A Trip To Kansas City

Last week we enjoyed a lovely vacation to Kansas City. We drove up to see my sister and her adorable new baby, to attend a wedding, and to enjoy some great Kansas City BBQ. Here are some highlights of the trip in photos:

Our first stop of the trip was dinner at Clem Mikeska's BBQ, near Waco, Texas. The BBQ was tasty, and Clem (who had enlarged photos of himself giving a thumbs up all over the place) seemed like a very nice old man.

The whole inside of the restaurant was full of stuffed wildlife. Howie was almost too distracted by them to eat his food. I think he thought the place was filled with live animals. If I thought a mountain lion was going to jump down from the ceiling while I was eating dinner I would be a little distracted too. Henry, however, was oblivious and entertained himself as usual with the salt and pepper shakers.

After driving all night we arrived at Kansas City at 6:30 in the morning. Good thing my sister and her new baby are early risers. :) This is me and Lily. She is so cute!

We ate at Fritz's, a cool restaurant that delivers your food by train right to your table. Howie loved it! 

I have told you that my new niece is adorable, right? Now you can see for yourself. See? Adorable!

Here is Howie and his cousin Ava posing next to a large lego girl made of legos outside of Lego Land.

Yes, this is practically the same picture, I know. But Howie does such great poses. I couldn't leave it out.

See? Great poses! This kid could be a model. Yup, as you can see, Lego Land was a big hit. (Don't tell Howie this, but we didn't actually go to Lego Land. It was a little pricey. We went next door to the Lego Land Store. Still lots of Legos to see and they were for sale. Howie bought two Lego star wars spaceships. It was even better than Lego Land.)

Cousins splashing in puddles at the plaza. I was hoping it would be cooler in Kansas City,  and it was indeed! I even wore pants one day.

We enjoyed sandwiches at the Bronx Pizza Parlor.

Cousins sharing potato chips.

Kansas City is so lovely and green. Love it! This is at the botanical gardens.

Cool bike statue at the botanical gardens.

Matt and Michael Jackson hanging out at the botanical gardens.

We saw this snake live and in the wild at the botanical gardens.

Boys and their trucks! This was Howie's and Henry's favorite part of the botanical gardens.

No trip to Kansas City is complete without one (or two or three) trips to Sheridan's. We love frozen custard!

Henry's first trip to Sheridan's. 

We discovered Re-Runs, the largest vintage clothing store in the United States.  It was amazing. A good portion of our vacation budget was left here. :)

Ava had so much fun playing with Uncle Matt and her cousins.

Matt and his high school buddies (on the left). One of the them (Gary) was getting married and everyone came to see him.

Do people flex when they stand in front of the temple? Well, this guy does. Here is Matt at the Winter Quarters Temple in Omaha, Nebraska.

And of course, no trip to Kansas City is complete without some BBQ. This time we enjoyed some Gates BBQ. BEST RIBS I HAVE EVER HAD!! (Sorry, Dad)

July

Independence Day

We enjoyed an Independence Day celebration with our friends at Guadalupe River State Park. Matt was feeling pretty perky and adventurous this holiday weekend, so he decided to ride his bike to the park. Matt began his trek early in the morning while I leisurely loaded up the car with picnic supplies. The boys and I drove to the park and met Matt there. It took Matt three hours to ride the 50 miles to the park. He said it was much easier than the last time he did this ride pulling Howie in the bike trailer. Once we were all at the state park, we enjoyed a picnic lunch with our friends and went swimming in the river.

Our independence day celebrations continued the next day with more bike riding. Not to be outdone by Matt, I decided to ride my bike to Boerne. At 40 miles, it was the longest ride I have done in years. It was nice to know I can still do it.

Happy Anniversary!

This month Matt and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary! We spent the day golfing in the rain, reminiscing, and eating chocolate cake. It was a wonderful day filled with much love, just like every day of the last eight years has been. :)

Matt got me new pink golf clubs for an anniversary present. I hope this means we will have many more family golf outings in the coming year.

I suppose not everyone takes their kids along on an anniversary outing, but the boys have so much fun golfing we hated to leave them behind.

I sure do love this guy!

Matt had flowers delivered to the house in the morning. So sweet!

SeaWorld

SeaWorld is such a great place to go when it is a 100 degrees outside. I think we spend practically every weekend at the water park during the summer.

Henry loves to sit on the sidelines eating. If you buy a frozen lemonade, Henry will eat it all.

Sometimes after playing at SeaWorld, we stop at Rudy's BBQ on the way home. My two boys have a crazy love for the creamed corn.

Henry is so cute!

What a goof ball! A very cute goof ball.

This is a site rarely seen--Henry leaving food unfinished. He must have been pretty tired.

This statue is at a park we go to frequently. Every time we go, Henry thinks this is a real guy. He always runs over to say hello and then cautiously grabs his hand. It always takes a few minutes before he realizes it isn't a real man.