :)

Second stop: M&M World!

Third stop: Natural History Museum! I'd like to say we spent lots of time pointing out all of the interesting facts about the diversity of life, but the truth is we were mostly searching for anything that was in the movie "Night at the Museum."

My favorite part, as always, was simply walking through the City and experiencing the rush. You have to love New York City!

Happy Birthday Grammy!

My parents came to visit from Kansas for a few days. It was so wonderful to have them here! We were lucky enough to have my mom here on her birthday, so we had a little fiesta. We had enchiladas, fajitas, all the fixin's and homemade salsa. Then, for entertainment, Brittany made a pinata. We took it outside and the kids had a ball.

Everyone took a whack (even Grammy and Nate...though there are no pictures to proove it)...

But it was ultimately Alex who broke it open!

The kids swarmed the candy and collected it...as if it wasn't the same candy that has been sitting in our house since Halloween. I guess seeing it fall out of a pinata makes it exciting again.

After the pinata we came back inside for cake and ice-cream. Happy Birthday, Grammy! We are so glad we got to spend it with you!

Philadelphia

Andy had a conference to speak at in Philadelphia, so the kids and I decided to join him and make a little family vacation out of it. We stayed in a hotel across the street from Sesame Place, and the kids could hardly contain their excitement just waiting to go there. We spent one day in Philadelphia seeing the sights. We waited in line to see the Liberty Bell, so that we could literally stand in front of it for two seconds. It was our own fault though, we had to leave to take a tour of the city on the Ducks...and the Mack family always believes in cutting it close! The Duck tour of the city was fun, but Nate was a little scared as we approached the Delaware River at full speed. I think he believed Daddy when he said the Duck would go under water (but only for a second). Once we survived the initial plunge, Nate was okay. :)

My favorite part of the city was having a Philly Cheesesteak for lunch! Yum!

Sesame Place was the highlight of our trip. We stayed all day and had a great time. It is both a water park and amusement park, so that explains our funky attire. All the kids' favorite ride was the roller coaster...and the water slides...or the teacups...wait, maybe the pool...

We got to have dinner with the Sesame Street Characters, and that was awesome. The characters came to the tables to visit, which the kids loved. Alex even shared some of his cookie with Cookie Monster (and I was quite shocked when Cookie Monster actually took it).

This is probably obvious, but we forgot our camera for most of our adventures except Sesame Place. So, here are a few more pictures of that day... :)

Better now than never...

We think this speaks for itself... and the due date is the 30th of December.

God bless us all & may we all be blessed by life, liberty and our pursuits for happiness.