Oklahoma trip

Well, it's been exactly a month since my last post.  Not much has happened in that month, if you don't count a move across the country.  So forgive my absence.  I'll do my best to catch up in the next few days.

My parents were awesome enough to take the boys off our hands for a few days while the packers and movers did their thing in Leavenworth.  Zach graduated from school on June 14th and then we headed to Wichita with Hannah to meet up again with Dan and Ben.  On the 17th, all of us drove to Oklahoma to the farm to spend a few days with Aunt and Unc and Grandma.

Everyone had a great time, as always.  Dan and Ben dug in the red dirt, splashed in the little pool, tried to ride the dirt bike with Unc, rode horses for the first time, and just played and played.  We're really going to miss being close enough to drive down there for holidays.  Hopefully Aunt and Unc will be able to visit us in California, but it's not the same as going to the farm.

Hannah is seven weeks!

My sister Layne guilted me into taking pictures of baby Hannah so here they are!  Layne knows the heartbreak of being the third child and having no baby pictures so she wants to spare Hannah the same lifelong angst.  Only kidding!  But I don't take nearly enough pictures of her, probably because I'm too busy chasing her crazy brothers around.

Right now, poor Hannah has a case of baby acne so she's not looking her absolute best, but she's still pretty darn cute anyway.  She's giving more smiles and is generally more alert and aware.  Her sleeping schedule is not quite a schedule yet, mostly because I don't really see the point of getting into a set routine when the rest of the month is going to most decidedly un-routine because of the move.  Only five more nights in this house, then Wichita for three nights, the farm in Oklahoma for two nights, back to Wichita for two nights, then Colorado for five nights, Arizona for two nights, a hotel in California for three nights, then we move into our new home on July 1st.  So forgive me if I haven't been as strict in enforcing a sleep schedule on baby Hannah!  Once we're settled in the new house, we'll whip her into shape.

Day Out with Thomas

After our experience of hunting Easter eggs in a blinding snowstorm, we knew we had to go back to Baldwin City to the Midland Railroad when Thomas was in town!  The forecast for Friday was for thunderstorms, but Thomas was going to happen, rain or shine.  Luckily for us, the rain was over by noon and we had sunny skies and cool weather for our afternoon at the railroad.

When we arrived, we followed signs to park at the high school so we could ride the free shuttle (school) bus to the tracks.  The whole ride, Ben kept saying, "A real live school bus!" like he just couldn't believe his luck.  At the train station area, several large tents were set up with different activities--a gift shop, food, a small petting zoo, story-telling, and train tables.  One guess where we spent 90% of our time!  Dan and Ben loved playing at the train tables, especially the ones with the plastic tracks and the motorized trains since we don't have too many of those at our house.

Our train ride was at 3:45 and the boys decided they wanted to ride outside, so that's what we did.  Every time we came to an intersection, the train whistle blew and it was pretty loud.  Grandma covered Hannah's ears and the boys spent most of the ride with their hands over their ears.  But they didn't seem to mind the noise too much!

After the ride, we could have stood in line to get our pictures taken with Thomas, but Dan and Ben are a lot like their dad and have zero patience for photographic documentation, especially if a line is involved.  Oh, well!  We played some miniature golf and bounced a little in the bouncy houses and then hopped back on the school bus to ride back to the car.  A fun Day Out with Thomas was had by all!

Grandpa was very proud of his tall block tower!

Parker Carousel Museum

Since we're moving in a week or so, and the Parker Carousel Museum is just a mile from our house, we figured "better late than never" and checked it out on a rainy day last week.  The boys weren't too interested in the museum part but they LOVED the carousel.  It was probably the fastest carousel I've ever been on.  When your hair is blowing back, you know you're on a fast ride.  We met our friends, the Ritchies, there.  Dan and Ben and their best pals, Bennett and John Oliver, had a great time during their three rides.  My favorite was the spinning tea cups.  I'm just relieved that no one lost their breakfast because of my enthusiastic spinning.

Kansas Children's Discovery Center

Now that we're down to our last two weeks in Leavenworth, we're trying to cram in as much fun family time as possible.  Dan's last day of school was last Wednesday and Zach had Friday off, so we trekked to Topeka to have fun at the Kansas Children's Discovery Center.  It's a small children's museum that the boys absolutely love.  My cousin Julie (with baby Jake), my cousin Kelly, and my Aunt Chris met us there.  When we went in the winter, it was too cold to run around outdoors so that was our favorite part this time around.  Hannah didn't seem too impressed by any of it but her older brothers had a blast.

Good things those ropes were strong since he's swinging right over Hannah.