Drinkalls (try to) do Kansas City...

Ahhhhhh!   Summer is finally here.  What have we done to celebrate, you ask?  Well... for starters, we took an "All American Family Road Trip" (To Kansas City).  How'd that go, you ask?  Let me share!

The trip started off exactly as planned.  We made a trip to the bank to deplete our life savings (Just kidding...sorta)  ....

...and got on the road 3 hours past our departure goal...

...after driving more than 5 hours with a boy who stopped talking only long enough to shovel gas station snacks in his mouth and a girl that was in a "mommy, look at me!" mood... we pulled up to our final destination.. The Great Wolf Lodge...  Check it out!

The only difference between THAT Great Wolf Lodge greeting and OUR Great Wolf Lodge greeting was that we weren't welcomed with over-sized wild animals....more so a VERY angry husband....  Upon check in- we found out our room was booked Sunday-Wednesday.  Problem?  Today was Friday.  We showed up Friday and planned to stay until Monday.  So..... since we had kids in tow.. .and there weren't many bars near us, we decided to solve our problem over BBQ...

Luckily for us, we were able to get a different room and go about our business.  First up a dip in the pool and then story time at the big clock tower.

  We got to wear our complimentary wolf ears (that of course i had to ask a pool worker for because we don't ever easily score complimentary items!)

Each night, a character would show up with an awkward human, and read a story to the kids.  Each night, the awkward human and character would have the same skit.    Yeah yeah, lady...we came for a book.  No No, lady.  We didn't bring our own.  Yeah Yeah, bear.  The book is in your bag.  Please tell me,you won't make her do a tango dance to retrieve it again....

Anyhoo-  if you haven't figured out by now, we mananged to make story time each night.  The kiddos enjoyed it ;)

We also spent quite a bit of time at the Arcade.... you couldn't miss it.  It was strategically placed across from the elevator we had to take each time to get to our room.  Clever...

I'm not sure how much money we blew here but I feel it's safe to say the kids enjoyed ring pops that ended up costing more than a trip to Siebke Hoyt Jewlers ...

and the "prized" prize of the Whoopee Cushion?   

Well... they just don't make them like they used to...

Everyone goes shopping to the zoo on vacation, right?  We hit up Cabela's...  

Got our (stuffed) animal fix...

and stopped to grab a cheap lunch.... 

...because we found out our less than mediocre breakfast buffet cost over 44 dollars that morning!

We spent much of our time at the pool / water park:

 ...I realized that my "mom suits" were not suitable for water parks...  they aren't meant for physical activity toddler hands pulling on you....  I'm pretty sure everyone at the park was flashed by me a few times.  Hey swim suit makers.... Just because the bottom half needs to be large and flow does NOT mean the top half has to!

Besides a lopsided body, water time was going quite well! 

...Unil this happened....

...nothing a 12 dollar box of band-aids and off-brand antibiotic cream can't fix, right?!

After Bozo Reese was tended to, we decided to rest a bit in our room.... 

You know the one we almost didn't get?    

The one that now has ONE bed... 

...but at least had a jacuzzi tub for Max to use...

As you can see, Great Wolf Lodge offered many exciting activities... 

Max obsessed over the Magi Quest game...

Reese and I?  Not so much....  

It gets boring and tiring chasing a boy with a magic stick up and down flights of stairs!

Magi Quest creeps me out a tad... look at this bossy thing!

I guess it wasn't completely boring... It was a great chance for people watching!

lots of wedgies...

...even a lady wearing a shirt with a nipple-sized baseball strategically placed ... 

you guessed it....

on her nipple

Just when you think you've mastered the Magi Quest... 

you find out you must beat the dragon... and other things...??

We couldn't leave until the dragon was tamed....

We had already checked out and still had not beat that pesky dragon. 

I went around and found some Magi Quest Experts and begged them for help.  Score.  

It's not what you know.. just who you know harass...

Here's a pic of them.  I didn't want to be creepy and ask for a pic.. 

...so I was creepy and sneaked a click :)

We managed to escape Magic Questing for a day and head out to Lego Land.

Reese enjoyed the kitchen the most...  she has got this "short person accommodation" thing down!

Max enjoyed the "play place" best

Max and his daddy spent quite a bit of time building a race car (that they never even completed!)

...while Reese and I kept telling other kids, "No, it's not paint... it's blood"...

Reese asked for a bathroom break from all the humiliation of the red-nosed questions...

She just couldn't take anymore!

So we decided to go.... and not before spending millions in the gift shop.  Thanks, daddy!!!

....which lead us to a late lunch at Fritz's, a train restaurant... super fun! (once we found it!)

All in all, the Drinkalls "did" Kansas City quite well...

We made and captured (quite accurately) family memories...

We even set milestones....

Reese's first time EVER sleeping in the car since birth...

We had a "thumbs up" time :)

Love,
Lis :)