love of our life: KC Mini Vacation

(6/8-6/10/12) On the spur of the moment, we decided to head to Kansas City for a mini vacation away. And I mean last minute....I made reservations the day we left. That is nothing like me...but hey, gotta live life, right!!

We originally wanted to go to see the new SeaLife Aquarium at Crown Center but found other things to do as well. We picked up Chase early from preschool and were on our way to KC. It was a pretty good ride, Chase slept for an hour or so but we still heard "are we there yet" about 15 times. I hate to see what happens when we drive to Florida or something!!

We got to the hotel at Country Club Plaza around 3:30 and quickly changed into our swim stuff to hit the pool. It was an indoor pool so it was a little chilly and Chase just decided he would swim in the hot tub....only my child!! We cleaned up after the pool and decided to head down to CCP to have dinner and walk around. We rode a shuttle down and honestly, that had to almost be the highlight of Chase's trip....he got to ride next to us and with no seatbelt. He thought it was pretty cool. So cool that everytime we went somewhere the rest of the weekend, he kept asking if we could have the shuttle come and pick us up! We had dinner at Winstead's, a little old school dinner. Good comfort food! Then headed over to the Plaza to walk around and take some pictures of the fountains. We had to stop for ice cream of course too! Called the shuttle and headed back to the hotel.

The next morning, we all slept til 8am...that never happens. Got up and got ready and headed to SeaLife Aquarium. Our review.....neat, but way too short of a tour for the $60 we paid. I swear we went through it in 45 minutes tops! Big disappointment there. I expected to spend 1/2 the day there....oh well....onto something else. Went to Crown Center where they had a fun dinosaur exhibit.....I think Chase enjoyed that more than the aquarium and it was free!!! Then to Fritz's for lunch. We had to show Famous what it was like since we had been there with Gavin and Beth last year.

So...what to do next....I begin googling "what to do with kids in KC" and found the Lakeside Nature Center....free....good! Headed there and it was kind of like the Runge Center in JC. One hour down...now what??? Googled again...KC Children's Museum...NOT free....oh well! Headed that way...the drive took about 20 minutes thankfully!! It was a really neat place...they had lots of interactive and roleplaying rooms...reminded me a lot of the PAT school in JC too. Chase had lots of fun there. So finally....it was getting around 3PM and we decided to head back and get a little nap in hopefully...it was tough but we finally all fell asleep!

Wake up again and we are heading to the TRex Cafe!!! He was so excited....all while potty training we bribed Chase with going to the TRex Cafe when he didn't have to wear diapers or pullups anymore and we finally got there! What a neat place!! Oh...it wasn't free either :). Dinner was really good though and of course, we had to make a stop at the gift shop and pick up a couple trex tshirts, dinosaur hunting light and a Dino chomper!

Back to the hotel for a good nights rest and headed home on Sunday. Stopped at Bob Evans for breakfast and made it home finally around 12:30. We were all pooped but had a blast. Chase loved it all and wants to know when we are going back...he asked Famous what we could do when we went back and he told Chase they had a zoo and Worlds of Fun....hmmm, wonder how long before we are back!