Trip West part II

A big benefit of going to Colorado was getting to visit with my family in Missouri/Kansas and seeing some good friends along the way.  We stopped in Lee's Summit, Missouri for a couple of nights and had a wonderful time hanging out with Katie and Robert.  Dom and Will loved hanging out with their cousins and are looking forward to doing it again soon.  While there we toured their beautiful new home, played a lot of cards, played Just Dance II, took Mary Ann to school, went to Costco, picked Mary Ann up from school, went swimming, had a party, and found a few hours to sleep.

In a related story, a few weeks ago I noted that the day would come when my children would be embarrassed to be seen with me.  Little did I know that would occur mere days after that post went up.  We were waiting to pick up Mary Ann and, being the cool aunt that I am, I started calling her name and waving when she came out from school.  Dom stood on his tip toes in order to cover my mouth with his hand and said "Mom, stop doing that".   Pretty soon he won't want me to dance in public either...

                                                                          We dropped off the boys in Lawrence where Dom barely said "bye", though Will, bless his heart, cried when we left.  This apparently lasted about 5 minutes.  They had a wonderful time with Nana and L'Opa.   I know they played a lot of games, visited the KU campus and rode on a bus, went for a train ride, helped in the vegetable garden and apparently ate a lot of ice cream.  Shockingly, they weren't that thrilled when we returned, though they were very happy to see Molly.

On our drive to Colorado, being the crazy spontaneous couple that we are, we surprised our maid of honor, Ann of Abilene, Kansas, with a brief visit.  Luckily, we caught her at a good time and it was nice to catch up quickly.  Molly appreciated a respite from her car seat.

While in Colorado, we stayed a couple of nights with my college roommate and her parents.  Eve's daughter Lettie is the same age as Molly and it was fun to watch the two "play" together.  Though, I will say, they interacted quite a bit which is not at all the norm for this age.  Clearly these two are topping the charts in the IQ department.  Again, it was nice to catch up and to play a lot of cards.   We were also able to stay with some friends we had made in Ohio who recently moved to Colorado.  The Wahlquists have a wonderful family and their kids are close to the same ages of ours.  It was great to spend time with them, made only better due to a  game of Set that was as close as I've seen in a while.  I quit after one game (which I won by 1) because I doubted I could have won best out of three.  April clearly had my number.  Weak, I know. . .We also discovered a potentially new favorite breakfast there: Crepes with nutella and strawberries.  Now if April would just come back here and make it for us. . .
 

We finished off the week with an afternoon of games at my parents and then an early morning departure for Ohio.  The kids traveled great.  Molly was only ever mildly upset and the boys were just thrilled to watch movies in the car.  I hope they keep these characteristics as we have another long road trip coming up in a few weeks.  Thank you again to all who hosted us and fed us.  We will be happy to return the favor at any time!!