I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore

The second weekend in August, we took 10 days off to drive to Kansas/Missouri to spend time with family and friends.  We got to Mark and Wendy's house super late that Friday night to see my side of the family.  We of course had lots of Chinese food like fried noodles and dim sum while we were there.

We got the four wheelers out for the kids.  Uncle Ryan got to ride too!

We made bracelets and I was an utter failure and never did finish one but the boys made several that looked good.

Maybe we got into Grandma's make-up...

And maybe Uncle Ryan and Aunt Rachel brought suckers that turned the kids' mouths colors:

We also had fun playing games (Apples to Apples...love it!) and checking out Mark and Wendy's super nice gym, HealthRidge Fitness.  Wendy convinced me to try to the steam room after my workout as I'd never been in one before.  It really took my breath away when I first got in there but I got used to it quickly and then felt pretty good.  It's nice because you get so warmed up you can do some deep stretching...which is helpful for me because I am extremely inflexible.  

For the next stop we turned the Batmobile towards Branson to visit Ryan's Nanaw and Grandad.  Boy did they have a full few days planned for us!  We showed up to Nanaw's home cooking and now thanks to her I have a new addiction to coconut cream pie.

The first night we were there they took us to the Pierce Arrow Theater, which featured great live singing and comedy.

The next day we drove around to see where some of Ryan's cousins work, including the College of the Ozarks, which is beautiful, and the Northwood's Candy Emporium at The Landing.  Here Ryan is trying chocolate covered bacon (YUM!) and I am chowing down on a sea salted chocolate caramel:

Later that night we got to meet Ryan's Aunt Kay, Uncle Gary, and cousins for dinner at the Rib Crib.  And then we got to go to Uncle Gary's for homemade ice cream!

And then all too soon we left the next morning to drive back to Kansas City to see Ryan's immediate family.  We had a great first few days of our trip and it all seemed to go by so quickly.  I will post next about the second half of our trip.