ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Checked out of our hotel around noon and headed for the nearby town of Yoder, KS which has an Amish and Mennonite community. First stop was the little downtown area that has a few shops. We went into a candle shop and all picked out one that we liked.


Blake got one called Love Spell because he says "I love to spell!"


In front of the candle shop...


We then headed for a shop operated by an Amish family that was a couple of minutes away. Horse and carriage on the way to the shop...


Kids both got hats at the shop...


While in the shop, there were some stairs leading down to a basement area that we weren't sure we were supposed to go to. I said to Payton "there's no lights on down there so I don't think we are supposed to." She then reminds me that Amish people don't use electricity so of course it's darker down there. Duh...blonde moment of the day. :)

Next we were off for lunch at a local restaurant that's kind of Cracker Barrel-ish with home cooking and a gift shop within the restaurant. It was yummy and pretty inexpensive.


Signs on the wall as you enter the restaurant...



Then we were headed back to Bob and Nicki's house to pickup Ali but spent some time visiting with Mark (who had driven in from New York the night before), Nicki and the kids. Man, I love babies and there's a double dose at the Bob and Nicki household.

Elizabeth


Monkey Micah



Twins together



The twins' older sister, Mia, with Blake. They are exactly two months apart in age so Mia will be turning 5 in January.

Guarding the stairs...


Can't forget the pets....our dogs took over the loveseat.


And Mark let his turtles out for play time...


Made it to my Mom and Dad's house around 7:30 and had some yummy home cookin' and looking forward to being here for 4 days. Great weather predicted this week which is really good news. More events to come this week....

Our week so far could be called "sleeping in" as that's what we seem to be doing everyday. We all slept until 11 on Saturday and finally got going at 12:30, arriving at Bob and Nicki's at 6. Ate pizza w/them, played w/the babies and off to bed. Sunday morning, Blake complained about his "tummy not feeling so well" which we knew meant he had a stomach virus. He got sick most of the day and had to stay in the basement but once he's over it, he's back to normal right away and so at 5:00, he said "let's go to the hotel" and we were off for Hutchinson, KS for our hotel. Our room has a view of the waterpark which immediately got the kids excited.

View from our room

We were off to the waterpark to play in the lazy river, water slides, water basketball, etc.



Then we were starving so we got dressed and headed off the sports bar at the motel and had some really good food and a couple of big beers. The kids wanted to go to the arcade so we headed off only to find the room completely disheveled with half of the machines unplugged and pushed away from the wall. We decided to go ahead and play which meant plugging in the token machine, plugging in the skee ball and a couple of other games and often times, squeezing between machines to play. I wish I had the camera because it was so funny. We found out later that the room was being painted on one side the next day and that was the reason for the machines being pushed together and unplugged.

Next morning, Blake woke up after 11 and by that time, the rest of us had already gotten up and showered (I know I keep mentioning sleeping in but it's such a new concept to me recently that I feel the need to keep pointing it out :) ). We were then headed off to the Cosmosphere to learn all about space.

Our kids are completely fraidy cats even when visiting the Cosmosphere. The whole time we kept hearing "are we going to the Imax? Please don't make us go to the Imax. " Both kids totally hate Imax movies and they were scared to death we'd make them go to one. You'd think we were making them actually travel to space but no...just a movie. Anyway, we didn't make them go to the Imax movie but we did see a lot of space exhibits and learned a lot. I had no idea that Germany was the origins of our space program but I do now. Some pics of the Cosmosphere...

Part of the actual wall that separated east and west Germany


The door that went out to the rocket launch simulation area. The vent above the door shot out an air curtain that kept the cold outside air from coming in and it was really loud when you'd open the door. Blake was running away from the door and had tears in his eyes but Andy ran through the door w/him quickly and he managed to survive.

The outdoor rocket launch simulation area (notice how traumatized Blake still is from the air curtain?).





From some of the exhibits...



Waiting outside of the Dr. Goddard Science Show which taught us how rockets work and what you need to make a rocket launch. We only went to this show because Blake was scared to do the planetarium (he's been to one recently) and this one scared him a little bit less than the planetarium. There were some loud noises and fire but I think we all learned from it.

Both kids making dog tag necklaces in the gift shop. The dog tags say "Cosmosphere" on them and the kids got to pick what they wanted each to say.


A few last snaps before we leave...


Kids showing their new necklaces


After that, it was off for some Target shopping, waterpark again, and sports bar again. Tomorrow, we're stopping by an Amish community, going to pickup Ali at Bob and Nicki's house and then we'll end up in Tonganoxie at some point. If I don't post before Thanksgiving, I hope everyone has a great holiday with great food and great company. Happy Thanksgiving!