Fun in Kansas City

We left Friday evening and drove up to Kansas City. We've been trying to visit the temple for about a month now, and something always comes up. So FINALLY, we got to go and it was such a great weekend. The kids did great on the drive and we arrived in KC around 9 pm Friday night.

Here are my cool kids on our drive to Kansas City.

My cousin Aaron and his little family drove up to KC too so we could swap babysitting for the temple and do some other fun stuff.

 We checked into our hotel and immediately took the kids for a quick swim. They were wide awake anyways, because staying at a hotel is soooo exciting. We swam until the pool closed at 10 pm and then went back to our hotel room.

Tanner loved showing his Dad all the cool things he's been learning in swim lessons.

Bailey spent a lot of time climbing in and out of the pool and sitting on the edge of the pool.

Or she was in her Daddy's arms. She's quite the "Daddy's Girl" when she wants to be.

The kids had so much fun swimming and they weren't the least bit tired when we got back to our room. At 10:30 pm they were still wide awake. It took us a while to get everyone calmed down and sleeping.

True to form, the kids were up around 6:30 the next morning and ready to go for the day.

We went to the lobby for breakfast, only to discover it was POURING rain.

Our original plan was to meet Stephanie and Aaron at the "Penguin Park" and we would babysit Blake for them so they could do an early session at the temple. Unfortunately, the rain changed those plans and we ended up just keeping Blake at our hotel room while they went to the temple.

The kids didn't mind. They loved being at the hotel.

When Aaron and Steph got back we drove over to the Crown Center and explored for a bit. We decided to eat lunch there as well. The Crown Center has tons of cool stuff. I wish we would have had more time because we could have spent all day there.
We ate at the "Crayola Café" and it was a cool little restaurant.

The kid's got to color on their place mats and eat yummy snack mix while we waited for our food.

 

 

Even the big kids enjoyed coloring on their placemats.

The also got these cool souvenir crayon cups with their meals. These were a big hit.

The food was good. The entrees were all very colorful and healthy.

After lunch we went to a toy store to look around and then we headed back to the temple.
The plan was for the kids to nap in the car while Chris and I went and did some temple work.

For once, everything went according to plan. The kids fell asleep on the way to the temple and woke up about 5 mins before we got back to our car. Aaron and Stephanie just waited in the parking lot while all three kids napped.

Chris and I ended up doing sealings together because we arrived in between endowment sessions. We had such a sweet experience in the temple. I love doing sealings with my husband. Not only does it remind me of our wedding day and the promises we made but it helps me refocus on what's really important in our lives and marriage. We got to be sealed for a family while we were there. Two of the children's names had recently been found and they were finally able to be sealed to their parents.

I was so touched by this experience. The siblings were an older brother and a younger sister. With us having two kids, a big brother and a little sister, I was able to imagine what a sweet reunion in heaven they were finally having. Those parent's were finally being reunited with their babies and that thought alone had me in tears. Temple work is so amazing. I feel so blessed to be able to be a part of it and to have been able to share that experience with my sweet husband.

Isn't the Kansas City Temple gorgeous? Well ok, most temples are gorgeous, but we were excited to FINALLY get to see this temple.

 

After the temple we headed back to the Crown center to go to LEGOLAND. Tanner had been waiting to go to LEGOLAND for about two weeks. He was beyond excited and this place did not disappoint.

First they gave us the tour and told us how Legos are made. Then we got to roam and play.

 

Checking out some different Lego displays.

Tanner's weight in Lego Blocks. He was around 1500 Legos. And he was a little over 100 Legos tall.

They had random Lego pits stashed all around the place.

We rode this cool ride where you got to shot Lego bad guys and save the princess. It was so fun. Tanner actually rode it again with Stephanie and Aaron after we finished. He was a pretty happy kid. 

Tanner enjoyed all the Lego statues throughout the building.

This was the Lego wizard. We rode the ride that went along with this guy.

We had to pedal to make our little car go high and Tanner loved it!

 

After the ride (which Bailey was too small to do) we went over and let Tanner do the jungle gym area while Bailey played with the girlie Legos.

Bailey and I built Lego cupcakes and she pretended to blow out the candles. And she befriended the Lego girl statue. Here she is trying to hold her hand. (My daughter is so weird)

The last thing we did before leaving was hit the safari Lego part of the building. This was Bailey's favorite part and we spent a while here. They had these huge Lego animals that Bailey fell in love with.

Tanner and Bailey both enjoyed the little doggy.

They also had a huge Lego pit with big soft Legos. It was so fun to build with these.

Here's Tanner inside the Lego fort.

And here he is helping Stephanie build a Lego house for Blake.

Bailey played on the slide a lot. She probably went down that slide at least 3 dozen times. She was in heaven!

We walked through the "MiniLand" on our way out. It was pretty cool. All these cool scenes built entirely out of Legos.

Kansas City Skyline.

Then we snagged a family picture on our way out, before hitting the gift shop.

LEGOLAND was way fun and I'm so glad we went. The kids enjoyed it and I think it made all Tanner's dreams come true. Well that and the Star Wars Lego toy he went home with afterwards. He was a pretty happy kid. Bailey got a set up Lego Duplo safari animals that she adores.

 

After LEGOLAND we loaded back into our car and started on the 3 1/2 hour drive home. It was around 6 pm when we finally got everyone into the car and changed into their pj's. We stopped for dinner on the way and arrived home around 9:45 pm last night.

It was such a quick trip, but it was packed with fun and we are all exhausted.

On the drive home Chris and I talked about making this a quarterly thing. Trying to go to the temple every 3 months seems like a good goal. Now that we are closer than we've ever been, it should be easier. (Yes, 3 1/2 hours is as close to a temple as we've been since college)

We're excited. It will give us a chance to go to the House of the Lord more often and spend some family time together.

We had a blast in Kansas City and look forward to exploring the area more and finding more fun things to do.

Harvest Festival- Silver Dollar City

We spent Saturday at Silver Dollar City. It was the kickoff of their "Harvest Festival" and the park was decked out with fall decorations and pumpkins. Totally got me in the mood for Fall.

The weather was amazing. The high was 79 degrees and it may have reached that by the time we left, but it was so gorgeous the entire day.  We gad two buddy passes to use up before the expired so we invited Aaron, Steph and baby Blake to go with us. It was fun to spend some time with them!

I had to make sure we snagged some pictures in front of the entry with all the pumpkins.

Our first stop of the day was lunch. We ate at this awesome little place called "The Mine". It was actually underground and made to look like an old mine. It was buffet style and the kids devoured their lunches.
Then we went to "Geyser Gulch" and let the kids play in the ball area.

 

Then it was over to the water guns for some target practice. Tanner would push the button and Bailey would aim the gun. It was pretty hysterical to watch. Such good teamwork.

While the kiddos played in the balls and with the water guns, the dads (Chris and Aaron) went and rode some roller coasters. Steph and I stayed with the kids. After playing hard for a couple hours, the kids were ready for a snack. They must have worked up an appetite because they devoured their lunchables too.

After snack time, the dads came back and we took off together to ride some group rides. Our first stop was "The flooded mine". Unfortunately, Bailey didn't make it far before falling asleep in her Daddy's arms. So sweet!

The best part of this ride, besides the fact that its underground and cool during the summer, is the fact that everyone can ride it- even 10 month old Blake got to ride. Bailey slept through it all on her Daddy's lap.

Tanner loved it because you shoot at targets and everyone gets their own gun. He was one happy kid. Also, he scored higher than both Chris and I. Ridiculous!

The boy and I with our guns

After riding "The Flooded Mine" we went over to "Half Dollar Holler" and let the kids play. Tanner spent the entire time on rope tree house, while Bailey rode the carousel over and over again.

Then Chris and I took our kiddos and Blake to "The Grand Exposition" while Steph and Aaron went to ride a ride. Tanner and Chris rode the swings and then I took the older two kids on the caterpillar ride.

After that, we got "dippin dots" and decided to call it a day. Tanner was so tired he was actually asking to go home. You know they are tired when they ask to leave the awesome park to take a nap at home.

 

We had a great time and we couldn't have asked for better weather. We are looking forward to going back again soon and even more excited to kick off fall and enjoy more of this awesome fall weather!