Kansas City and More Thanksgiving Please!

For Jake's birthday I got him tickets to the BYU vs Missouri game.  We decided to make a whole weekend out of it and discover Kansas City.  We found some really fun activities and hidden treasures.  So even though BYU ended up loosing, we still had a fun weekend.

Friday we went to Sea Life.  It is a pretty amazing aquaium considering it is in the middle of a continent.  Pace loved the sharks.  Grant got mad if Jake didn't hold him so he could see the fish.  Then we headed to the National Airline Museum.  The tour guide was a little long winded for toddlers, so Pace made his escape routes to the planes.  Then we headed to the Arabia Steamboat Museum.  That was my absolute favorite.  It was a museum full of pre-civil war artifacts found on a sunken steamboat in a farmers field (because the Missouri River changed its course).  There was so many things to look at and a cool story about the actual steamboat.

Leavin' on a jet plane.

That's basically a plane made out of material and a few poles behind us!

The oldest working steamboat engine in the world.

The hull of the steamboat

Only one small display of millions of artifacts, some of the china

Some of the tools they found

The next day we went to see Union Station in hopes of seeing a model railroad exhibit.  But it was closed for the Holiday season.  So we checked out the station and visited Science City (also located in the station).  Then we explored the WWI Memorial and park.  For lunch we ate at Fritz's.  It is a burger joint where you order your food by phone and they have a small train bring your order to the table.  Pace gave our train a standing ovation when it delivered our food.  And kept saying "Cheese Train!"  whenever anyone else had food delivered to them (he had ordered a grilled cheese).

Pace loves Christmas trees, even if they are a little early

And who doesn't love amazing ceilings?

The helicopter @ Science City

Riding the rails

Their blocks room

Across the street we explored the WWI Memorial.  According to the sign it is the only major WWI Memorial in the US.

Union Station from the memorial

Of course we had to stop in the pile of leaves

Fritz's

Choo Choo

We had our amazing friends (who moved from FLW to Kansas City) watch our kids while we went to the game.  I get a little too invested in the games to enjoy watching my team loose so I was a little disappointed.  But it was fun to be sitting in a BYU fan section again.  Very nostalgic.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays (if not favorite).  Somehow Christmas is creeping earlier and earlier and taking over Thanksgiving.  I have nothing against Christmas, I love that holiday too, but somehow I feel like stores and media skip over Thanksgiving.  Why start black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving?!  Then those people have to work and can't spend it with their families.  And who wants to skip turkey, sweet potatoes, pie, and family time?  I even went to buy fall decorations on the first week of November for a fall party I was hosting and they had replaced all fall decorations with Christmas decorations (minus a small clearance rack)!  Ok, I'll stop my rant.  But PLEASE next year remember Thanksgiving for the wonderful holiday that it is!

Some of Jake's family was able to come join us for our Thanksgiving festivities.  And despite lots of cloudy, rainy days in the forecast we had a blast.  Pace and Grant loved their grandparent (unfortunately I didn't get a good picture with Gand cousin time.  Of course I loved playing games with everyone around our new family-size table.

Watching their favorite:  Toy Story!

Best Buds!

Lawn Party!

This guy we had to bribe with dessert to get a few bites of dinner down.

While we couldn't keep enough food on this guy's tray

Uncle Seth reading a book

"Gramma!"

Lovin his Aunt Crystal time.

Winking at Aunt Katie