Kansas City

This past weekend John and Anabelle and I traveled to Kansas City to see Marena and Adam. We left Thursday after John got out of work and drove the 8.5 hours straight through. We originally intended to stop half way and stay at a hotel, but Anabelle was being pretty good and John had some extra energy so we kept on driving. Marena and Adam were nice enough to let us in when we arrived at 1:30 in the morning. We all crawled into bed, exhausted!

The next morning we woke up and spent some time hanging out with our great friends. They have a beautiful yard, that Anabelle loved running around in.

Wherever Anabelle went, the doggies Stella and Jasper weren't far behind.

Rock climbing, toddler style.

Friday evening we went to a baseball game. The Cubs were in town playing the Royals, so of course we had to go cheer them on. Anabelle like the game, but especially liked sitting on Aunt Marena's lap. Poor Marena, she's such a good sport, 6 months pregnant and having a toddler climb all over her. She is the best!

The boys had a great time catching up.

Unfortunately Anabelle decided to clap only for the Royals, clearly she doesn't know that her Daddy is a die hard Cubs fan.

The boys did a lot of this while at the game.

Anabelle had a great time!

Love this picture, our only one of all of us from the weekend, too bad Anabelle decided to be pouty-oh well!

I kinda dropped the ball on taking pictures the rest of the weekend, I guess I was busy having too much fun! Saturday we got to meet up with some other Kansas City friends who just had a new baby girl. So fun to see them! Saturday night we had a great dinner out and then went to a jazz festival. It was a fun kid friendly activity.

Sunday morning came way too early, and before we knew we were packing up the car and heading home. Luckily I am going to see Marena again in August, so that made the "good-byes" a little easier. We had such a great time on our visit and as always, love our time spent with Adam and Marena. Lots of laughing and catching up and fun times!

The Martin's

Just a few pics from last week that I had hanging around my blog picture file....

John and Anabelle on Father's Day

I really look short when we take pictures like this, maybe I need to be up on someone's shoulders too?

We had a lovely date night in Chicago where we went to see Steve Martin and Martin Short perform together. It was a pretty funny show!

Walking around in Daddy's shoes.

We just got back from a fun, long weekend in Kansas City visiting Marena and Adam. Check back in a day or two, and I should have some pictures from the trip up.

How to diaper a baby

John's Birthday!

Wow, I don't know where last week went, it seems like just yesterday was my last post, but it's been quite a few days- sorry about that. We have been busy here with re-decorating projects, shopping, cleaning, party throwing, bar-b-qing and theater going. But we'll get to all that in some future posts, I still need to post my last few pictures from our vacation in Houston.

While in Houston, John had his 32nd birthday. We celebrated with dinner and cake-yum!

Cousins

Dominick with a very cool new 'do, and some mean tats. His remarks when asked about his hair... "I just wanna be in a band."

Mary and Dominick

The Birthday Boy

Anabelle gets in the party spirit.

Giana loves to party

Blow out the candles

Is it time to eat the cake yet?

YUM!!

Time for The Chicken Dance

Anabelle likes Daddy's card, it plays The Chicken Dance

Taylor and Anabelle

High-5

Mike gets decorated with leis

Anabelle had so much fun, but now she is ready for a rest.

Girl talk

Happy Birthday John!!!

For the birds

While in Houston we usually try to make it to one of our favorite restaurants, Ceder Landing. Located right on Lake Houston, it is a nice place to sit outside and enjoy the breeze and the view. They specialize in seafood, but thankfully have other tasty things as well. John wanted to go for the All You Can Eat Catfish-yuck! Anabelle and I wanted to go for the ducks. The restaurant gives out bags of popcorn for you to feed the ducks and birds. Grandma tried to show her how to do it, but Anabelle was more interested in eating the popcorn herself!

Hot fun in the summertime

While in Houston we looked into some activities that were kid friendly and decided to try out the Hermann Park Conservancy. It is a huge park that has train rides, fountains, playgrounds, an outdoor theater, a zoo next door, and many other attractions. We started our visit with a train ride, to get the lay of the land.

All aboard!

The train ride was fun! While on the train we spotted some fountains, being in the upper 90s we decided a run through the water sounded pretty good. Always a fan of fountains, Anabelle was ready to play!

Even doggies like to play in the water!

Soon it was time to head back to the car.

Just a few minutes away from Hermann Park, in the heart of downtown Houston, is Discovery Green.(a park similar to Chicago's Millennium Park) They also have fountains, so we decided to try them out as well. I think Anabelle liked these a little more that the Hermann Park ones. The water level kept varying in height, which kept her guessing when she'd get wet.

Being one of the hottest days of the summer so far, the fountain was crowded with lots of kids, it was fun to watch them all having fun! Definitely two fun parks to check out if you are ever in Houston.