End of February Miscellaneous

 

Two's Day! Was Tuesday 2-22-22

Wednesday night we meet for our small group, so many kids in one space, lol. This isn't even all of them. There's our 4 plus two other families with 3 and two other families with 2 and one couple with 1. So when we are all present that's a LOTTA noise. By the grace of God we are able to meet in the other room for a short period of time to get some adult talk in about the previous weeks sermon. My kids love getting together with them and while it's utter chaos and absolutely crazy it's what makes life fun. 

Here's a pic from early in the month that Emma's teacher sent me when she got the leader award. 

Sunday February 27th I volunteered at our downtown YMCA's indoor triathlon. I counted laps for the first half the heats. Super fun to be there and help out. 

I got home in time for church, so we all did that. Then went home for Thomas to nap and squeezed in a trip to Exploration place in before they closed. The Floor is Lava exhibit closes before the museum so we went straight there and our kids were the last ones to get to go through it. They had to wait in line and since Thomas is too small to do it, I stayed with them cuz I hadn't seen it yet and Kyle took Thomas to explore the museum together. 

 

The museum work was handing out these when the kids completed the course, he only had one left and gave it to me to decided which of the three of mine would get it. I said we'd give it to baby brother since he's too little to do it and he missed out all together. Perfect plan! 

Monday we started back another session of swimming (February 28th was the first day but it'll run through March). I had signed up Isaac but then he decided he wanted to do basketball which was the same evenings. Thankfully they let me cancel him and gave us a refund so he's doing that which started March 2nd. Slow season is gone, back to activities. Swimming, baseball, baseball is starting soon, and Thomas and Emma are doing soccer starting after spring break. 

WOOHOO I'm caught up! 

February 18-21 Minnesota House Hunting Trip

 I wrote about the exciting week leading up to this weekend and the winter weather we had, Kyle making it home just in time to hop in the car and drive ten hours up north. After I taught my 6am Muscle Pump class on Friday we loaded up, took Harpo to his pet resort and headed up to Minneapolis. 

Battling more winter weather, the trip from Wichita to Kansas City was PRETTY intense. Saw a wreck almost happen two cars behind us as a semi jack-knifed, numerous cars off the road. But we safely arrived in KC, stopped for lunch and a quick autuzone trip to put new wipers on the van. Then the rest of the way was clear roads and easier sailing. Well that was until northerner Iowa when the wind was horrific! Thought we were going to hit a storm (photo below on right) but it ended up just being really bad wind the whole way into Minneapolis. We arrive about dinner time, got checked into the hotel and I met up with a few friends at a nearby restaurant. It felt SO good to visit, I hadn't had a conversation like that in over two years. Very warm to my heart. Kyle was super dad and got the kids food to eat at Jersey Mikes then went back to the hotel to swim so I could visit with friends. 

 

We made it!

Saturday we saw four homes. This was one of them and also the one we went back to see on Sunday (spoiler alert it has since gone under contract) The market right now is crazy. The first house we saw had just come on the market that day and by lunch time our realtor said they had an offer. We weren't interested and that house was a little discouraging as to what this kind of money can buy now-a-days. We gladly passed. The second home renewed hope in this price bracket as to what we could potentially get. 

We had a lovely lunch with more friends who invited us into their home and fed us. Again SO good to visit and it was as if we never left. Love friends - well basically family that we can feel that way with. 

That evening we had dinner at our spot: World Street Kitchen capturing a peek at the spoon and cherry on thew ay with a beautiful sunset. Went back to the hotel for some evening swimming time. 

The next morning I got to hit my favorite yoga spot! Which felt AMAZING! I haven't been able to find hot yoga like Modo in Wichita and I sure did miss it. First time having to sweat in a mask but totally worth it. 

Back at the hotel we had breakfast and then got loaded up to go see another house. We had one new one and then were going back to see one from Saturday again. Few things that were fun, this bookshelf opened up to a secret room. And we loved the copper hammered sinks!

Brain was exhausted from viewing houses, so we took it easy that afternoon, drove around a little looking at areas on our way back to the hotel. Oh yes we did stop and see another. There was a new build, you never know from the new construction listings if the house is built or not even started. We don't have the timeline for a new build but when we pulled up to this lot the house was almost finished. We were able to reach out to our realtor again and he met us there to show us the inside of the place. So a total of 7 house viewings - 6 houses. That one was also nice because as we stepped out of the van we were immediately greeted by two dads chatting in a driveway who appeared very happy to see a van full of kids potentially looking. Turns out the house was a room smaller than we wanted. 

Above: Swimming and Thomas doing his lego prize that was in his state line bag. 

Monday we had our hotel breakfast and headed out. I had a 9:30 leaders meeting call I needed to be on so we wanted to be on the road for that. While unsuceful in the house hunt it was productive to be in the area again and drive around various neighborhoods. 

On the way up and the way down we listened to the Encanto soundtrack no less than ten times, lol! Def a favorite of the time right now. 

Made it to Kansas City where we stopped to stretch our legs while Kyle took a work call in the van. Then we had dinner and headed home. 

 

Third week of February

Monday (Valentines Day) Kyle had to fly out of town for a work thing in Florida! Lucky... although he didn't get to enjoy the sights since this work thing kept him in a room with no windows most of the daylight hours. He was set to come home Thursday morning, in time for the kids' conferences and so I could teach my weekly Thursday night yoga class.  

We made jello Knox blocks for valentines day, cut them with a heart cookie cutter like my mom used to always do for Valentines Day. Oh and before Kyle left he had to take a home test and send it to his boss to verify he was covid free! LOL. 

 

Kyle's valentines day view:

Throughout the week I prepped for our upcoming Minnesota trip. We had another long weekend coming up, kids were off school Friday for conference week and Monday for Presidents day so we had a house hunting trip planned for Minneapolis. I made state line bags again for the kids with snacks in bags that they could open when we passed a state line. Fun way to keep a long trip from getting too boring. 

Wednesday came and a snow storm in the forecast... but at the time it was a gorgeous day and the kids were even outside playing baseball the weather was SO nice, 70s I think. 

then that evening, they cancelled school for THURSDAY! And then Kyle's flight was cancelled NO! Luckily we had a heads up. No bad weather but talk of it. I reached out to my supervisor because if I didn't have someone to watch the kids I wouldn't be able to teach. I did reach out to our sitter and had her on back up. But when the time came I had my supervisor cancel my class, weather was bad I knew no one would be there most likely and I would have to pay my sitter way over what I'd get paid for the class, so not worth it. 

Kyle was able to get on another flight but not until evening so instead of arriving at 10am as planned he got home about 10:30pm. Frustrating since we were planning our drive to Minnesota the next day. 

Little snow play on a snow day. Oh and the kids conferences were cancelled because of school being called off. We did have Isaac's still but the girls were postponed. 

 

Breakfast for dinner, pigs in a blanket. 

 

Kyle is almost home! A big sucky thing about Wichita is that it's impossible to fly out of. On his trip there he had to fly to Chicago first then Florida. On his flight home he had a layover in Atlanta. 

Emma lost a top tooth on Thursday! And here's a pic of her watching a movie she protested about, haha. Doesn't seem to be complaining much now. We got a new mini-golf course for the VR this week Shangra-La and the hard level had floating lanterns. I suggested we watch Tangled because of the part where she see's the lights. Emma insisted we watch something else and threw quite the fit.... but then she was so into it she gave up her time on the VR. Since the VR (virtual reality) is only one person at a time we tend to take turns and make it about one or two times through everyone before the battery dies. We've really enjoyed this mini-golf game as a family. It has a lot of fun courses, hidden balls to find, and a fox hunt to earn new putters. 

 

That conlcudes up to mid-February. YAH getting caught up as I write this on March 6th. Next up will be our trip to Minnesota (spoiler alert we don't find a house). Then hopefully will be up-to-date before our spring break at the end of this week. 

Toothless girls:

Oh and I'll sign off with this little bundle of joy.. haha. Need a break from blogging. Phew!

February 13 : Strataca - Salt Mine Tour

 As we prepare to depart the great state of Kansas we want to get in all the things we had wanted to do. There are these salt mines about 45 minutes outside of the city (In Hutchinson, Kansas) We hadn't been able to go at the start of our Kansas living because children have to be four or older to go underground. Thomas has been four, for half a year so we were well in the time frame. 

We bought our tickets for Sunday afternoon. Left church a tad early to go home, let Harpo out, then make it there in time for our reservation. 

There was a little museum area while we waited to go in. I really knew nothing about this until going there. Crazy how far DOWN you go into the earth! It was super fun!

We made our way into this little room with everyone else in our 1:00 time slot. We watched a video talking about safety in the salt mine, then got our hard hats on and ready to board the holt (fancy word for elevator) Masks were only required in the holt since we were all packed into a little space. 

When we got down to the space it was a big OPEN space, not like a cave you think of. The walls, ceiling floor was all salt. 

 

At this point we were just allowed to explore the large museum. Our tickets included a train ride and a dark tour. After learning so many cool things about salt and the mine we made our way toward the train ride. BTW all this salt is salt used for roads (obviously not Kansas given the week before last, haha)

The train ride took us through the mine, stopping along the way at six different spots to teach us about what it used to be like down there when this area was a working mine. It currently is a working mine, but not where this museum is. The mine would look like a waffle from up above because of the columns holding up the ceiling. 

This is an area that had the ceiling collapse 

Back in the 50s when they worked the mine they never took their trash with them. It was more expensive to take it with than to leave it. So now, for this museum it was like a time capsule. So much trash that all shares a story of history. 

Even a toilet. 

After the train, we got on a tram and did another tour in a different part of the mine. 

This one taught us more about the salt structure itself. 

Once things come down to the mine they don't leave. Here's a super old tractor. 

Then we got to take a pit stop and collect a salt rock as a souvenir 

After the rides we finished up the museum part where we learned about all the things from Holly wood stored here in the mine (in another area of course) but since it's temperature controlled they keep lots of things down here. 

It was a super cool experience and we all learned so much! Highly recommend if you're ever in Kansas!