Vacation 2008

Our vacation this year was not exactly what I had planned it to be. We had actually planned on going to the beach again for another week of sitting on the beach, reading, frollicking in the waves and general laziness. But due to some family situations we ended up going to Kansas. Why Ks. you ask, because that is where all of Alan's family lives. Just so we're clear, no sand, no beach, no frollicking.
But all in all it was fine, minus the drive. The extremely long drive. The kids got to see their cousins they haven't seen in 5 years and we caught up with some old friends.

So let me explain the pictures. As some of you may know there's not a whole lot to do in Ks. Hence some of Alan's childhood stories that disturb us all.

We spent time with the cousins, which are the kids in the photos with my kids. We also went to the number one attraction called Big Brutus. Big Brutus is the largest or was the largest mining shovel in Ks. It's such a popular attraction we were the only ones there that day, oh I take that back, on our way out a small group of "mentally challenged" people showed up to take in the spectacle. I'm not kidding.

We also went to the Precious Moments Chapel. They are alot more popular in the midwest, trust me on this one. It is a really neat place though. Especially if you love Precious Moments enough and you can never find the right t-shirt to express it.

We also took in the George Washington Carver museum. Wow, who knew you could do so much with peanuts! We got to make peanut milk with the local park ranger, again we were the only ones there. We were later joined by what I think are homeschoolers, not sure though.

Oh, last but not least we visited the Baxter Springs Mining Museum. Alan's grandfather had big part in establishing this place. So if you're ever in Ks. and need some site seeing suggestions just let us know.