kansas city with the kiddies

4 days, 7 kids, and kansas city... one good ole time!
i live in branson, can you tell?













the trip sounded like a daunting venture -- i wasn't quite sure how it would all pan out, but except for a few dysfunctional-family moments here and there, it was a good trip.

angie ann (the mom) and i took the kids to union station one day where they have all sorts of fun science kind of activities like the dinosaur bone dig that christian's all geared up for here...














...and the magnetic bike thingy that's up way high (this is taylor the neighbor girl who came along on the trip -- i suppose when you have 6 kids, what's one more?!)...












...and of course they saw a REAL dinosaur and posed next to it...




...i don't even remember what all else there was, mostly because i spent the majority of the time with the two little ones in the block area or by the bubble-blowing fire hydrant. we did a lot of strolling around, but not a whole lot of interacting with all the cool experiments.














we also enjoyed the hotel's pool with great gusto, visited the Nelson Atkins Art Museum (i've been there 3 or 4 times, but it was fun to see a Henry Moore exhibit -- i enjoy his sculpture -- the exhibit was just of his mock-ups -- 8-12 inch tall versions of some of his sculptures which are usually about 20 times that size so some of the amazingness was missing, but it was still neat), ate at every restaurant imaginable and visited an anthropologie store, which just so happens to be my favorite store in the enTIRE world!!! i found a couple of cool things on the clearance table -- it's generally an exorbitantly over-priced sort of place, but i just love their style so much. their stores have full-time artists on staff that spend their time designing the theme and the window dressings and creating unique hanging sculptures and it was all so very cool. i wanted to move in...

we stayed right on the plaza and it was so beautiful! i found a fire escape going up a brick building that made me wish i still had a camera. some day i'm going to travel around big cities and photograph the fire escapes. there's something really fascinating about them.


in conclusion, andrew will be coming to live with me. we've decided he actually belongs to me and they do have 5 other kids, so it only makes sense...
:-)
that will be one of the sad things about school starting back up -- i won't miss all 6 of them collectively but i will definitely miss my little buddy andrew.