Family Vacation!

Although we didn't venture far very from home, we took a little family vacation to Kansas at the end of June.  It's amazing how quickly hotel rooms and meals add up, but it was worth it!  We had a great time and I'm looking forward to traveling again with my little munchkins soon.  We started the vacation by spending two nights in Lawrence, KS.  Bryan has done a bike race there a couple times and Lawrence is a fun place to visit!  We left on Friday after lunch and after checking into the hotel and having supper, the kids got some pool time at the hotel.  On Saturday, we ventured to the KU campus where Bryan had his first race around the campus.  Before his afternoon race, we checked out the KU Museum of Natural History.  It was a really neat museum and was free (donation encouraged) and definitely worth the visit.  We relaxed and toured downtown Lawrence (including a unique used book store) Saturday night.  On Sunday, Jack got to race his bike and although it was a bit overcast, it was a steamy one!  It was a long day waiting for Jack to race, then waiting for Bryan to race, and then watching his race.  We colored, played with cars, jumped in bounce houses, walked to a local park, and had plenty of snacks and water.  And after falling asleep in the short drive to get ice cream, Maddy even survived the day!

Here is some photographic proof that there were bikes involved in our weekend!  The first picture was Jack racing a bigger kid to the finish line.  He was so excited that he beat him right before the finish {too cute!}.  I managed to get a decent picture of Bryan racing (pink on his shorts) and the last picture Maddy took.  :)

After racing and ice cream, we headed to Kansas City Sunday night.  We had a similar evening as the first which included checking in to our new hotel, supper, and swimming.  Monday was the day that Jack had been looking forward to!  We spent a good portion of the morning at the Legoland Discovery Center.  It took a lot less time to see the whole museum than we thought, but Jack and Maddy had tons of fun nonetheless.  Jack said his favorite part was the ride where you get to shoot "bad guys" with lasers and the Star Wars area (no surprise!).  Maddy loved playing with the cupcakes in the kitchen area and kept putting them in and taking them out of the mini refrigerator.  There were models of Kansas City's downtown and others like scenes from the Wizard of Oz.  Everyone was getting hungry, so we headed to the Crown center to get lunch.  We ended up at a place called Fritz's after a quick search on my phone that said kids loved it.  It was true!  The food was average, but the entertainment of having your food delivered via a train track above the tables was quite entertaining!  The kids even got into the spirit by wearing their conductor hats.  Bryan saved someone's food from nearly being knocked off and landing on the heads of a family too.  It was a sight to see!  After lunch, we headed back to the Lego store where we spent way too much time looking at Legos.  Jack spent his long-saved money on a new Star Wars set and Maddy got her first set too (a grocery store set of Duplos with a car, people, and puppy).  The kids got a little play time with their Legos at the hotel and then we headed out for a BBQ dinner.  We went to Jack Stack's BBQ and it was delicious!!!  Bryan humored me with a family selfie before we headed back to the hotel for our last night's stay.  The last picture was evidence of an important lesson that Bryan and I learned... Nobody sleeps well with kids in a hotel room. After attempting to have Jack and Maddy sleep together on night #1 (silly us), we each ended up sleeping with a kid the rest of the trip.  I had never been so ready for my own bed as I was at the end of the trip!  Ha.

On our last day in KC, we started by making a quick visit to the Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of KC.  It only took us about an hour and although Maddy wasn't very entertained, the rest of us enjoyed seeing all the historical coins and learning about the bank.  We then headed to Science City, where we got in free with our Children's Museum membership.  Woohoo!  We went there three years ago and it was just as fun for Jack this time around too.  Maddy had a blast as well and we nearly had to tear them away when it was time for lunch!  After lunch we headed back toward Omaha and back to reality.  It was definitely a wonderful trip full of fun times with the family!!!