Fritz's and Union Station

On Saturday, we checked off one of our must-do-in-KC things:  eating at Fritz's.  Fritz's has three locations but we went to the oldest one in KCK.  The unique thing about the restaurant is that it has a train on a track above the tables and that's how the food is delivered to the tables (a basket hangs below the train).  Needless to say, Dan and Ben were fascinated.  Breakfast was pretty good and we'll probably try one of the other locations for lunch before we leave next summer.

After breakfast, we drove to Union Station, which used to be a major passenger hub.  Now, it's still an Amtrak station but it also has a kids' science museum, a rail museum, a rotating exhibit with Titanic stuff, and lots of shops and restaurants.  We checked out Science City, the K.C. Rail Experience and the Model Railroad Experience.  The boys LOVED everything, especially the model train exhibit.  Every five seconds, one of them said, "Look, Mommy! LOOK! LOOK!"  They also had a great time at the science museum and we will definitely be back soon.

First Day of School!

Dan started preschool yesterday!  He's in the 4-year-old class on MWF at St. Paul's Lutheran in Leavenworth.  It's three blocks from our house, so we plan on walking every day.  And it is an uphill walk, both ways, so he'll have good stories to tell his grandchildren, especially if it snows a lot this winter.  Ha!

From the small amount that he would tell me, it sounds like he had a good day.  He mentioned that he had a good snack and he met a boy named Tucker.  Pretty exciting stuff.  While he was busy at school, Ben and I went to open gym on base and just ran and played and jumped around for an hour.  Ben's working on the gold medal in the all-around competition because he had to try out all the apparati!

Fun on Friday

Last night, we went on a family date night to the bowling alley!  The Strike Zone on base has a deal for a family of four on Friday nights: pizza, pitcher of pop/juice, and four games each, all for $25.  Four games is way too much bowling for Dan and Ben but they did hang in there for a game and a half or so.  They loved carrying the 6-pound ball over to the ramp and giving it a good shove to get it going.  At one point, Ben was beating Zach on the scoreboard, but Daddy made a furious comeback and ended up on top.

After bowling, we weren't quite ready to head home yet, so we tried out a new playground on base.  The weather has finally started to cool off a little, making it a pleasant 85 degrees at 7:30.  Family date night was an all-around success!

Time for bath!

When we were at my parents' house, it was too hot to play outside very much.  But after supper one night, the weather cooled down to 98 degrees or so, and the garden was in the shade, so we let the boys go out and dig.  My mom and dad and I stayed in the air conditioning and supervised from the window, of course.  As we were watching, Dan picked up a giant shovel of dirt and dumped it all over Ben's head.  He did this a few more times until my dad went out and told him that if he did it one more time, he was going straight to the bath.  The my dad came back inside and we just watched and waited.

I felt like I could actually see the little devil on Dan's shoulder, telling him to just dump one more shovel of dirt on Ben's head.  To Dan's credit, he resisted for about three whole minutes but then the temptation was too much to overcome.  So he did one last dump and ran in and put himself in the bath. In his head, he was probably saying, "Totally worth it."

Swimming at Aunt Jill's

No trip to Wichita would be complete without a few hours of swimming at Jill and Craig's house (Craig is my dad's brother).  They have a gorgeous pool with lots of floating toys and a diving board.  Dan can jump in from the board and swim all the way to the ladder by himself now!  He's getting pretty good but he needs to work on using his arms more.

Ben is also quite the swimmer.  He stands on the edge, says, "Go away, Mama," and then launches himself.  He can turn around in the water and get himself back to the wall all by himself (no life vest or flotation).  Must be all the Olympic swimming I've made him watch--he's a little Michael Phelps!  Sometimes I wish he had just a little more fear of the water because I really can't take my eyes off of him for one second, but I'm glad that he loves swimming and isn't a weenie about putting his head under.