Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead

On Wednesday there was a bit of a breeze, with a forecast high of 100 F (I think it actually exceeded that).  It was hot in the shade!  We had planned to hit an outdoor attraction, so with waterbottles in hand and a picnic lunch packed, we found our way to the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead.  There were so many cool things here, I can not post all the pictures I took, and I really didn't take enough pictures as it is!  We'd all like to go back some day.  But preferably on a much cooler day.  :)

 The school house.

 Natalee hard at work with her chalk and slate.

"Dunce."

 The school marm in the background.

 Andrew working the land.

 Princess on a cow.

 Kids on the cow-ch.

 Wyatt's favourite part of the Farmstead - peddle tractors!

 Feeding pygmy goats.  The older goats were very aggressive and kept on trying to take the bottle away from the younger goats.

 Pony rides.

 Fishing with cane rods!

 Each boy caught a fish.

Our friend Taylor caught 4 fish!

 On the hayride. (smiling)

 Relaxing in the shade.

 Eagle.  There were also some bobcats but they were sleeping.

There were mainly farm animals there (cows, pigs, goats to name a few) and Wyatt was not too happy about that.  Everything was "hurt me?"  Mike took him into the goat enclosure to feed a baby goat from a bottle and for the rest of the trip we heard, "Goat hurt me?"

 The butterfly gardens.

 A massive set of about 6 windchimes along the nature path.

 Butterfly house.

 Three beautiful flowers.

 The boys loved the mining! 

They each got a bag of rough and ended up with a small bag of pretty stones.

There were several playstructures there.  We found one animal Wyatt is not scared of.

After we said good-bye to Brandi and her children, we headed back to our apartment and went for a swim.



Union Station

 A very cool old firetruck as we entered Union Station.

 A cute little train car that ran all on it's own.  There was another one that looked like an easter egg.

 We basically just saw the model trains at Union Station.  But there were a lot of them!  I'd say there were at least 8, maybe 10 set-ups with multiple trains in some of them.  It was very very very cool!

 Train/truck coming out of a tunnel.

 Brandi, me and our children.

 Andrew in front of a very neat motorcycle.  They also had a motorcycle exhibit at Union Station but we didn't have time (nor did we want to pay).

 Brandi took these next few pictures.

 Everyone loved the model train displays!

It was big!  Mike read some of the history of Union Station and I looked it up and found out some information on Wikipedia, if you're interested.

 The Beaux-Arts station opened on October 30, 1914 as the second-largest train station in the country. The building encompasses 850,000 square feet (79,000 m²), the ceiling in the Grand Hall is 95 feet (29 m) high, there are three chandeliers weighing 3,500 pounds (1600 kg) each, and the Grand Hall clock has a six-foot (1.8-m) diameter face. Due to its central location, Kansas City was a hub for both passenger and freight rail traffic. The scale of the building reflected this status.

In 1945, annual passenger traffic peaked at 678,363. As train travel declined beginning in the 1950s, the city had less and less need for a large train station.



Part II - Missouri

 When we left home, it was quite cool.  I think the forecast high for the day was about 18 C (64 F) and after a week long "heat wave", it was a nice break.  The weather wasn't much warmer when we picnicked in Grand Forks Friday night, but by Saturday noon, we were feeling the increasing heat in Sioux Falls where we stopped for lunch.

In the above picture, we had stopped to picnic just after passing into Missouri on Monday, July 25. 

It was HOT and there was hardly a breeze!

 The boys took turns holding the frogs for pictures.  :)

 This is Brandi, a friend I met on FYM two years ago.  We have emailed each other practically every day for the last year and a half, sharing our struggles and workouts and encouraging each other in parenting (she has 4 children, aged 11, 9, and 7 year old twins)

and growing as women of God.  She has been such a blessing to me! 

It was so fun to finally meet her and her children.

Here we are waiting in line for lunch on Tuesday.

We ate at a very fun restaurant called Fritz. 

Mini trains ride the rails above your head (about a foot from the ceiling)

and deliver your order to you. 

Wyatt was mesmerized!

 There was about a 20 minute wait and the kids got to sit in the little train

that was located just outside of the restaurant.

 Wyatt loved this little passenger car!  We had a hard time pulling him away from it.

 Natalee and her new friends.  This is Natalee smiling.  :)

Wyatt the Conductor.

He was hungry.

 We checked out a wildlife exhibit after lunch.  The kids could put on these vests and the pockets were filled with binoculars, flashlights, magnifying glasses, and mini clipboards.

 Caleb is sitting in a seat here and they had to pull themselves up the rope.

 Andrew had a great time at this exhibit!

 The splash pad outside of Crown Center. 

The water/fountains were synchronized to music, so the water stopped and started at

seemingly random intervals.  It was a lot of fun on such a hot day!

The forecast high for that day was 97 F/36 C.

Our 2011 Trip, Part I

It's August 2nd and we arrived home from our American tour yesterday.  We had a great time, saw lots of things we had never seen, and travelled further than we ever had together as a family.  I took a lot of pictures, but still not enough!  Here are just a few for now...

 Our first picnic - one of many on this trip.

 One of several frogs the boys saw.

 Mike's favourite restaurant. 

It had been 3 years since he had eaten at a Fuddrucker's!

 Ummmy burger!

 Watching SpongeBob at the hotel in Omaha.

 It was a super hot day for our trip to the pool in Omaha.  The water was warm but refreshing, and you didn't even need or want a towel when you got out of the water.  We had a great time, though, just glad to have a way to beat the heat.

Caleb relaxing by the pool.