As promised, here's the "report" and pictures of our second week on the road. Randy started off the week by going out golfing with my dad and two other guys from the church. They had a really fun time (from what I hear) on a really hard course (the "rough" was mostly four foot high bushes...Randy lost about 15 balls) in some sticky hot weather (almost 100 degrees with way more humidity than we're used to). My mom and I stayed at the farmhouse with the kids and just relaxed. Tuesday, my dad had to be at work all day with meetings and such, so Randy and I decided to give my mom a day off and headed to Wichita with the kids (about an hour drive). We visited the
Exploration Place. It's a science museum with four different exhibit halls, a toddler play-place, a theater, and a café for lunch. The kids LOVED it! One exhibit was geared completely for kids, a Medieval Castle, three-stories high, that kids could explore up and down (the above picture is Violet on the pony "roller-coaster"). It had a dressing room with about 30 different costumes for the kids to try on, a stage complete with puppets to do a show, a kitchen with play food, dishes, and a brick oven,
a puzzle room, an astrology room,
a music room, and more! Audrey's favorite was the ponies you could ride on in front of the castle.
Isaac just loved running up and down and through everything! Randy's favorite was the flight exhibit (Wichita, Kansas is considered the
Air Capital of the World). This is a picture of him on a simulator for the Wright brothers' first glider.
It was a great place to visit for the day and since the exhibits change every couple months, it will be fun to go again next time we visit Kansas! Wednesday (our last full day in Kansas) we visited
Dillon Nature Center in Hutchinson (about 15 minutes drive). It was really beautiful! It had one indoor exhibit about the Kansas prairies (it's land, weather and animals) and then an outdoor pond, stocked with fish, and surrounded by LOTS of plants, all labeled. The kids really enjoyed it! Here we are exploring "under the prairies".
Grandpa Bruce and Isaac with some animal bones!
Watching the ducks by the pond.
Grandpa Bruce helping Violet by the river.
For our last lunch together, we drove to Roy's BBQ! My dad took us there for lunch when we first got into town, and it was so good Randy wanted to go back for more before we left (as if we hadn't had enough red meat to eat in the past 2 weeks)! AMAZING...just like the first time (their pulled pork and beef ribs are superb)! And for our final event of our Kansas trip we enjoyed a rip-roarin' thunderstorm that evening! Just that morning I had mentioned to my mom, "I can't believe we haven't seen any lightning or thunderstorms yet". That afternoon Audrey was out on the lawnmower with Grandpa
when we started seeing lightning in the distance...and it kept coming closer! We got a good storm! Seventy miles per hour winds, huge bolts of lightning reaching from the clouds to the ground, and walls of rain you could see coming from miles away! What a great ending to our time in Kansas! Well, Thursday morning we woke up, packed up, and started the trek home!
As I said in our previous post, we got through Colorado on Thursday, and then drove the rest of the way home on Friday. We did stop a bit through Utah on our way home though. Us at the Black Dragon Canyon overlook.
The kiddos in front of ancient petroglyphs in the Sego Canyon.
Audrey at the Kolob Canyon overlook in Zion National Park (north entrance).
From this overlook we took a short 1/2 mile hike to a higher point where you could supposedly see the Kaibab plateau (the north rim of the Grand Canyon) on a clear day.
Not sure if we really saw all the way to the Grand Canyon, but it was a good break and exercise before our final stretch home!
So...after driving more than 4400 miles, through 8 states, seeing 44 out of 50 state license plates, and more cows and corn fields than you can count, our 15-day summer road trip comes to a close. With Randy going back to work today, Audrey starting first grade next week, and church activities starting after Labor Day, our life will settle back into a routine, and we'll stay close to home for the next 10 months. Wonder where we'll go next year?
As promised, here's the "report" and pictures of our second week on the road. Randy started off the week by going out golfing with my dad and two other guys from the church. They had a really fun time (from what I hear) on a really hard course (the "rough" was mostly four foot high bushes...Randy lost about 15 balls) in some sticky hot weather (almost 100 degrees with way more humidity than we're used to). My mom and I stayed at the farmhouse with the kids and just relaxed. Tuesday, my dad had to be at work all day with meetings and such, so Randy and I decided to give my mom a day off and headed to Wichita with the kids (about an hour drive). We visited the Exploration Place. It's a science museum with four different exhibit halls, a toddler play-place, a theater, and a café for lunch. The kids LOVED it! One exhibit was geared completely for kids, a Medieval Castle, three-stories high, that kids could explore up and down (the above picture is Violet on the pony "roller-coaster"). It had a dressing room with about 30 different costumes for the kids to try on, a stage complete with puppets to do a show, a kitchen with play food, dishes, and a brick oven,
a puzzle room, an astrology room,
a music room, and more! Audrey's favorite was the ponies you could ride on in front of the castle.
Isaac just loved running up and down and through everything! Randy's favorite was the flight exhibit (Wichita, Kansas is considered the Air Capital of the World). This is a picture of him on a simulator for the Wright brothers' first glider.
It was a great place to visit for the day and since the exhibits change every couple months, it will be fun to go again next time we visit Kansas! Wednesday (our last full day in Kansas) we visited Dillon Nature Center in Hutchinson (about 15 minutes drive). It was really beautiful! It had one indoor exhibit about the Kansas prairies (it's land, weather and animals) and then an outdoor pond, stocked with fish, and surrounded by LOTS of plants, all labeled. The kids really enjoyed it! Here we are exploring "under the prairies".
Grandpa Bruce and Isaac with some animal bones!
Watching the ducks by the pond.
Grandpa Bruce helping Violet by the river.
For our last lunch together, we drove to Roy's BBQ! My dad took us there for lunch when we first got into town, and it was so good Randy wanted to go back for more before we left (as if we hadn't had enough red meat to eat in the past 2 weeks)! AMAZING...just like the first time (their pulled pork and beef ribs are superb)! And for our final event of our Kansas trip we enjoyed a rip-roarin' thunderstorm that evening! Just that morning I had mentioned to my mom, "I can't believe we haven't seen any lightning or thunderstorms yet". That afternoon Audrey was out on the lawnmower with Grandpa 
when we started seeing lightning in the distance...and it kept coming closer! We got a good storm! Seventy miles per hour winds, huge bolts of lightning reaching from the clouds to the ground, and walls of rain you could see coming from miles away! What a great ending to our time in Kansas! Well, Thursday morning we woke up, packed up, and started the trek home!
As I said in our previous post, we got through Colorado on Thursday, and then drove the rest of the way home on Friday. We did stop a bit through Utah on our way home though. Us at the Black Dragon Canyon overlook. 
The kiddos in front of ancient petroglyphs in the Sego Canyon. 
Audrey at the Kolob Canyon overlook in Zion National Park (north entrance).
From this overlook we took a short 1/2 mile hike to a higher point where you could supposedly see the Kaibab plateau (the north rim of the Grand Canyon) on a clear day.
Not sure if we really saw all the way to the Grand Canyon, but it was a good break and exercise before our final stretch home!
So...after driving more than 4400 miles, through 8 states, seeing 44 out of 50 state license plates, and more cows and corn fields than you can count, our 15-day summer road trip comes to a close. With Randy going back to work today, Audrey starting first grade next week, and church activities starting after Labor Day, our life will settle back into a routine, and we'll stay close to home for the next 10 months. Wonder where we'll go next year?
1 comment:
Great pictures from Utah! Beautiful.
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