Midwestern Family

Our first road trip from Iowa was to Kansas City to visit with my wonderful cousins, Rob & Brandy, their kids, Ashlynn & Caroline, Brandy's parents Mimi & Pop Pop, and Brandy's sister Tracy and her family. Lucy and I were adopted right into this wild crowd, so much so that you might not have even known we were not "real" family.

Lucy, for as rambunctious as she normally is, happens to be a great car child. I suppose I had to catch a break somewhere with this one, didn't I? It took us an extra half hour to get on the road because Eric and I fiddled with the DVD player until it worked. The must-have item from our cross-country trip this summer might have finally failed us. It lasted through one disc on the trip, and I gave up. Lucy didn't fuss too much, which was nice, though I can't say I'm excited for the drive back to Maine - 1600 miles!! - without it.
We got to Mimi's house on Saturday afternoon, just in time for the trip into the city to the Crown Plaza. I was promised a spectacular experience and it lived up to all expectations. There is an outdoor ice-skating rink, Rockefeller Plaza style, and Lucy couldn't WAIT to get some skates on. Under present circumstances, I thought ice skating would not be a good idea for me, and so let Rob and Brandy take to the ice with not only their twins but my firecracker as well.
She did awesome. Fearless and thrilled.
I do have an adorable video of Lucy on skates with Brandy, but am having some trouble uploading it.
Then on to the children's village at the Crown Plaza, chock full of big toys to explore. This was really neat for Lucy because it's exactly what she loves - things to run through and climb on.
Some cousin bonding.
And a water and light show with the fountain and Christmas lights. You can tell we're not in Maine here because any water certainly would have been drained out of the fountains before Thanksgiving weekend.
After we'd had our fill of the fun in the plaza and it had started to get cold, we went into the Crayola center to check out the stores and eat at the Crayola Cafe. Nothing terribly impressive about the menu here, but I did get a pretty good salad and it was a nice view over the balcony. Plus Lucy came home with a kid's cup shaped like a crayon.
The crayola store had some fun art activities for the kids to do right there in the store. Lucy kept on grabbing crayons to draw on the other kid's artwork. (We're still working on social conventions). The other kids did NOT appreciate her help.
Note in our photo Lucy is trying to escape and I'm holding her back - this is pretty much how our life goes. I'm not sure if this was before or after we rode up and down the escalator 15 times.
On our way back to Mimi's house, Lucy fell asleep in the car. Ashlynn and Caroline did their best singing at the top of their lungs to wake her up, but to no avail. Lucy was ready with her second wind for a jacuzzi-bubble-bath-tea-party when we got home. Actually, scratch the jacuzzi, Brandi tried to turn on the bubbles at one point and Lucy almost hit the ceiling. (hehe) Tea was served from a collection of shells Mimi kept near the tub. Hello bathing beauties!
Sunday morning, just as any good grandparent visit should be, was dedicated to the greater enjoyment of the kids. Here, this meant a real tea party with real tea. This is Lucy's setting right after she got up and walked away saying "Pretty yucky" about her first sip of sugarless tea. I'm pretty sure that she prefers the bath water.
Finally, our fabulous cousins, Rob and Brandy. Thanks for the great weekend!