ｖａｃａｙ: ｄａｙ ｎｉｎｅ

Pack up and drive home day... Since we were leaving from KC it added a couple hours to our drive. yay... even better when you are sleep deprived.

So glad we got to say goodbye to this cutie. Love you Luke!

The boys crawled into the car and slept the first leg... wish I could have done the same. My focus was making sure Jake was awake enough to keep driving.

Ahh... the Glenwood Canyon. So happy to be home. It was such whirlwind trip. I'm sorry I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to see. I did my best...and tried to put family first. If only America's vacation system worked like it does in other countries... next is punching the work clock to get more vacation time accrued.

My first order of business was to put Cohen's (Channing's 3 year old brother) dinosaur on my refrigerator. Cute! My next order of business was to go get some sleep. Sadly Reece wasn't feeling well all night and kept us awake. And our cat must have been angry we left her because she meowed all night...which also kept us awake. Ugh... the end of this vacation was rough. Back to the real world.

This video was a nice surprise while on our way home. Luke saying "Hi" to all of us... melts my heart. He turns 2 next month. <3 div="">

ｖａｃａｙ: ｄａｙ ｅｉｇｈｔ

Day 8...Friday. Our last day to cram in some fun. We really wanted to get the boys on a "real" roller coaster. Reece loves the one here in Glenwood, but it's so small and compact there is more to experience. Riley rode the Glenwood roller coaster and didn't feel well afterwards, but I was convinced it was from it being small and jerky. So to Worlds of Fun we went... We brought Aunt Jaime, Colby and Camryn along.

Ready for the fun!

It rained on us for a good portion of the morning...the lines were long (even in the rain!), and multiple rides were closed temporarily either due to rain or mechanical issues. Colby and Riley...both 13 and taller than me :(

Reece and Camryn needed a picture too.

The kiddos got their own bumper boat on Fury of the Nile.

The sun finally came out to enjoy the water rides.

Sadly the sun came out and we were pressed for time. We took the boys (and Aunt Jaime) to our first Royals baseball game....so we had to cut the fun short.

Here we are. We got the "pre-game" experience where you would usually get to watch the team warm up and the big fans would get autographs... but the storm was approaching.

My boys. See that big tarp? The rain hadn't started yet, but looking at the radar, it was without a doubt going to get us.

A long day in the rain...and right about the time we took this picture, the rain started again. 

Me and my boys.

Cotton candy can make any day better. And the ponchos were a nice bonus from Aunt Jaime.

Riley is tired...the game is officially delayed.

Making the best of a 2 hour delay.

Game on!! At 915 pm... :(

The Royals won. We couldn't stay till the end...we didn't get to bed until after 1am and we had a long trip home on Saturday. Although it rained on us, a lot, it was a fun day. Maybe we jammed too much into one day, but not every day is a vacation day. 

ｖａｃａｙ: ｄａｙ ｓｅｖｅｎ

Thursday we went to see Aunt Jaime's new house. It is a very cute, charming home, perfect for her...except she has the largest back yard. Have fun keeping that mowed, sis. ;)

We also took advantage of big city shopping. We spent hours (not intended) at IKEA. My goal was to find new pillows for my couch, but we found a desk for Riley and the colors were PERFECT for his bedroom. The issue was they didn't have any more in stock so we had to get the floor model and go through all the hoops to get it marked down. By the time we left we were starving. Jaime had been wanting to take Riley to Pie Five ever since it opened...so we decided it was the perfect option for lunch. We loved it...and I really loved all the signs on the walls.

Pie Five Pizza Co.

Riley likes pie!

My pesto pizza. yum!

Riley got buffalo chicken.

After we refueled, it was more big city shopping. We went to the new Scheel's, which had just about every sporting good you could imagine AND a ferris wheel. Confused? Yeah...me too.

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Air Riley... 

I was too short to get up there...slightly awkward, but funny!

This was a good one...

Meanwhile, Reece and Aunt Jaime are on the ferris wheel.

That night we got to go see Colby and Camryn swim in their last meet. Camryn is the swimmer on the right, just starting her dive. I was very impressed with both. Camryn was extremely dominant in all of her heats. I was extremely impressed. So glad we got to go watch.

Reece was such a good cousin. He kept Luke very happy during the long meet. 

Afterwards, Kait's parents treated us to Taco Republic since the swim meet was right down the street. It was a little outdoor Mexican restaurant, and the food was amazing! And thanks to the cool front, the weather was perfect too!

Hola!

Cousins... Riley, Reece and Colby.

Adios!

My head hit the pillow on Thursday night... I was out! It was a long day...but a nice one with family.

ｖａｃａｙ: ｄａｙ ｓｉｘ

Wednesday I had two more babies to meet. 

Makenzie and Zoe... don't ask me which is which. I was so lucky to get a picture of them  both looking my way. They were so cute... Leesa is seriously super mom.  I got to catch up with her for a little bit, but couldn't stay long because it was time  to head to KC to see more family.

Here is our goodbye picture at Jody's house... Kind of awkward. This is the most I could get Riley to smile. Owen isn't looking at me, and Aidan is getting so tall and grown up!

We got to Uncle Shawn's house in Shawnee and I had to snap a picture of Riley. This is how I saw Riley A LOT on this trip. Darn technology.

We just had a relaxing night with Shawn, Kait, Colby, Camryn and Luke. Aunt Jaime came over to give us all haircuts...my hair misses my sister SO much!! I was sad to witness all of Luke's awesome curls get cut off...hope they grow back. And I hope he wasn't too traumatized. There was a lot of screaming involved and a few tears.

ｖａｃａｙ: ｄａｙ ｆｉｖｅ

Monday night's storm brought in a freak cool front... I'm glad we squeezed in a couple days of swimming when we had the chance. 

Tuesday I got to go meet Channing. In McPherson I lived two doors down from Casey, a former schoolmate/teammate, and right after we moved away they moved to Wichita...and had another beautiful baby.

Channing was all smiles for me...except for the first moment I walked in. Stranger Danger!!

The weather was pretty iffy all day... so we did some more bowling with Aidan, Owen and Uncle Kip. My sister was busy taking another class for her masters, so she missed out on the fun. Afterwards we got to go to my favorite store...KANSAS SAMPLER. We were all in need a new Jayhawk shirt, and we added Royals shirts for our trip up to KC.

Then we went and saw my good friend, Becky, and her family. We ran a little late so we couldn't hang out too long...didn't want to interfere with bed time routine for the little ones. Landon latched on to Reece immediately. He's not shy. And he thought it was really cool that Reece was paying attention to him. Here they are watching a movie. That look on Landon's face is priceless.

Landon then showed off his bedroom...and computer game.

This is Brody. And a terrible picture. Brody wanted nothing to do with me. His dad even brought him over to sit on my lap, and he instantly stood up and reached for JAKE!! Talk about my heart breaking... apparently Jake was less frightening than me. He just chilled on Jake's lap for about 20 minutes.

And this is the best picture I got of Mr. Brody.

Afterwards we went back to Jody's and played some Apples to Apples with the family. Owen was a hoot while playing. He has the cutest voice and the things that come out of his mouth just make you laugh. Jody and I were almost in tears on numerous occasions. It was a fun night...thanks for making me laugh, Owen.