Memorial Day Weekend

I'm a little late posting this but better late than never, right? Get ready for a photo overload...

We spent the holiday weekend in Kansas City, MO with my parents eating yummy BBQ, taking in a baseball game, and avoiding the rain as best we could. We ran into quite a few hiccups along the way, including Hotels.com not booking my parents' hotel room which meant I got to sleep in a bed with my mom and dad for the first time in 20 years while my husband slept on the floor next to Taylor's pack-n-play. Long story short, we'll never, ever be using their services again. The silver lining was that we all got to spend some extra quality time together, including snuggling in bed watching Micky Mouse Clubhouse.

We started the weekend off with a visit to Crown Center, which meant lots of food and lots of shopping! Taylor was in toy heaven hugging every stuffed animal she could get her hands on at the various toy stores. Her favorite stop was at Crayola, mostly because she was able to get out of her stroller to run around, play a giant game of tic-tac-toe, and do some coloring.

Next, we toured the Hallmark Visitor Center where the tot ran wild through the exhibits and my mom got up close and personal with her favorite character, Maxine. While I was busying chasing and shushing Taylor, Jake was furiously on hold with Hotels.com and my dad repeatedly asked for an ice cream break.

After that, we headed to the aquarium, but when we realized how high ticket prices were at the door, we decided to let the tot play outside near the fountains instead. She was perfectly content people watching, picking up discarded cigarette butts rocks, and running around in the patches of grass. Jake was on the phone the entire time anyway, so I'm glad we saved our $80! After nearly 4 hours of being on the phone with Hotels.com (and discovering that every single hotel room within an 80 mile radius of KC was booked for the night), Jake finally gave up and we headed to the hotel where the 5 of us stayed in a room with one king size bed and ate pizza in the dark while Taylor struggled to fall asleep. It was an interesting night to say the least.

Despite our struggles the day before, we were up early the next morning to hit the breakfast buffet and head to Kauffman Stadium. Even with rain in the forecast all day, we were determined to make Sunday better than Saturday. We made a quick trip to Target to pick up some rain gear (and lots of iced coffee for me) and prepared ourselves for a soggy day at the ball park. When I saw how high up our seats were, I was a bit nervous about holding the tot on my lap but thankfully she did really well! A hot dog, nachos, and a slushy kept her occupied until the 7th inning until I finally had enough apologizing to the guy in front of us for Taylor kicking him in the head and dropping food on his shoulders and we ventured to the kid's area to play. Seriously, Kauffman, add a little leg room, would ya?

A play place, batting cages, and carousel were an extremely happy sight for a one year old who had been sitting still for over an hour. She ran straight to the play area where Jake struggled to maneuver through the sea of kids to keep an eye on her. Eventually, she spotted the carousel and we were able to ride a couple of times before the game ended.

We left the game soggy and hungry but with a Cardinals victory! Our next destination was Johnny's BBQ in Mission, KS for some authentic KC-style ribs, and my-oh-my were they delicious! This chick cleaned her plate and needed approximately 372 wet wipes to get clean.

The next morning we had a late breakfast at Ihop and then made a quick 3 hour trip through Ikea before returning home. We unloaded the car, said goodbye to my parents, and then finally sat down to relax. Mini vacations are fun but they sure are exhausting.

I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing Memorial Day weekend. I'm pretty sure we're still recovering from ours!