Kansas City

Brad had some meetings in KC this week and we all went with him.  There were a few unexpected surprises, the hotel had no pool or breakfast.  We are used to the classy hotels that not only have pools or water parks but a continental breakfast!  It was also a casino, so we were also a little out of place with four kids.  They do have a daycare to drop off your kids to go gamble, how sad is that?  

First I did some baking for breakfast before we left and then on Monday I drove the kids from our hotel to an indoor water park only to find out they are closed on Mondays!  Seeing we were a little disappointed the sweet lady let us swim in their regular pool!  This place was also near both the Royals and the Chiefs stadiums, very exciting for the boys!

 That night we picked up Brad from his meeting to go to Fritz's, this was the highlight of all the kids trip!

 You order from the phone at your table and then the train brings you your food!

 Jack still isn't too old to wear the cap if it makes Tucker happy!

 On Tuesday I took the kids to Union Station, they had the most unbelievable Christmas miniature train village I have ever seen!  You could look for hours and not see it all.

 And a train for the kids to ride.  Jack opted out but I thought I was going to have to get another ticket when they got in and Tucker kept saying "Jacky"  and pointing to the car next to him.  When the train got started he forgot all about it.

 Next we went to Science City and there was so much to do!

 We ended up being here all day and had to hurry back to pick up Brad in time.  After dinner with Brad's college friend we took off for home.  It was a fun few days in Kansas City!

St. Louis

Our St Louis trip was a lot of fun!  We met Brad's sister and her family for the weekend and packed in as much as we could into a few days.

 The arch was pretty cool!  Brad was creeped out going up in the little pods they have for you to get up there but the view at the top was incredible!

 On the way to the arch and stadium we went by Tucker's blvd!

 The stadium from the top of the arch.

 The kids at the top.

 Luke's dream came true, Busch stadium!

 We went super early in hopes of some autographs.

 The guys left us to go to a prime spot for autographs and Selah (who stayed by us) ended up getting two Reds autographs.  I kept ignoring her as she asked me the guy's name loudly while he was signing it... I had no idea!  Nick also asked in front of him why we wanted a Red's autograph!

 The boys.

 Tucker spent the game  playing with the Albert Pujols guys the kids got free at the game, that or sleeping!

 Luke cheering on his favorite team.

 Pujols!, Pujols!, Pujols!

 Andrew fell asleep eating ice cream!

 On Monday we went to the zoo, the zoo there is awesome!  Jack got in trouble for feeding the giraffe, sorry Jack, I told him to!

We had a really fun weekend, the game, seeing cousins, and going to the zoo.  Our trips are now over.  I really need to get to work on school, the garden, and canning the bumper crop of pears we got this year!

Yellowstone

 Last week the entire family made the long journey to Yellowstone for vacation. What a huge place!

 We came in the East entrance and went past Lake Yellowstone, we saw lots of elk, plenty of elk.  In fact the whole trip Tucker kept saying baby elk, baby elk.

 Then Old Faithful, Brad wasn't impressed. 

 Mammoth Springs was pretty, we did some hiking near here too.

 Our hiking crew.

 Notice the goldfish Selah was carrying, I pitched a fit about everyone having snacks during the hike, dropping peanut shells etc.  We may as well as been calling "here bears, here bears!"

 By the place we rented, notice I don't have the house in the picture, the scenery was much more impressive!

 The falls were all beautiful.

 The boys (and Layken) all went backpacking and on the way back without them we saw a black bear!  There was a traffic jam of people taking pictures and I sent my Mom out to take a picture, she went to tell Leah in her car what it was and who did I watch run past my car but Selah and Ainsley to see!  Great, another wonderful parenting moment for me!  Did I mention that I also let my kids jump into the rapids while rafting on the Yellowstone River?  Jack will post their campsite pictures from his camera soon.

 The big kids and adults also went up Mt Washburn while my Mom and I took the little ones home (and saw another bear on the way!) and during the 6 mile round trip they saw a lot of mountain goats up there.  Brad actually got out the bear spray for this guy, I guess he looked a little intimidating.

 At the top!

 Our last night we had a fire and hung out.

 Post backpacking/camping, look at those feet!  Levi says "look mine are the cleanest!"  Can you believe they even had socks and tennies on?

 On the way home we stopped at Little Bighorn and Devils Tower.

Selah didn't even look at Devil's Tower, she went straight to her new friends and stayed right here the entire time, we had to drag her away.  This week we are busy getting ready for Jack's party!  His birthday was yesterday and has been busy since playing with his new bow and arrow and pellet gun.  Wonderful... yet another great parenting moment.  Jack just yelled in "Mom, we found out the pellet gun won't kill anyone or even seriously injure anyone!"  I better go see what happened.

Backpacking in the Rockies

Brad and I went on a backpacking trip at Rocky Mountain National Park last week.  I absolutely underestimated how hard it would be to carry this backpack up the mountain!  It was a long way to our camp, this picture is the beginning of the trip, we still look pretty good!

 It was hard but these were our views.

 And finally after over four miles our site by Cub Lake.

 It was a really pretty spot, and no snow to camp in.

 We did however hike up higher into the snow, this is the way to Emerald Lake.

 On a hike the last day I was telling Brad how I really wanted to see a moose, we had heard we just missed one twice during the three days we were there. Then on the last hike we took we turned a corner and were face to face with a moose!  I'm not kidding like 10 feet, of course I couldn't have acted more obnoxious, "Oh my word!  Brad get the camera!"  And then it ran into the woods and this is our best picture.  I won't forget how he looked so close though.

 The view from the top of the falls we were going to.

This is day three, we were pretty grungy by then and decided to get a hotel the last night and shower before starting home the next day.  Brad asked me my favorite part and I said all of the falls and Emerald Lake.  I asked him what his favorite part was and he said using all of his gadgets (the water filter, mini stove, GPS, etc) go figure!