4th of July Fun

We have had some really hot and humid days out here in KS. To beat the heat, Sadie likes to pull out her swimming pool and splash, splash, splash!



She's also discovered snappers—those little bundles you throw on the ground to hear them snap. The following two videos are some of my favorites, because of how she says "really, really hard" when she prepares to throw a snapper.





Thankfully, the last week or so has been pretty rainy, which has really cooled off the air. The downer is that the holiday weekend was a wet one. Since the 4th was on a Sunday this year, we celebrated the whole extended weekend. On Saturday we went to a carnival in the morning. After discovering it was lame, we set off in search of another adventure. Using Alex's super handy phone, we looked up The Union Station in Kansas City and decided to go check it out. I recommend it to anyone visiting the Kansas City area. They have a Planetarium, Science City, train rides, and lots of DINOSAURS!!!






Sadie saw this "baby dinosaur" and fell in love. Alex and I just hung out on a bench while
Sadie sat and talked to her new friend. She's so funny.



There are several free exhibits at the station. The picture below was taken in an Irish room, which has a touch and feel table.



Sunday we relaxed, went to church, and had a pretty normal day. In the evening, despite the rain, I wanted to see the fireworks. Since Sadie was asleep in bed and Alex didn't care if he missed the fireworks, I grabbed a book and drove down to the show by myself. It was fun to read, watch some fireworks, and still get to bed at a decent hour.

On Monday, we had a BBQ with some friends and played a lot with Sadie. It's nice to have long and relaxing weekends now and again.

Girl's Night!

A few weeks ago, I caved and read the Twilight Saga. It all started when I got invited to girl's night, which was going to see Eclipse at a fork and screen. I felt like I should read the books and be prepared for all the Twilight excitement that was to come. I have to admit, I actually enjoyed the books. The first two movies were a bit corny, so I had little hope for the books. They were not written well, but the story was fun to read. I was also surprised that I really liked the third movie. There wasn't as much over-the-top high school romance and they didn't show Edward without his shirt, which always makes a movie better! I would recommend the third movie, because the action is pretty good and the story line is enjoyable.

The night we were going to the theater, the actor who plays Emmet Cullen was suppose to make an appearance. Something changed and the actor who plays Billy Black, Jacob's dad, was there instead. You would have thought Johnny Depp was there giving away money! The picture below was taken by a friend who saw him, but decided it wasn't worth getting a closer look.



Our group bought out the whole showing! The women in the pictures are the ones I've met since being in KS. They are a fun bunch of women.





Part of the fork and screen experience is sitting in an incredibly comfy chair and having your food brought to you. The food was really yummy and the service was great. What a fun night!

An Animal Filled Memorial Weekend

We had a really fun, and really hot, Memorial weekend.

Kansas City Zoo

Taking Sadie to the zoo has been on our to do list for a while now. We finally took her this past Saturday! She had so much fun. All day long we talked about the animals. Her new animal to imitate is a sea lion (thanks to Mimi's sea lion impression using flippers and Sadie's 'Elmo goes to the Zoo' book). Everyone was so excited to find out there was going to be a sea lion show that day. Sadie kept clapping her hands and saying "arrr arrr" everytime one of the sea lions made a sound. It was great.

At the beginning of our day, this goose decided it was hungry and Sadie had food (probably because she was holding her hand out, pointing at the goose). It came right up to her and pecked at her hand. Sadie was startled and didn't want anything else to do with the goose. Thankfully her fear wore off quickly and Sadie was fine feeding geese the following Monday.


Here's Sadie with a Chimp.


Sadie loved the lions. They are one of her favorite animals to imitate. The male lion never came up to the window, but three females came right up to enjoy some shade.


Hangin' out in the stroller.


The other show we watched was elephant painting. One of Five elephants was painting by request. People in the audience would pay their 'donation' of $25 and select colors. Then the elephant would paint a picture for them and pose for the camera! Animals are amazing. The elephant in the picture with Sadie and me is the one who did all of the painting.


One of Sadie's favorite parts of the day was the carousel ride. She loves them! Every picture we have of her on this ride is like the one below, ear to ear grin.


Even though it was a really hot day, we had a blast watching Sadie take joy in all the animals.



Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead

On Monday, we asked Sadie if she wanted to go see more animals. That was a mistake. For the next hour all she would say is 'animals' and if she felt like we were not going to see animals now, the world was ending. It was a long morning. I can see why parents don't tell their children they are going to a place like Disney World until the night before they leave.

When we got there, we were pleasantly surprised to find out admission was free Monday-Thursday! You can't beat a free outing. Well, we did buy ice cream for us and food to feed to animals. But still, under $6 is great.

Sadie could have spent all day at the bells. It was just two beams with three chains strung between them. Attached to the chains were different sized bells. To Sadie, this was heaven. She could make all the noise she wanted and we just smiled and encouraged her to make more noise. It's a dream come true.


There were lots of animals to pet at this farmstead. Here's Sadie petting a calf.


She loved to feed grass to the goats. This was a no stress activity for her, because a fence separated her from the goat.


Feeding a bottle to a goat was a different story. All of these goats rushed to Sadie and tried taking the bottle from her. I was worried she'd get trampled so Alex picked her up and helped control the thirsty animals. I think Sadie prefers feeding them grass through a fence.


The weather continues to be really hot and humid. Today it was 95 degrees. This is not unusual for the week. Thank goodness for AC.



Violin

Today was my first violin lesson! I've been nervous all day, but it actually went very well. I'm not as bad as I thought I'd be. Maybe someday I'll be able to play a song and then I can post a video.

Sundays

Yesterday was such a great day. Stake conference was fabulous. One of the speakers talked about how many children don't need the 'birds and bees' talk, because they already know about the topic. BUT, that doesn't mean they shouldn't be talked with about the subject. Parents need to teach their children about the sacredness of marriage and how God fits into everything. It was a great talk, really made me think.

We were going to walk around the Arboretum and Botanical Gardens after church, but instead we decided to visit Liberty Jail and Independence. These were both very spiritual experiences.

The church has reconstructed the jail, but left a wall off so you can so into it and really get an idea of how horrible the living conditions were. For four months, those men couldn't see the sky, couldn't stand up straight, and had to endure the bitterly cold weather with little protection. They also only had a bucket to use as a toilet, which was emptied once a week. Yuck! I learned that they actually tried to escape twice, both times unsuccessful. I don't know how they survived this experience. What a trial. Thankfully, God revealed D&C 121, 122, and 123 to Joseph a few days before the men were released.


Independence was also a testimony booster. The visitor's center is amazing.

At the end of our visit, four sister missionaries sat us down in front of the Christus and sang a beautiful song which testified of Christ. Sometime during about the third verse, Sadie looks at me and then points to Christ and says 'sesus' (her version of Jesus). I fought back tears of joy to think this little child of God is feeling the Holy Spirit and knows her Savior.


On the way home, Alex and I were singing songs to Sadie in an attempt to keep her happy. After we ran out of animals for McDonald's farm, I made up 'Little Miss Sadie had a Zoo.' We sang our funny new song and then Alex tells Sadie, "Mommy's weird." Sadie just says, "Oh" like everything made sense now. It was so funny.

Then she started to get fussy about three minutes before we got home. Alex tells her he thinks he can get us home before she counts to two (she's a very good counter). I tried everything to get her to count. I counted as an example and I said, "Sadie, what comes after one?" She just looked at me like I was stupid. Alex pulled into the driveway and then Sadie said, "Two!" What a stink. She was holding out on me the whole time. I love her! She's so much fun.

Enjoying the Kansas Sun

This weekend, Garmin invited us to attend the Great American BBQ. We thought this would be a good opportunity to experience the flavor of the Midwest, plus there was a firework show Sadie would enjoy. When we got there, it wasn't quite what we were expecting. This is mainly due to the fact that we got there early on Friday and the BBQ judging didn't even start until Saturday. We ended up only eating and taking Sadie on a carousel ride. She loved it! Alex said she said 'whee whee' the entire ride, while she had a death grip on the pole. Since we discovered the fireworks didn't start until 10 pm, we decided to just head home. Next time we'll have to plan a little better.



The giant pink elephant is the Mother's cookies mascot (one of those frosted animal cookies). Sadie thought it was pretty neat to see a huge, pink elephant. I can't wait to take her to the zoo agian.


In other news, I finally bought a jogger stroller. We got a double, since we are planning on another child some day. I know it looks a little funny only half full, but it's worth it. Sadie loves when we go jogging. She points out all of the bunnies and trees as the wind blows through her hair. Pardon my appearance in the photo, this was taken just after my jog. It's obvious I need to get more sun too! Just look at the cute baby in the cool stroller.

FYI, this is the Navigator stroller by Baby Trend. I really like it. My only complaint is that it's bulky. At first I was concerned about the front two wheels. They would really shake when I started picking up speed. Alex pointed out that the front wheels need to have the lock on when running and off when just walking around. This made all the difference. The wheels also needed to be pumped up when you first take them out of the box, but this is no big deal. There's lots of storage and it's a really smooth ride. I love it!

Today, Alex, Sadie and I went and looked at what kind of home we could get for our money in this area. We were pleasantly surprised! We fell in love with a beautiful four bedroom home with a spacious yard. One of my favorite things about this yard was there are no homes behind it so your view is a nature reserve! It's very beautiful. Here's the house and a shot of the yard.


We have many more adventures to go on while in KS. After our stake conference tomorrow, we're going to walk around the arboretum and botanical garden. It's a great walk where you can really enjoy nature and a variety of birds. A fabulous Sunday activity!