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!

I actually hate Wizard of Oz references but we are going to Kansas for the next week starting Saturday morning. Our first stop will be to Bob and Nicki's house to stay w/them and their 3 children on Saturday night. I'm going to make a big effort to get some pics of them since I forgot last time. It'll be nice to chat w/them and Andy hasn't seen the kids in a while so that will be good too. After that, we're off to Hutchinson, KS, for two nights to stay at a hotel that has a waterpark inside of it plus visit the Cosmosphere. Then, on Tuesday, we're headed for Tonganoxie, KS, to see the rest of the family. I should have Internet the whole week so I plan to blog while we're away. Next time I post will be from Bob and Nicki's house...peace y'all.

We celebrated Blake's birthday w/the 4 of us (although he did take some small gifts to his museum school class today to celebrate as well). Blake took a nap and when he woke up, we had his gifts set out, decorations up and the candles on his cake were lit.


Blowing out all 5 candles (notice the new haircut?)


Blake opened cards from Aunt Jo and Felix, Dan & fam, and Uncle Mark. Then he opened some gifts...

Gifts from Grandma and Poppy




And then lots of small packages from us, including an envelope saying that we'd be staying at a hotel this weekend for two nights (Blake loves hotels!) that has a waterpark inside.


Then Payton had a basket of some of her own things that he likes and she gave him that as she always does....he really loves it.


Then it was off to IHOP. We aren't sure why Blake chose IHOP but he had been saying for days that it's where he wanted to eat for his birthday so we went.



Then we were off to Target per Mr. Blake's request to do a little browsing. He said "I just want to look at stuff but I don't want to spend all of my money right now." Pretty self-disciplined for a four year old....I mean five year old. Then he requested we head for QuickTrip for a Slurpee (sound like somebody else you know?) and then it was home to eat some cake and play w/some new toys.

I still can't believe he's 5 and I don't think he can either. While eating dinner, he dazed off for a bit and said "but I don't feel like a 5 year old." I've heard him refer to himself as a 5 year old several times throughout the day as well. "Blake, do you need some help?" and he'll say "No, I can do it because I'm a 5 year old."

Some pics of his first five years...

A couple of years ago, Andy took some old projector films taken of his family between 1968 and 1976 and converted them into digital format and then compiled the individual clips into a DVD for all of his siblings and parents to have. I've taken each of the clips and converted them for online use and they are now posted on YouTube.com. Non-family members probably won't care much about the clips but I think it'll be a good way to share w/family members that weren't able to get a DVD copy for themselves (of course, non-family members are invited to view as well but I'm just not promising it'll mean much to you!).

1968 - St. Louis Arch & Stadium
1970 - Fourth of July
1972 - Wichita
1972 - David & Dan
1973 - St. Louis Flood
1973 - St. Louis Vacation
1974 - Park City Park
1974 - Denver Mountains
1974 - Boys/Denver House
1974 - Denver/Royal Gorge
1975 - Denver Pool
1975 - Christmas/Andy Crawls
1976 - The Farm

Amanda, Suzanne and Cindy came over tonight and I fixed an early Thanksgiving dinner for all of us. I forgot to snap pics but we had turkey*, dressing**, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, homemade pumpkin pies*** and they brought raw veggies, deviled eggs, paper goods, and wine. It was soo good and we had so much fun talking and laughing hysterically at the DVD we watched afterward. I miss workin w/the girls but it's fun to get together occasionally and catch up.

*add more veggies and wine than the recipe calls for
**reduce chicken soup to one can and only use enough chicken broth to make it moist
***double the spices shown in the recipe