Cousin Time!!

I went with Mike to some meetings he had for work in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, and K-Man got to go hang out with his cousins for four whole days!!  I think he thought he was in heaven.  His cousin, Zak, is one of his favorite people in the world.  Here are some pictures from his time in Washington with his cousins.

He won't eat Ritz crackers at home, but if Zak is sharing them with him, he's all about it!

It's so hard being a kid sometimes.  Such a sad face... so why does it make me chuckle to myself?

Zak's frosting/cookie ratio is just about right

So sad!  Maybe he should eat another cookie?

Ahh, there we go.  That's much better!

Frosting face!!

He finally realized how much fun it was to be hanging out with a bunch of kids and decorating cookies

Cousin Zak didn't realize he had his coat on upside-down.  Haha!!

Cousin time!!

He's not used to playing so hard all day long, so by day three he fell asleep on the couch way before his normal nap time.  Sleeping kids are so adorable!

The Magic House - St. Louis's Children's Museum

If you are ever in St. Louis and you have children of any age traveling with you, the Magic House is a MUST.  They have three floors filled with all kinds of cool stuff...

Yeah.  These chairs really were musical.  Every time you sat down, they played music!  With all of us sitting up and down at the same time, we sounded like a symphony.

K-Man checking out the giant chalkboard

Rolling balls

Steering a boat with Dad

Playing in the ball pit

Trying to steal the camera from Mom

Okay, so I know this isn't the best picture, but it was right in the entryway and there were tons of people around and I had to be down on the floor taking the picture up.  But K-Man thought these balloons (which were permanent fixtures) were probably the coolest things in the place.  You can kind of tell that he's saying "Wowwww!" which is one of his favorite things to say right now.

Our little pilgrim children

Cousin Emily pulling the rope to blow the train whistle

Mike thought this would be a funny picture because Amy hates worms

That metal wall is a giant magnet

And that is just a teeny tiny sample of all the cool stuff we did at the Magic House.

Chillaxing with the Fam

Despite all of the fun stuff we did in St. Louis, we still found time to hang out, 

Paint fingernails

Take naps

Eat crayons

Have bathtime and dress up as Princess Aurora

Play games

And hold our sweet little niece, Abby

What an awesome family we have!

St. Louis Sculpture Park

Okay, it's kind of nerdy, but we really went to the sculpture park mostly to see this giant eyeball.  Since Parker is in school for optometry, it only seemed appropriate.  But while we were there, we figured we should check out some of the other sculptures, too.  The park was HUGE and all of the bathrooms were locked, which is another story for another day, but for a four-year-old girl that doesn't bode well.

We had the uneasy feeling that we were being watched

Cousin Emily with the big leaves she found

K-Man cheesing it up for the camera

Uncle Mike and Cousin Emily

Aunt Sarah and K-Man

Do you hear what I hear?

Does it look like a poodle to you?

Our Family Optometrist

Amy's brother, Parker, and his family live in St. Louis where Parker is studying to be an optometrist.  Here he is showing off his skilz:

Checking to see if he can see Amy's LASIK scars

Screening his daughter, Emily

The Farmstead

The day after our visit with K-man's birth mom, we went to a giant pumpkin patch/corn maze called The Farmstead.  It is pretty close to where my parents live, and it was so much fun.  All of the parents thought that we’d be there for an hour or so, but we ended up staying for almost three hours!  There was all kinds of stuff for the kids to do, and once you paid admission, it was all free, which was pretty sweet.  So we rode on the cow train, played in the corn box, did the hay maze, went on a hay ride, navigated the corn maze, jumped on this crazy huge inflatable thing—we think it was called the bouncy pillow or something like that, and K-man and his cousins had a blast getting pulled in the wagon by Papa.  Amy’s mom really loves popcorn so she bought a couple of bags for everyone to share and K-man was all over that.  After Grammy bought the popcorn, K-man pretty much went wherever she went so that he would have the popcorn close by.  It was pretty adorable.

The corn box was pretty fun, although it took a few minutes for K-man to warm up to it

This slide was pretty cool, you basically slid across a bunch of rolling pvc pipes

Waiting to ride the cow train with Grammy, aunts, and cousins

K-man and Amy taking a ride with Perry, our cow

Some cousin love

Some Daddy love

Rocking the pumpkin tetherball

Some Papa love

A farmer, his wife, and an adorable little guy

What's more fun than a giant novelty rocking chair?

K-man wasn't 100% sure about the bouncy pillow

But he has been really into pushing things lately.

Loving him some popcorn with Grammy

Big kid time on the bouncy pillow

Aww, cutest couple ever?  Possibly.

Excited about the hay ride!

Shooting the corn blaster with Daddy

Fascinating flag

A little family pic after the hay ride

Navigating the corn maze with Papa and Daddy