Mackay Madness: Our Spring Break Vacation: Kansas City, Nauvoo, St. Louis

Monday, April 18, 2011

Our Spring Break Vacation: Kansas City, Nauvoo, St. Louis

I will be doing several posts about this trip. I did a lot of journaling each day, so I am planning on doing a post each day that we were there. There is just too much information and too many pictures to fit it all into one post! So hang in there, if you want to read all about it...great. If not, too bad:)

April 7th:
Let me start out by saying... the night before we left to go on our vacation, Easton came down with a terrible case of the flu. He literally barfed every 30 minutes all night long. So yay, I was already exhausted when we left the house to go to the airport. And I was totally stressed about flying with a sick kid. But, he made it all the way to Kansas City without an incident. Phew
However; he did nearly kill the stuardess when she made him put up his tray and it broke his silly putty creation. Oh man, he was so mad at her...good he was strapped down:) He was a riot on the plane and everyone around us was cracking up. He even made up the funniest songs and was singing them so loud for all to enjoy!

April 8th: DAY 1
When we arrived in Kansas City and stepped outside of the airport, the weather was so warm and humid. Oopsie, I kinda told my whole family to pack like we were still going to be in Utah. All of the info that I had gathered, said that is was cold, rainy, and icky in those parts! But au' contrare....it was warm and gorgeous!

Next, we headed to the parking garage to pick up our SUPER NICE, DELUXE, ELEGANT...Kia mini van! Yep, it was a looker. All silver and sporty...not! It was filthy inside and Brandon was a little ticked, since the rental car was the most expensive part of the whole trip! We made a complaint to the attendant as we pulled away and he gave me the number of his boss who we could call to leave a complaint.

Then, off to our first hotel. Brandon and I knew that we would have to add a few "bells and whistles" to this vacation or the smaller kids would go nuts just touring church sites. So Brandon found this awesome place called the "Great Wolf Lodge" and it had a huge indoor water park. It was the perfect way to start out. As we walked into the grand lobby, the kids were flipping out. There was a huge fireplace, taxidermy animals everywhere, a build a bear station in the lobby, and a huge glass window that looked out into the waterpark area!

Brandon waited in line to check-in for no less than 25 minutes. He was starting to go red in the face. I, on the other hand was trying to keep the kids off of everything and busy until we got assigned a room. Meanwhile, Easton decided to do one last BARF...lucky I had a bag! Ewwww

We got our room. Then headed across the street to a huge outdoor mall to find a place to eat. We settled for a BBQ spot and did a little shopping afterwards. Addie tripped and fell into a flower bed in front of a bunch of people, some lady screamed when she saw her go down, and we all died laughing. That was a highlight for the day! Then we went back to rest so that we could get up and do a little sight seeing the next day! After all, Clark Griswold had our trip all mapped out...we had places to go and people to see!

4 comments:

Bell Family said...: Hooray!! I can't wait to see these posts. You are going to make me jealous!!

That picture of Easton with the bag...poor kiddo.; April 18, 2011 at 9:15 PM
The Donnelly's said...: Oh my goodness!! Soo fun! I love it:) Poor little Easton! I hope you guys had an amazing vacation!

Love you!; April 19, 2011 at 5:22 AM
jenn said...: Oh, I'm going to LOVE all these posts. Yippee!!!

Poor E....Poor YOU! Barfing and Vacation just shouldn't be allowed. Sorry.; April 19, 2011 at 9:36 PM
margo said...: I can just picture all of you fighting over the bathroom to puke! What a mess:) ha ha. I never thought I would see the day Brandon was driving a mini-van. hee hee; April 20, 2011 at 9:05 AM

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From the mouths of "our babes":

*Our doorbell rang. Chance ran to get it. No one was there. He said, "oh darn,it must have been a knocker-ditcher." (Otherwise known as a doorbell ditcher.)

*Chance climbed in the back of the car this afternoon, and said "ewww mom, the back of your car smells gross...it smells like fries and poo all mixed together."

There was a little boy acting very naughty in Chances primary class...he turned and told the boy that he was an "ANGRY ELF." The teacher told me that it made her whole day and she nearly peed her pants laughing. (We were visiting at a different ward, which makes it even funnier because he didn't even know the boy.)

*Chance's kindergarten teacher's name is Mrs. Rasband, he came home and told Brandon that her name is Mrs. Wristband! Close enough

*As we were driving through the farmlands, Addie blurts out from the backseat, "it's cool how HAY grows, it just randomly pops up in perfect little blocks!" (She was DEAD serious)

*We came home from camping and Addie turns to me and says, "Mom, it feels so good to be home and walk on the grass and have a cup of milk!"

*We ate at a "Thai" restaurant tonight. Addie was so sick of peanuts on all of the food. She finally looked at me and said, "what the heck, do they have a peanut tree in that kitchen or what?"

*Chance asked me, "Mom, why Jesus make me so fast?" (Basically asking why he is such a fast runner)

*Chance was looking through the neighbors fence at their dog and he came running back across the street and said " oh sick, that dog just bless you'd all over my face!" Apparently, that means the dog sneezed on him!

*Chance calls "Walkie Talkies"... "Hickey Tickies"

*Hannah told me that we are going to give her "arthritis" because we are making her camp in a tent this year. (We sold our big fifth wheel last year.) Poor kids!

*We went thru the drive-up at Wendy's and they were out of Frosty's. As we pulled away, Chance murmurs to himself: "damn, damn, damn!" (I will take full responsibility for that one!) Needless to say, we had a little chat!

*Chance says that "chocolate milk" is his favorite taste!

*Chance was picking the seat of his pants today, and I said "what's wrong son, do you have a snuggy?" And he said, "no mom, I don't have a snuggly, my bums are just stuck together.

*Tonight at dinner, Addie told us that her favorite solid food is BUTTER and her favorite liquid food is SPRAY BUTTER!

*Chance told me today that his brain was making him scared to go to school. (He just kept holding his head in his hands)

*We had a "chick" die this weekend. Of course the kids made us do a burial. Apparently it freaked Chance out, and he wouldn't sleep in his bed because he just knew there were dead chicks in the sheets, and his feet could feel the feathers!

Easton "Such a Big Miracle, in such a Little Boy"

For those that don't know, our little boy nearly drowned in a bathtub accident when he was just 7 months old. I had run a bath for myself and left Easton (who could barely crawl) in his room on the floor. I ran out to the kitchen to clean up a glass my daughter had broken. When I returned to the bath... Easton had pulled himself into the bathroom and was floating face down in the water. He had his feet pajama's on which helped him slip over the side. He was under for about two - four minutes and it took four minutes of CPR from his daddy before he took his first breath. He was taken by ambulance to "Primary's" where he stayed in the ICU overnight. He had a full recovery. We are so, so lucky! He is ONE YEAR OLD now and we're so happy that our heavenly father decided that we could keep him!!! He brings so much SUNSHINE into our lives. "We love you Eastie". I put this on my blog for my own journal, but also for people to always be aware of your kids around water...they are capable of sooo much more than you may think!