Fourth Fun {KS style}

During the 4th of July week we spent a few days in Kansas!

We went to my Dad's house and got to see my brother and his family. We took a few family pictures, went to a BBQ and swim party, watched fireworks, set off our own fireworks and went to the waterpark. Evy even said her 1st words there...Dada. It was a lot of fun packed into a few days!

Family selfie at the waterpark

Always up for a snack!

The kids weren't tall enough for the bigger slides, but Kolter loved this one and went down it approximately 12,893,567 times. Sawyer and Nora loved the lazy river (which they are not very lazy in) and the wave pool.

Snack break

Setting off some smoke bombs, parachutes, firecrackers and snappers

My perpetual sparkler with a sparkler

Searching the skies for a parachute...in their pj's

On July 5th the boys headed to Smith Center. Sawyer and Kolter stayed at the farm and the timing was perfect because it was harvest and everyone loves a combine ride! Kyle dropped them off and headed to CO with his high school buddies for a week of fishing!

The girls spent another day in KS visiting Papa and Tache. Then we headed back to OK for a week of girly fun.

Farm Fun

After our time in KC we drove to SC for a little farm fun with cousins! It's a special kind of crazy when the Schenk cousins are together!

Nolan with a pitch fork...only a little scary

Helping Mama water the garden

Sweet cousins...they have a lot of boys in their life so it's so fun to see their relationship grow!

But these 2...Sawyer's 1st friend and forever family...no matter how much time or distance separate them they will always be friends. It's crazy how a bond they formed when they were tiny persists even though they rarely see each other!

Evy into everything, but also getting Daddy and Nolan snuggles

During our short visit we saw cousins, ate lots of food including Mema's homemade ice cream, rode tractors, watered the garden and did a little bit of relaxing.

Tractor lounging #farmergirl #inflipflops

And of course what's a farm visit without a tractor ride?

Raise them Royal

Our 1st night in KC we went to a Royals game! Kyle LOVES the Royals and we thought it would be a fun family activity! We got great seats for a steal. We also chose a hotel very close to the ballpark. It ended up being the perfect spot because we were able to shuttle to the game...which means we didn't have to pay for parking or make the long trek from the car to the stadium with all 4 kids.

Waiting on the shuttle bus and excited for the game!

All ready for the game to begin! It was a little warm at the beginning but it was a night game so it cooled off into a perfect evening very quickly!

Daddy with his girls

We had seats about 10 rows back on 1st base.

Could he be any cuter?

Schenk boys

We kept the kids entertained with lots of snacks. The beginning of the game was pretty slow and honestly the Royals weren't doing very well. So, I let Kyle and Evy watch the game while I took the big three to the outfield to see the impressive fountains and visit the kids area.

In the 5th inning we let them pick out a ballpark snack...snow cones for the win. At this point the game started to get interesting as the Royals started to rally with a couple of runs but they were still down.

So, what do you do when you're team is rallying...you get loud...this is Kolter's version of cheering for your team.

The girls

It was almost 11 pm and the kids were pretty much done, but the Royals continued to rally so we couldn't leave...

And in the bottom of the 9th needing 2 runs Moose hits a walk off home run to win the game. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day! Just watch Kyle's reaction in the video below!

Schenks in KC

We knew we wanted to get away this summer and have our first family of 6 vacation...but lets be real, traveling with 4 littles 7 and under is not the easiest task. So, we decided to keep it pretty low key...short drives, low expense (since we didn't know how the excursions would go we didn't want to invest a lot of money only to have to leave after an hour), flexibility and low expectations ;)

I'm happy to report it was the most fun, laid back vacation we've ever had as a family!

On Tuesday we made the 5 hour drive to KC. Our 1st stop was Kaleidoscope at Crown Center. It was a free activity space filled with craft/art supplies. I knew when I saw this online it would be a perfect treat for our craft loving Nora and it did not disappoint (the boys loved it too...truth be told Mama loved it as well ;)! Everyone had fun creating, painting, drawing, etc!

After finishing at Crown Center it was the perfect time to check into our hotel. After a day of travel what's the 1st thing you do when you arrive at the hotel? Crawl into the freshly made bed (at least that's what the Schenk kids do!

After a little downtime and dinner in the room we headed to a Royals game...you'll have to check back tomorrow to see those pictures as they deserve their own post!

After a late night at the baseball game we took it easy Wednesday morning. Once we were all ready we hit up Donutology for some custom made donuts.

PB lover, maple bacon and chocolate with M&M's

We spent the afternoon at Deanna Rose Children's Farm. It was the perfect stop for our crew...farm animals, very inexpensive, lots of room to roam and perfect weather!

Learning how to milk a cow

My little sunflowers

For this trip I tried to find one activity for each child that I knew they would LOVE. Nora's was Kaleidoscope and Sawyer's was a mining session at the farm. He was so excited!

Kolter and Nora bravely rode a horse.

Then they continued their bravery by touching fishing worms ;)

After petting the animals, riding horses, fishing, playing on the playground, visiting a one room school house, riding the wagon and learning how to milk a cow we were all spent! We headed back to the hotel for a quick nap. That evening we went swimming at the hotel...because what's a vacation without a dip in the hotel pool. Mom & Dad even had a cannonball contest ;)

The next morning we got up and headed out on a tour of the KS grandparents house, but more to come on that in another post. I'll leave you with these images of Sawyer learning a game I use to play with my grandparents when I was little!