Kansas City

I have been working A LOT lately....and when I'm not working Justin is working to make up for the time's that I have been. So needless to say we were both very stressed out and in much need of a getaway. Neither one of us had ever been to Kansas City other than to fly through so we decided that it would be a nice little road trip. I discovered that there are a ton of things to do with kids in Kansas City so we set off on Friday afternoon to spend some time up there. Katelyn was so excited about spending the night in a hotel that she didn't sleep at all on the way there. She has stayed in a hotel before but for some reason she thought that it was sooooo cool! On Saturday morning we went to the Hallmark home office and went to the Kaleidoscope art studio. This is an awesome thing for kids and it's free! Basically you get an hour to make whatever arts and crafts your kid wants to make and as many as they want to make. There were party hats, crowns, bookmarks, puzzles, painting stations, boxes, books, etc. Of course, Katelyn loved the painting and she did a really good job. Mom and dad thought that the puzzle making was really cool too and even got to make Katelyn one.

Afterwards, we went to the Crayola store and the Hallmark store. Then we went to T-Rex which is one of the coolest restaraunts I have ever been to. We have wanted to take her to a Rainforest Cafe for some time but this was definitely the next best thing. The whole restaraunt is decorated with life size dinosaurs. The one right inside the entrance scarred her a bit but the Build-a-dinasaur definitely made up for it. Afterwards, we went to Cabela's and Bass Pro Shop since th rain cancelled our trip to the zoo. Katelyn wasn't too thrilled with all the sharping a.k.a. shopping so we decided to find something that she would really enjoy before making the trip back home. We found a place called Paradise Park which is really one of the neatest places for kids that we have seen. Similar theory as Chuck E. Cheese but not totally centered around arcade games. There was a ball pit (just so those of you who know me well don't freak out...the balls were cleaned at least once a day but a really cool ball cleaning machine. The kids would through the balls into the bullseye and it would suck them into the cleaning machine and then spit them out!) with tunnels and slides, a block building room, a cooking station, an art room, an outdoor playground, a face painting station, a water room, a tv room, a puppet stage, a pretend room equipped with a real bank vault and grocery store register, a foam ball fight room, indoor bumper cars, etc. It was awesome for both Katelyn and us. It was also the perfect way to end a great trip to KC.

On a side note. We have been put on the waiting list at Schmeiding Developmental Center. They say that we will get an appointment time in 6-8 months to have Katelyn tested for Asperger's syndrome. She is continuing to have a lot of emotional trouble at school and home. In the meantime we will be seeing a behavioral therapist. Please pray that she is able to work through these issues...