Oh, Give Me a Home

Where the buffalo roam...

We actually did see buffalo.

But they weren't roaming. They were penned up at a farm.

Well, you guessed it. We were in Kansas last week.

They have some pretty big crickets and grasshoppers out there.

That's way bigger than we grow them out west!

You might be wondering why we picked the Mid West as our vacation destination. Were we drawn by the amber waves of grain? The skies that are not cloudy all day? Or maybe we are storm hunters just hoping to be lifted off to Oz? Well, if you thought any of those things you would be wrong.

The real story is that Bill's mom's family is from Kansas and we went out so they could meet Judah.

Specifically, so his Great-grandma could meet him. This lucky little dude has 2 great-grandmas. When I was born I only had two grandmas. Period. He has a whole gaggle of family to ooh and aah over him.

That's four generations right there. Crazy, no?

Even the smaller cousins were all about Judah. Piper (pictured) was completely enamored with him. She kept wanting to hold him and hug him and touch him and just watch him. The holding was pretty funny, since she had maybe 2lbs on him. Maybe.

During our vacation we mostly just hung out with family and carted Judah around to various activities.

Like a little cousin's soccer game.

And a little cousin's football game.

He got a bit sleepy with all the games so we snuggled up for the duration.

We visited the town Bill's mom grew up in (and where her mom has lived her entire life). This is their town church (which happens to be where Bill's parents got married. In December. In a blizzard.)

It was a really good looking church. It is crazy how large and nice it is being that it is in a tiny ass town in the middle of Kansas.

Judah gabbed quite a bit while we were there. I think he enjoyed the echo.

Who doesn't enjoy a blue ceiling? No one. That's who.

Judah is barely tolerating us at this point.

We also spent a couple of days in Kansas City.

Which I had no clue that it was in both Missouri and Kansas. It is partially separated by the Missouri River, but mostly by State Line Road. I was pleasantly surprised with Kansas City. It was much nicer than I was anticipating  There are actually a lot of (deciduous) trees and tons of fountains. We spent one day at the zoo and another one walking around the Plaza (a shopping area).

It was a nice trip and I am now able to put faces to all the names I hear. Judah did better than expected. We were able to keep his bed time the same (6pm Pacific Time, 8pm Kansas Time), but his naps were totally haphazard if they even happened at all. He was a champ though. He did well on the flight there, but was a bit cranky on the flight back. I'm not sure if his ears were bugging him (mine were killing me and I wasn't congested or anything). It might have just been because he was tired (from the lack of naps and we had to wake his ass up early to catch out flight). Still, he was a rock-star.

Sadly, now he is awake and I have no idea why. He shouldn't be up for another 3 hours at least. Bill is up in the nursery rocking him and singing Bob Marley, but that doesn't seem to be doing the trick. So, peace out. I need to go get that kid back to sleep.