Today marks officially one month since we got home from our Kansas vacation (and one month + 3 days since I have blogged ha oops!) so I thought it would be appropriate to finally jump back on the blogging train and finish blogging about Kansas.
Originally there was some rhyme & reason to my Kansas posts but now that it has been so long I don't remember when we did any of these things so random it will be. Highlights from our vacay with cousins:
FROYO. Basically my favorite thing in the world.
Train watching. The boys' favorite thing in the world. Jack kept his ears covered the whole time (they were SO. LOUD.) but he loved it!
Visiting my sister at her part-time job at Target. I don't even feel like working at Target would be work. Getting to spend hours at Target + getting a discount?! Yes, please! PS Isn't she the cutest cashier? Best one I've ever had ;)
Visiting the Lawrence Public Library. You guys. It is the most gigantic public library I've ever been to! And in a small little town! How are they so lucky?! I thought the Provo library was huge when we lived there but this one beats it easily. There's a 5 level parking structure just for the library! It's crazy. The kids area is basically amazing and I'm so jealous that our local library is a tiny little bean compared to this!
I never let my kids play on the computers at the library (seriously, libraries are for BOOKS not playing on computers!) but I turn around for two seconds and my one year old has helped himself to the computer. He doesn't even play on a computer at home so how he knows what to do and why he loves it so much is beyond me.
One of Phillip's biggest highlights of the trip was getting to sit in Primary with all the big kids during church.
The obligatory post-church cousins photo:
Downtown toy store. One of those ridiculously expensive toy stores (like seriously everything was marked up at least 50% more than you'd see at Target) but they had some of the coolest toys. I wanted to buy everything. Never thought I'd be "that mom" who was tempted to always buy toys but I totally am. I refrained and bought nothing.
LDS Church history sites. We visited Liberty Jail, Independence Visitor's Center and the Kansas City temple.
Playing outside. I think all the kids would have been happy to do this all day every day for the full two weeks we were visiting ha. My boys were actually so obsessed with the play lawn mower that we bought one for them when we got home with some birthday money Phillip had.
St. Patrick's Day Parade! They have this GIANT parade in downtown Lawrence every year. The kids loved it!
SHOPPING. If you know me at all then you know that this was basically one of my favorite parts of the trip. I miss not having any of my sisters live near me and not being able to go shopping with them on a regular basis! So spending a day at the mall with Laurin was a treat!...even if we had to tote 5 kids around with us :)
We even took them on the carousel (can I just say how ridiculous it is the amount they charge for those things?!) which Phillip loved and Jack was totally terrified of in typical scary-Jack fashion. Laurin had to sit out with him while all the other kids went and then I was able to convince him to go a little later but we had to sit on a bench because there was no way this kid was getting on a horse haha!
Lawrence has this cutest little pet store where all the animal cages are open at the top and they love for you to take the animals out and hold them! Most pet stores you have to get someone to come unlock the cages and help you hold the animals but this place was so awesome! If the workers saw little kids looking in the cages they'd come by and ask if they wanted to hold any of the pets and take them out for them. And you are totally welcome to just walk through and hold any animal you please! Again, in typical scaredy-Jack fashion Jack didn't want to hold any of the pets or get too close although we did get him to give the bunny a pat on the bum after being in there for an hour ha. Phillip loved watching them run around the cages and poked the hamsters and bunnies when they were out haha.
Have I ever told you how much I hate parks? I seriously think they are DEATH TRAPS. I'm terrified of them every time I take my kids. All those openings several feet from the ground that are just waiting for a child to trip and fall right off! Plus when you have older kids running around I'm always so afraid they're going to bump into a little kid and just send them flying off the the edge. Please tell me I am not THE ONLY mom out there who is terrified of park play structures?! Hahaha! I was telling my sister about how much they freaked me out and what do you know? Ten minutes later Jack falls off one of the openings ahh! Luckily he wasn't hurt but seriously! Are there stats out there on how many kids break their necks at the park!? Despite my (irrational?) fear, my boys LOVE the park and had a blast.
We went downtown to the toy store on a Saturday to attend a Frozen event where they were having Anna & Elsa visit. I about died laughing because really. It was basically the worst ever representation of Anna & Elsa. We took a picture with them anyway. Scaredy-Jack wouldn't even look at them and hid behind me the entire time. Phillip also suffered from some stranger-danger and held onto me for dear life ha.
Aaand you can't go a full two weeks without the baby making some kind of ridiculous mess. He didn't disappoint.
One more Kansas post being thrown your way soon and then...on to regular blogging (I think?)!
xoxo
