Springs Break Bonanza - Wichita!

Our last few days of Spring Break were spent in Wichita visiting with most of Carlton's family. We were also able to help Gampy move some of his stuff into his new place! We visited the Zoo with Paula, Max, Jasmine, Audie, Joe, Bennett, Savanna & Jeremy.

I got a short video of one of the elephants playing with a ball.

The next day we went to the Botanical Garden with Gampy, Regina, Molli, and Teril. Here are Avery and Gavin being turkeys.

Then we got Avery and Teril caught in a spider's web!

We rode on the carousel.

Then the kids played with the troll under a bridge.

For our last afternoon, we met up with as many family members as possible at a park with a playground and the kids got to do an Easter Egg hunt!

Sebastian, Deanna, Ariana, and Avery looking for eggs. Then Ariana and Deanna posing for pictures with Gavin and Avery.

Since we were all together, we wanted to get pictures of family groups as much as we could. It's a bit difficult getting one group shot with so many people!

Here is the Rader Family with Paula, Alan, Jasmine and Maxwell. Lorelai McCollum (next to Avery) joined us too! 

Here we are with Lorelai again and Liska Dae!!

The next group photo includes Molli's family! Her kids Alex, Teril and Dasha with her wife Teddy.

The group above is Audie and Joe's family!Joe is on the far left holding his granddaughter Savanna. Joe & Audie's kids are Nate (holding his baby boy Jude) next to his wife Cassie. Audie is down in front next to her grandson Bennett. Next to Avery is Audie & Joe's other kids, Maxine, Cassie (with her boyfriend Nate) and Jeremy in the back.

Next up is the family group of Marcus and Olya (on the left) with their kids Deanna and Ariana. Lorelai joined us with her brothers Sebastian and Liam.

This last family group is Anna's family (far left) with her grandson Sebastian, her daughter Angelica (next to me) with her daughter Lorelai and her son Liam and on the far right is Angelica's husband, Mike.

A couple more pictures with Gampy and Aunt Regina before we leave Wichita. 

It was wonderful to see everyone!!

Spring Break Bonanza - Kansas City, MO!

The next leg of our trip took us to Kansas City for a couple nights. We were able to visit with my Aunt Judy, cousin Kristin with her kids Maddie and Will and also my cousin Mehgan with her kids Jack and Ella.

For our only full day in Kansas City, we went to the Science Museum and met Carlton's brother, Marcus, along with his daughter Deanna.  We were there most of the day and the kids had a blast exploring all the different exhibits.

One of the exhibits was about energy and the kids got to try a giant hamster wheel to create energy.

Then Gavin tried out a Sky Bike that was on a cable carrying a bunch of bricks.

Then we moved on to making soap bubbles:

Then we ventured outside to play on the playground.

We visited with a dinosaur...

Next the kids tried different challenges competing against robots to complete different tasks.

Too soon it was time to say good-bye to Deanna and Marcus. On the way out, the kids wanted a picture in the giant Easter Basket.

Our last night at Kristin's, we spent some time with Aunt Judy, Lucy, Kristin's Corgi, and Avery serenaded us with a song on the keyboard!

That was the end of our Kansas City trip - next up: Wichita!

Spring Break Bonanza - St. Louis & St. Charles, Missouri!

On our way to my Aunt Marilyn's house in St. Charles, we stopped at the Gateway Arch for a quick visit. It was late afternoon and Avery wasn't feeling good, so we didn't stay very long. The museum under the arch is quite large! We did not get to do the tram tour, they were already booked up that day. But here are a few pics:

From there we made it to Aunt Marilyn's house in pouring rain! We only spent one night with her but thekids enjoyed exploring her house and seeing all the "old stuff".

Avery and Gavin loved seeing all the different bears and other toys that Aunt Marilyn had. They had fun inventing their own stories for the different toys. Then we were off to Kansas City, MO to stay with my cousin Kristin and her kids Maddie and Will.