Home Sweet Home

I know that I haven't posted in a few days, and I should be ashamed of myself. We did end up going to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City. The kids had the best time there. Ethan rode his first REAL roller coaster with me. It was one that went upside down. He was so excited to ride it and planned on riding every single roller coaster there. Emily wasn't tall enough to ride most of the rides because you had to be 44" tall. She doesn't quite make that mark yet. As Ethan and I were on the roller coaster, Emily was down below with Daddy and was crying her eyes out. I found out after we got off that she had a very difficult time watching me and Ethan on that ride. It scared the heck out of her that she was watching us go upside down on a roller coaster. She told me that she was worried that we weren't secured in there good enough and that we would fall out. She was REALLY upset about it and just kept hugging me when I got off of the ride. I felt so bad for her. Ethan, who was gung ho about riding roller coasters, ended up not wanting to ride anymore after that first one. He tensed up really bad on the ride and was leaning forward and he said that it made his back not feel good. We still had a great time and the kids rode lots of other rides. There was one funny thing that happened. When we went to get on the carousel, the ride operator put the measuring stick against Emily. I was shocked to see that you had to even be 44" to ride the carousel. I usually ride the carousel horses along with the kids, but I couldn't on this ride. The operator said as we were getting on, "since she is a small child, you will have to stand next to her the entire time." This made Emily get so upset. She shouted, "I AM NOT a small child!!!!" This became our little nickname for her the rest of the trip. After doing several rides, we went to the children's area called Camp Snoopy. The kids thought this was the most awesome place. They even got to get their picture taken with Snoopy and Linus. Another favorite thing at Worlds of Fun was the ride called The Viking Voyager. I told them that that ride was there even when I was a little girl. We ended up going on one more roller coaster. It was called the Spinning Dragons and even Emily got on it. She wanted to ride it so bad, but she was still scared. She was crying as we were boarding the little car thing. I kept telling her that she didn't have to ride, but she wanted to and just kept crying. It ended up causing a problem and held up the ride. The operator wouldn't let us go until Emily either stopped crying or got off of the ride. I tried to convince her to get off, but she said she wanted to ride and she had to work to dry her tears before they would start. She squeezed my arm the entire time, but ended up loving the ride. Worlds of Fun was so much fun for all of us.

After leaving there, we went back to Uncle David and Aunt Vickie's house. Gram had cooked a pot of spaghetti and we all enjoyed dinner together. On Friday, we spent the day with Gram and went to the mall. Gram enjoyed showing us around and the kids got to ride another carousel in the mall as well as do this bungee jump thing on trampolines. They loved it. We all ended up eating dinner at my aunt and uncle's house again and this time my cousins and their families came over, too. It was a very nice evening and it was finished off with the kids hunting down more lightening bugs.

We left Kansas City on Saturday morning. Our original plans were going to take us home by way of Branson, MO. We had tickets to Silver Dollar City there and were going to enjoy that for a day before finishing our trip home. We had to adjust our plans, though, when Ethan got very homesick again. We talked to the kids and told them that we could head straight home if they wanted to. We didn't have to stop in Branson. Emily was really wanting to stop there, but she was okay with heading home, too. She saw how homesick Ethan was getting and she agreed to head home. She did ask me question, though, about Silver Dollar City and she was just wanting to make sure that she wasn't going to miss much. I played it down a lot because I didn't want her to get upset about not going. So as we left KC on Saturday morning, we drove as far as we could get. We got a hotel just a little North of Jackson, MS. We finished the drive today and it wasn't a bad one at all.

Overall, we put about 3,900 miles on the car in two weeks. We went through eleven states if you count Alabama. We created memories that will last a lifetime and had a wonderful time together as a family. We experienced so many things together and will be able to talk about them for years to come. I was amazed at how well the kids did on the trip. The only difficult day on the road we had with them was the very first day when we were driving to Houston. Aside from that, they were perfect angels. We made lots of stops and enjoyed the sights as we went along. Emily also took that opportunity to study her U.S. map and she learned almost all of the capitals for each state. It became a game for us to quiz each other while we were driving down the road. She loved every second of it!!! They also learned what it means for a city to be a capital city. We talked about how that is where each state's government is located and Emily became very interested in it. She was even impressing many of our family members with her knowledge of the capitals. Ethan didn't want to be left out of the mix either, but he wanted to work on some math quizzes instead of capitals. We ended up getting paper and doing lots of math problems for him to do. I think both of the kids were in competition with each other and was trying to outdo the other one. They were doing math problems like adding digits in the hundreds. Ethan even learned how to "carry over" if the number ended up being larger than 10. It was definitely an educational two weeks for all of us because of learning about the different things from our travels as well as the quizzes the kids did.

We made it home later this afternoon and it felt so good to get here. We have had the time of our lives, but there is nothing quite like coming home. Too bad my house was just as dirty and cluttered as when I left. Ha-ha! I guess that is what happens when you are rushing through and packing like a mad person right before the trip. And I can't end my post without saying how much I appreciated my mom and dad for taking care of our pets while we were away and for holding down the fort. I also have to say a big thank you to Grandma Burks, Tracy and Ray, Uncle David and Aunt Vickie, and to Gram for showing us so much hospitality along the way. It was very nice reconnecting with all of the family again.