Memorial Weekend

Memorial Weekend was a busy busy weekend for us. We had a BBQ on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Saturday evening we BBQ'd with our neighbors Jackie, Jeremy and their kids along with another set of neighbors we recently met who have a daughter Ava's age. It was fun watching the kids play and getting to know more of our neighbors.

Matt pushing Ava in Grace's little car
This is sweet little Grace. She is just a few months older than Ava and the girls seem to really like each other (as much as two 2yr olds can)

Grace is explaining all of the features of her Cozy Coupe to Ava ;-)

Andrew riding his bike and Luke riding the scooter

Ava really liked the Cozy Coupe. I think we might have to get her one for her birthday.

On Saturday we went to our friend Mary's house for a BBQ. She lives in White City which is about a 30min drive for us. Sadly I forgot my camera so I have no pictures of that day. Let me just say we had a lot of fun watching the kids play in the sprinkler and eating some good food.

On Sunday we were back at our house partying with the "usual crew". Of course it was our family along with Jeremy and Jackie, plus Mary with her 4 kids and then Kim came up from Wichita with her new boyfriend. The only person we were missing was Mandy :-( There is always a good time to be had when this group gets together. We sat around and talked while the kids played in the slip-n-slide. By the end of this night we were all exhausted but so thankful we have so many friends here in Kansas that we can spend time with.

After everyone left Lucas took Ava for a ride on his plasma car. She LOVED it!

Time to try it alone

Branson Weekend Getaway

WARNING: PICTURE OVERLOAD!!

Ok it's time to pick up where I left off. The day Ava had her stitches removed we drove down to Branson, MO to meet my parents for the weekend. Because Andrew and my Dad's birthdays are only 1 week apart we generally try to get together to celebrate. This year we were in Branson on my Dad's birthday so that was nice. We got to the condo pretty late at night because Adam was held up at work longer than planned that day. However a late arrival did not stop us from opening presents and having some ice cream cake from Coldstone. Of course I didn't take a picture of the cake, but trust me it was yummy :-)

Ava was trying to help Andrew open his presents

I love that he is ok with getting clothes for his birthday

This is a kit to build a birdhouse and something else (I can't remember now). We haven't started it yet, but I'm sure Andrew and Adam will have fun working on it together.

Of course Nana and Pawpaw had to bring Ava a gift too







The next day we went to a go-cart/mini golf place on the "strip". We all played a round of mini golf and then Adam took Andrew on the go-carts. Andrew LOVES go-carts so of course that is all he wanted to do. It is insane how expensive all of those rides are, but worth it in the end to see how happy Andrew is.

Getting some pointers from Pawpaw

Now it's Daddy's turn to help out

Ava decided she needed to get in on the fun

Right where the two birthday boys needed to be :-)

Ava however didn't love the idea of being in jail

This is what he was waiting for

It was really hot out that day so Ava and Nana found some shade

Yes they are sticking their tongues out

Before we left they rode the bumper boats

That night we decided to go to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. It was so much fun and the food was good too. Of course because it was a Saturday night there was almost an hour wait for a table so we took advantage of the play area they had out front. Ava particularly liked the rides you have to put quarters in. In fact she liked them so much that she threw a nice little tantrum when we ran out of money. You know her Nana couldn't stand that so she went and got more change from inside the restaurant so Miss Priss could ride some more. Like I said before the food that night was really good but probably the best part was how Joe's celebrates birthdays. We told our waiter that it was my Dad's birthday and that Andrew's had been a week earlier. For those of you who have never been, they don't just sing to you. The brought out 2 giant foam cowboy hats and had Dad and Andrew race each other around the restaurant. It was hysterical! Once the race was over and we were almost done with dinner Andrew decided he wanted to get up and dance the Macarena with our waiter. The waiter was such a good sport about it and helped Andrew out with the movements and all of the little extras they add.

All I had with me that night was my phone and it doesn't take very good movement shots so everything turned out blurry, but you get the idea.

Their post race photo along with their stick horses. I think I forgot to mention earlier that they had to race with these horses :-)

Doing the macarena

As you can see we had a great weekend in Branson. I hope we are able to make this an annual trip for as long as we live in Kansas or at least close enough to make the drive.