Hill Country Weekend

The last two days of the kids' spring break, we packed up the car and headed to the Hill Country for a short visit.  Saw some beautiful bluebonnets along the way and had a great relaxing time.

On Friday we went to this cute little restaurant and garden/nursery center outside of town.  I don't remember the name of it but the food was delicious and the kids loved running around outside.

giant chicken coop (actually two with a tunnel between them for the chickens to roam through)

see saw they loved

On Saturday as part of Nick's birthday celebration, we went to lunch at Chick-fil-a and then there was a traveling carnival in the mall parking lot so we took them there.  It took Nick awhile to warm-up to everything, but Mikaela was a great big sister and stayed with him at every ride (until he got brave enough to do his own thing later).

the fun house

coming down the slide of the fun house

Nick didn't like that part too much

first roller coaster experience - Nick did okay because Mikaela was there, but she rode it again later on her own.  She loved it.  

The carousel was Nick's favorite, by far.   He rode it at least 3 times, only once with Mikaela.  

A Day in Kansas City

2 years ago, Mike and I decided to set out on an adventure to visit all the ballparks of America (plus Canada) with the hopes that we'd see the Rangers play at most every one of them.  This adventure kicked off with a tenth anniversary trip to Toronto which included Rangers V. Blue Jays at Rogers Stadium.

This summer, we didn't have a lot of time or money, so we took a weekend trip to Kansas City, Mo for a Rangers v. Royals game.  We left Friday, spent the night in Tulsa, then drove to KC the next morning.  Saturday night was the game.  Mike flew home from KC and the kids and I spent the week in Higginsville, MO visiting a dear friend of mine.  That post to come later.

We stayed overnight in Tulsa, OK to break up the 8 hr drive.  Unfortunately, someone pulled the fire alarm just as we had all bedded down for the night.  Oh well.  Memories.

When we arrived in KC, we went to the Crown Center.  Our first visit there was an art activity exhibit for kids, sponsored by Hallmark, called Kaleidoscope.  The kids had a great time.

After Kaleidoscope, we went to Fritz, this really cool little diner where trains deliver your food  It was cute and the food was good too!

train delivering food to a table

our food coming down

The Crown Center also had a Mr. Potato Head Exhibit on display while we were there.  They had a great time there too.

And we took a trip to the Crayola store...

With the exception of the food we purchased at Fritz, everything we did at the Crown Center that day was free.  We really enjoyed this time as a family.  And thankfully, indoors as it was pretty hot outside.

We had a little time left to kill before heading to the game and we happened to drive by a park so we played there for a few minutes.  Like I said, it was hot so we didn't last long, but it still gave the kids a place to run off some energy.  It also looked to be a park designed for children of varying abilities because it had ramps, braille, and a big welcome sign where the characters spelled out "Welcome" in sign.

sign language Welcome sign

The highlight of this short weekend, was of course, the Ranger game against the Royals.  Prior to this game, the Rangers had been on a fairly long losing streak, so we were thankful that they pulled out a win while we were there.