Monday, March 26, 2012

spring break continued...

The spring break fun continued at the Kansas City Zoo the next morning!  We had a yummy breakfast at the hotel and then another quick swim before Papa and Ga Ga headed back home and we settled in for one more day and night in KC!
Andrew was having fun posing on all the animal statues!  It was funny, I told him to put his hands up by his chin in the picture with the polar bear and then he did it for several other pictures throughout the day! Ha!
Like here!  Ha!  He is funny.  We were waiting to ride the train.
My sweeties on the train.  They both loved it (can you tell?!)
He just looks like such a big boy to me!
This was the first thing we saw on the train ride!  Ha!  The first animals we saw... nice.
This is how she looks at her daddy all the time.  Literally.  She's in love (and he is too!)
More smiles for daddy while riding the tram to "Africa."
Just couldn't resist this face!
Andrew and daddy checking out the gorillas...
The zoo was set up really neat- there was a walking path that made a circle and took you right past all the animals.  You had to walk over shaky bridges (like this one), and dirt paths, just like you were really in Africa!
This lioness was sleeping right next to the glass.  When Andrew walked up there and sat by her, she popped her head up and looked straight at him!  He jumped back so fast!  It was so funny.  I think he thought she was going to jump out and get him!
This story cracked me up- so there's this huge lizard and Andrew says "what's this called?"  Daddy read the sign that said "Monitor Lizard" (I would have just told him it was a really big lizard!  But daddy has to get technical!  Ha!)  So he turned back around and stared at it, then he says, "NOW the Wonder Pets SAVE the monitor lizard!"  I seriously laughed out loud.  The kid is obsessed with animals and the Wonder Pets.  He is always pretending to have them save different animals and he plays like that at home all the time.  I just wondered what made him think of it right then!  Ha!
My little zookeeper, checking out our next adventure!  He was very serious.
I got to ride the Sky Safari with my little man while daddy stayed back with Kerigan.  It was so fun.  He is just so cute these days and says the funniest things.  He talks our legs off!  I think he chatted with me the whole ride.  I loved every minute.
My date. :)
It was neat to get a different view of the animals from the sky!
We had a great time at the zoo.  Andrew just loves anything having to do with animals.  We actually didn't tell him where we were going so it was a surprise, and he loved it when he found out we were at the zoo!

After a day at the zoo we were all hungry so we headed to Crown Center and had dinner at another one of Andrew's top favorite restaurants...
It was called Fritz's.  You actually order your food on the phone and a train delivers it to your table!
Can you tell how excited he was?  Ha!  
The train drops it off and then it comes down on this little elevator.
Little Miss watching the action in her high chair for the first time!  She loves being up at the table with us and out of the infant seat!
Silly boys!
A hat for Kerigan (much too big!  Ha!)
We loved Fritz's!
We loved walking around Crown Center Plaza.  It was just a beautiful night and there were lots of lights and fountains all lit up.  Just awesome!
We called it a night and headed back to the hotel to watch the Cyclone basketball game!
The next morning we had another great breakfast and daddy and Andrew went swimming again while I packed up the room with Kerigan (well, she slept!  Ha!)  Then we headed to Crown Center one more time before leaving town since the exhibit we wanted to see was closed the night before.
We grabbed lunch at the Crayola Cafe!  Andrew was proud of his artwork!
Crayon wheel!  So cool!
Love those teeth!
They had the neatest exhibit called Animal Tales and Trails.
It was an interactive exhibit with a variety of animal habitats where the kids could actually hide in a bear cave, jump on a trampoline (like a kangaroo), step on a crocodile's back...
Slide like a penguin...
Swing like a monkey...
and sit in an Eagle's nest!
The kids even rode a camel!
Ha!  
I was busy watching Andrew (and trying not to lose him in the chaos!) and I looked over and saw this... It made my heart melt and I'm SO glad I captured this picture without either of them noticing!  So precious.

We decided Kansas City is at the top of our "mini vacation" lists!  It is close to home (Sort of!  A 3 hour drive isn't too bad!) and there are so many neat and fun things for families and kids.  We couldn't believe we hadn't gone before!  I had been there as a kid and Craig and I were there one year before we were married when we flew out of KC to Las Vegas, but other than that, we had never really explored it.  We will definitely be going back!  They are building an aquarium and Legoland at Crown Center and the animal exhibit is being replaced by dinosaurs this summer!  I think I see another mini vacation in our future!


Friday, March 23, 2012

spring break kickoff!

Spring break was so much fun this year!  I can't believe it is actually almost over and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.  It has been jam packed with a mini vacation, seeing friends and getting lots of home projects and spring cleaning done!  

My break started last Thursday, when my good friend from high school, Lisa, was in town with her mom and her two boys.  Lisa now lives in Arizona, so we rarely get to see each other.  The last time we saw each other was two years ago when we introduced these two...
Andrew loved playing with Javi.  They are both train lovers so Andrew showed him his newly put together geotrax in the basement.
We could barely get them to sit still long enough for a picture, and Andrew was being all silly again!
Hugs!
The only really good one I got was this one, as they were laughing and attempting to escape up the stairs!  Busy boys!

We also had two more to introduce this time...
Kerigan and Sidney are super close in age.  Sidney is actually 11 months old and she is 8 months!  Look how huge she is compared to him!  Ha!  He is really little for his age.  
Look!  She's sharing!  Ha!
Future boyfriend?  Maybe, but Kerigan you are NOT allowed to move to Arizona!!  Ha!
Super cute!
The kids all played so well together!  It is so neat to still be friends with someone from high school, where we dated boys, had fun at dances and just had fun together, and now to see our kids playing together.  What fun!
Kerigan is blurry because she was moving and she did not want to sit still, so this is the best we could do!  And the big boys would not come sit for a picture!  Ha!
Kerigan smiling at Lisa!
Daddy's break began on Friday, so we headed out early to Kansas City!  My mom and Jim were coming in off the train (from Arizona!) so we drove there to meet them for the weekend.
Pretty much the minute we got to the hotel, all Andrew wanted to do was swim!  We barely had time to grab lunch before he was off to the pool!
The kids had fun swimming with Ga Ga, Papa and daddy!
Andrew was never still for one second so all the pictures of him are blurry!  But he just had the time of his life!  It had been a while since he had been swimming, so he just jumped right back in and remembered how much he loved it!
Little Miss didn't enjoy it as much as brother... she just wanted to cuddle up with daddy and keep warm!
After swimming we all went back to the room and showered and got ready to go out that evening.  But we actually all fell asleep for a nap first!  Ha!  We were all tired from our travels!
Apparently, while we were sleeping, Andrew decided to get up before the rest of us and do a little artwork...
Yes, on the hotel bedding.  Nice.
I actually thought his people were pretty good.  I told him I wish he'd have drawn it on paper so mommy could take it home!
I had to chuckle (behind closed doors of course!) at the fact that he did this while the rest of us were all oblivious.  Evidently, even at age 5, you still can't take your eyes off him for one second!  We certainly scolded him for it, and made him sit in time out.  And we went down and made him tell the lady at the desk what he did and apologize.  He cried the whole time, so I think his lesson was learned!  He knows now he better only draw on paper from now on!  Ha!  What a stinker.
Big girl sat in her big girl car seat for our road trip and she loved it.  She just smiled and kicked her legs when we put her in it.  She slept almost the whole way there and back, too!  I'd call that a success!  
We headed out that evening to this neat outdoor shopping area called Legends.
This was the highlight of the trip for Andrew!  The T-Rex Cafe, which is just like the Rainforest Cafe, only it is all dinosaurs!
He was so thrilled!  He could not stop looking at the dinosaurs!
After we ordered our dinner we took a walk and looked at everything.  He made me stop at each dinosaur and take his picture!  I had to laugh, he's just like his mommy!  Ha!
He especially loved the wooly mammoths in the Ice Age!
A view from above of just part of the restaurant.
Andrew wasn't too sure about this T-Rex!  He was fine with it when it was towering over him, but this was just a little too close for comfort!  Ha!
Ga Ga and Kerigan down below at our table!
This cracks me up.  After dinner we walked around to the shops.  Even though we had a double stroller, these two sat right by each other in the back!  Ha!
We had to laugh because Papa and Andrew both skinned their knees!  Andrew was so sympathetic to Papa and felt so bad for him!  It was so cute.  They were pointing at their owies, which we fixed up before bedtime!
Andrew slept amazingly well in his little roll-a-way bed with his little treasures from the T-Rex Cafe!  He just loves staying in hotels.  All night he kept asking if we were going back to the hotel yet.  He could have stayed there the whole weekend and been perfectly happy.

We were off the next day for more fun!  Another post coming soon...


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