Trip to KC

The weekend after Labor Day, we made a quick overnight trip up to Kansas City to stay with my brothers and catch an afternoon Royals game the following day.  We left after lunch on Saturday and met up with Zach at Legends to shop for a couple of hours.  Then we got to take a quick tour of the outside of one of  Zach's latest business ventures.

After arriving at Sam's place, we cleaned up and headed to the Plaza for dinner at Coal Vines.

Yes, he chose to eat peanut butter crackers instead of pizza.

Avery with Uncle Zach.

From there, we went to Rally House to see if we could find any new gear for the game.  Avery succeeded.

We woke up the next morning to get ready for the big game!  Avery was very excited to see her favorite player, Alex Gordon, in person.  We ate an early lunch, then headed to Kauffman Stadium for the 1:10 game. 

We headed straight for the Little K when we got in to give the kids a chance to do some running around.  Avery took her turn running the bases.

We found our seats (in the shade, thank goodness.  100 degrees in September is a little too warm) after Avery finished playing.

Avery was super excited to see all the players that we watch on TV playing baseball in person.  She was especially pumped when she saw this.

A few action shots from the pre-game warmup and during the game.

Rylan was excited to be there too; unfortunately the game time was exactly when he would be normally taking a nap on any other day.  Therefore...

But Avery stayed awake the entire game and only need a couple of bathroom breaks.  Then it was right back to our seats to watch the action.  We figured the kids would need a break at some point during the game but between Rylan's snoozing and Avery genuine love of being at the game, we were able to sit and watch the entire game without any complaining from either child!

 After the Royals beat the Tigers (!!), we stopped in at the fan shop for a couple of souvenirs, then packed up in the van to head back to McPherson.  It was a very quick trip, but we had a really great time and I'm sure we will have no complaints from the kids if we ever want to head back up for a Royals game!

Avery turns 4!

Avery had her golden birthday last month-she turned 4 on August 4th!  Our house was already beginning to fill up with presents since Rylan had just had his birthday the week before.  She had her first "official" birthday party complete with friends on the 3rd.  Dora-themed of course.

Getting ready for the party.

 

 

Friends playing downstairs.  After everyone arrived, we started on our Dora scavenger hunt.

 

 Exploring Treasure Tunnel.

On to Rainbow Road.

 

We finished up with the big birthday surprise-a pull string pinata.

Harper was the lucky girl who found the trapdoor.  Before everyone had their turn.

Time for presents!

 

And now for cake!

 

After we wrapped up her friend party, we got Rylan down for a nap, then started getting ready for our families to come over that evening for the "joint" party, as Avery referred to it.  We celebrated both Avery and Rylan's birthdays with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Avery patiently waiting for her turn to open more presents.

 

Checking out the new grocery store.

 

Make a wish!

 

Rylan was still a little gun-shy about the lighted candles.

 

Uncle Michael to the rescue!

It was a nice evening for all the relatives to see the birthday kids.  We had some dinner and attempted to get Avery and Rylan to bed by a decent hour.  The next morning was Avery's actual birthday.  Once again, we started off the day by opening a few more presents.

Since we'd had such an exciting day the day before, we spent Avery's actual birthday hanging around the house and taking it easy.  We let her choose where she wanted to eat and this is where we landed.

Didn't get any pics of her smiling-it had been a long and eventful week; we were all beat.  We'd had lots of fun helping our beautiful girl celebrate turning 4!