Halloween tradition. City of Lenexa Enchanted Forest at Sar-Ko-Par Park. Music, magic, lights, inflatables, candy, hayrides, and pumpkin decorating. We like to do this every year. KC Wolf (our KC Chiefs mascot) was a new surprise though! It was 70 degrees when we got up this morning. Ended up being 47 the rest of the day. We put on about 3 layers tonight to go to this, plus gloves.
Haylie and Nell after the 5th Grade production of Pirates. Will upload play in later post. Two cute Gangplank Girls.
Today is #46. Each year we get to pick where we want to eat for our birthday and normally I pick Shogun. But this time I wanted to try something different. I had heard that Horizon's Buffet was really good at the Ameristar Hotel & Casino. Savannah had been there before with a friend of hers. So thats where we headed yesterday. It was really good! And the place is just fun so I want to come back and stay overnight sometime. Mike and the girls had a yummy Edible Arrangement sent to my office at Garmin. Yummy yummy! We also had a potluck chili luncheon for all the Sept/Oct birthdays. They do this every 2 months and the whole department participates. Lots of good food! Pretty awesome couple of days for the downhill slide to 50.
We were up in the air about when we were going to go to Worlds of Fun Halloween Haunt. So when we saw that is was supposed to be 70 degrees yesterday and 42 degrees next Saturday that pretty much sealed the deal. It was a great day. A bit more crowded than last year. I suppose because there are only two more weekends left until they are closed for the season.
And we finally arrive at today. Saturday Oct 6, 2012. I have caught up with all our activities over the summer and end with our trip 17 miles south to Louisburg KS. So like this little midwestern town. Got us some apple cider donuts, kettle corn, and honey roasted peanuts. A little too crowded for us today with all the craft vendors. We didn't do the petting zoo, hay ride to pumpkin patch or the corn maze but it was just too cold. Ended up being only 46* today and just too miserable for me to be outside. Hope you've enjoyed our lives up to this point and hopefully in the future I won't let so many activities go by.
Second annual MT Runnin' With the Wolves 5K. I decided not to participate in this one. It was just too cold (even though I would have warmed right up running). Drill Team helped out and Mike and our neighbor Jennifer did the run. Awesome job guys!
This is our second Old Settlers Day we've gone to. Like I said in our post about this last year I don't know why we hadn't been going since we moved here 9 years ago! I think it is lots of fun. They have an antique car show, a history of Olathe film, carnival, food vendors and craft vendors. Now you have to remember that this is the biggest parade in KS with over 160 entries. However it IS NOT a state parade like the Days of 47' in Utah where the whole state does participate. This is mainly participants from around the Olathe area. Most of the middle and high school cheerleaders, drill teams, and bands march, along with people and their cars, politicians, etc.
Labor Day weekend was chock full of activities. Bright and early was our ward 5K ( I cut 4 minutes off my Disney 5K) and breakfast. Girls had a friend come over for the day to go swimming and then we hooked up with the Whites at Black Hoof Park for a bbq and play time. Thanks guys for joining us!
Every year the city of Lenexa puts on WaterFest. Now don't think because of the serious drought we've had this summer that this is a waste of water. WaterFest is to educate people of the importance of water and what it does for us. We got there a little late so the girls only had a few minutes in the shower from one of our city fire trucks. I thought that was pretty cool. They both went pole fishing in the parks lake and Savannah actually caught a fish!
Back to normal includes back to school. Don't ya just love Haylie's sense of fashion? She's going to NY someday. :-) Savannah is an 8th grader and in her last year of middle school. Haylie is a 5th grader and in her last year of elementary school. Had to decorate her locker with the Biebs.
I love going to the Johnson County Fair every year in Gardner KS. Its not very big, but its free and has lots of animals. Being in the midwest we have a great appreciation for the "Big Green Tractor" if you know that song. This beast runs around $260,000 I think the price tag said?
I love this grin on her face. We waited too long last year to get Haylie registered for Level 6 of swim lessons so the class was full. This time I made sure I got online as soon as the class times were listed. This is the very last level (and the hardest) the kids have to take and SHE PASSED! No more swim lessons. Ever.
What a trip. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of all the states we passed through on this road trip. At the start of this vacation we drove through 6 (KS, MO, IL, IN, KY, and OH). On our way back it was 7 (NY, PA, OH, IN, IL, MO, and KS). We left early Saturday morning July 14 wanting to get most of the way home before dinner time. According to Mapquest (don't trust it) we should have gotten from Palmyra NY to ST Louis MO in 12 hours going 75 mph. However, that did not include road work for the majority of the way in I-90. We made it in 14 hours. As you can see it was a little early in the morning for the girls. But we had a great dinner at OSF (again) and the girls got some pool time in another awesome hotel.
For those of you that are LDS you know the significance of upstate NY to the church. Several church sites up in that area of the US include the Peter Whitmer Farm. A beautiful stake center is built on the property where the tour starts before going into the farm home. We ran into some baby raccoons that were so stinkin' cute!
Next day was spent around Niagara Falls. Mike had been before but the rest of us were first timers. It was absolutely incredible! Kids loved getting into the blue rain coats and we got front and center on the Maid of the Mist boat tour. If not for that lovely blue plastic we would have been soaking wet!
While we were staying in Sandusky my sisters family and my mom flew into Akron. We met up with them at the Kirtland LDS Visitors Center the next day. They had never been there and it was so fun to share it with them. Cousins had a great time with each other.
And here we arrive to duplicate pictures. Same girls, same place, 8 year time span.
Our first time to Cedar Point was in 2004 when Savannah was 5 and Haylie was 2. Notice the harness? Greatest invention since slice bread for wandering little people! We had dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ on the marina and I always did "Miss Mary" with cloth napkins. They were so cute back then!
Fast forward 8 years to 2012. Dinner again at Famous Dave's doin' the "Miss Mary". Savannah is now 13 and Haylie is 10. Still cute dontcha think?
Before meeting up with my family we wanted to spend a day at Cedar Point. If you have never been there you need to go. It is the countries largest amusement (not to be confused with theme) park. SO MANY roller coasters! And this year the girls were old enough to go on them. The last time we were here was in 2004 of which you will see in a later post with the difference in the girls' pictures.
