Vacation time!

Saturday morning we loaded up and left town by 7:30 am! We ate homeade chocolate chunk muffins on the road. Ace started out pretty calm since he was drinking his bottle but when we reached Salina, he started in...Crying and crying and whining and more whining! We tried everything to get him to calm down and finally after 2.5 hours, we decided to turn his seat backwards and he calmed down pretty quick after that. I think when he faces forward he can see us and thinks "If I cry long enough they will get me...thats what they do at home!" (Not sure if he really thinks that, but thats what I picture him thinking!) We pulled into KC and met up with Richard, Chris, Aiden and Ariana. We then headed to Legends, the outlet mall, to start off our trip by dining with the dinos at T-Rex cafe! G got Sly's Sliders (mini chesseburgers) and applesauce. Luke, Ace and I shared the Boneyard Buffet. It was pretty good but it was all about the dinos for G! We walked around the mall for a while and ended at an old fashioned candy shoppe. G got her favorite candy, gummies! Ace slept thru about half of the shopping in the wrap. He was fighting that sleep like crazy! We headed over to Crowne Center to go thru the Crayola store where Gentry got her backpack for preschool! Dora and Diego and it was mini size for the little lady:) She also has reached another 10 stickers on her "Good Girl chart" so she picked out a Dora mermaid doll, another to add to her entourage! We went thru a Rainforest exhibit and it was very interesting! Ace was just glad to get down and crawl! G and him were "Animal rescuer's"! (From Diego, G always sings that song as she is running, one of my favorite things about my green eyed gal) As we were leaving the exhibit there was a little boy who got his shoe string caught in the escalator!! The mother had this horrified look on her face as she was screaming for help. It was terrible! Thankfully they got the boys shoe off in time so he didnt get hurt. I cant even imagine what was going thru her head! We left Crowne Center and headed to find a hotel. The one "must-have" for the hotel was a pool. We found a Comfort Inn that was close to what area we wanted to stay in. We went swimming for a while and then got dressed and ate dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Luke and I shared Asian and Caribean Jerk wings and G got some chicken fingers. It was pretty crazy in there and Ace was running on pure adrenaline! He learned how to shake his head "No" that evening...just what I was wanting him to learn. After we left, we sent our guests on their way and headed to Orange Leaf for some after dinner fro-yo! It was very neat to self serve your yogurt and then choose your own toppings! G and I shared the Chocolate Cookie Dough fro-yo with gummy bears and Cookie Dough pieces. Awesomeness in a bowl! Back to the hotel for bed, ahhhhh I couldnt wait, as this mama was very tired.

Someone is stoked to be out of the car seat! (And yes we were parked!)

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E! Playing the "drums" in the Nike Store
and of course "drumming" up lots of smiles from customers:)

Sitting with the Dino's

♥ her to the moon and back!

G and Dexter the Dino

♥ my family!

Chris and Ariana with Luke and G at the Crowne Center fountains

Funny Face in the Fritz's train

At the Rainforest Exhibit

"Crawl like a jaguar, crawl crawl crawl" (From Go Diego Go)

These 2 never fail to make me super happy:)

♥ my blue eyed baby

Cheesy time!

Sunday we got up and went down for breakfast at the hotel. Ace ate eggs for the 1st time and loved them! G got her usual "whol-tel" breakfast, Waffles with peanut butter:) She is one happy little gal when she gets those! We went back to the room and packed up to leave, but not before we jumped on the beds. See I may have a lot of rules as a mother, but they usually have fun alternatives:) No jumping on the beds at home, but the hotel is ok to do so:) So we did some "cool tricks" on the bed. It was very fun. Probably one of my favorite parts of the whole vacay:) I had one request for the trip and it was Trader Joes! It just opened friday so it was brand new! G and I went in and were in heaven. She was enjoying the Tacos they were sampling and I couldnt help but smile at all the healthy foods we were surrounded by! We got a bunch of dried fruits, cereal, TJ style Eziekel bread, stevia and some Jerky for Luke. It was a success:) We loaded up and headed to Lawrence where we met up with Jon and Ashley. We ate at Noodles and Co. It was pretty good. G had some awesome Mac N Cheese and Luke and I shared Peanut and Veggie Saute. It was great to see them. We stopped by Starbucks for some liquid energy and Birthday cake pop (G's new favorite treat, besides her Caramel Chocolino) and headed home. Within 30 minutes everyone, except me of course because I was driving, was fast asleep. I REALLY thoroughly enjoyed the time singing to Michael Buble and sipping my latte. It was very much needed:) We stopped thru Salina for Luke to get his golf clubs and got home by 3:30. It was a nice trip that indeed brought us closer, isnt that what vacations are for?
We got home and unloaded and we had a few people that were missing us, well more like missing G and Ace, so we went over to see Nana and Auntie Maci. G talked Maci into a slumberparty again. Kinda starting to feel like she enjoys Maci more than me:( That evening was very chill, dinner, movie and my own bed!


Monday morning Ace and I went to the Y and did a few errands before we swung by and got G. It is weird to only have one child...I dont like it! Ace doesnt either, because he always crawls into G's room in the morning and if she isnt there he crawls back out and you can tell he is wondering where she is! Luke took her out to lunch to McD's while Ace and I ate at home. I think it is important to spend some one-on-one time with the beans:) Tonight Luke has his final softball game and it is well over 100 degrees already so we will see if we make it out:/