How to Vaycay in KC

We know how to party in this family. 

We had wednesday-sunday to spend with Aaron, and even though our gulf shores plans were squashed, we didn't let that stop us from vacationing closer to home! 

We kicked off Willy Week with a movie on Tuesday night.  Madagasgar 3 was the movie of choice and I will say that it wasn't awful, but the temperature in the theatre was.  Don't be fooled by Q's hoodie (I don't know why she had that thing on) it was like 105* outside, humid and disgusting. The A/C in the theatre was only working at half power (which they told us as we headed into the movie.  I wasn't about to say "sorry kids, your mom is too hot to sit in this theatre" and crush their fun evening, so we stuck it out and left the place pretty sweaty.  The Bella Vista movie theatre is a joke and really needs to be made into a dollar theatre.  It was totally worth it just to hear Corbin sing "Afro Circus" and "I like to Move it Move it" (sounds like "mood-it mood-it" when he says it. So cute!) all week long.  The other bonus was that it was $1.50 soda and popcorn night, so we saved a little on that. I brought a bag of skittles and a bag of colored mini marshmallows with me and added it to the popcorn so the kids could have "circus" popcorn. Big hit, I tell ya.    

The movie got out just in time for the Bella Vista fireworks show (perfect timing for us that they do fireworks a day early, since we were headed out of town the next day) We headed to the lake armed with lawn chairs, a bag of fruit, cheetos, tiny American flags and some glow sticks for the kids to wave around. We parked the car, got out, and the fireworks started within 2 mintues. It scared the crap out of Corbin and he climbed back into the car and tried to buckle his carseat. Bella Vista put on a great show.  The girls and I ended up snuggling on a blanket, and Corbin watched comfortably from the security of the van on Aaron's lap in the front seat.  

 The next morning, we headed up Kansas City and checked in to Great Wolf Lodge.

 We hit the pools immediately and spent the entire day there swimming, sliding, splashing and floating. That place is fantastic. It was relaxing, non crowded, and perfect for all ages.  Loved it!

 Everyone showered up after a day of total awesomeness and we headed to dinner at TRex.
WOW.  I'd never heard of this place, but it came highly recommended and did not dissapoint.  It's sort of like a Rainforest Cafe, but 100x better.  The food was SO good and there was a TON of it. We easily could have all shared one entre and been full.  We lucked out that it was Wednesday, so the kids ate for $2, AND they brought us a free appetizer when they saw us wearing Great Wolf Lodge armbracelets.

 Everything in that place moves and is interactive.  We ate in a clamshell below a giant squid and enormous tropical fish tank.  The girls liked that the black light in the tank made everything glow.

 These guys were behind us, they moved and roared duing dinner.

Upstairs is a giant ice cave. the "ice" walls glow and change colors every few minutes.  There is a huge wolly mammoth in the middle of the stairs and a volcano flows lava into a fire room below.

 This is the head of the huge TRex that goes through the center of the restaurant.  His head is at the entrance and when you open the door it opens it's 2 ft mouth open and roars right at you and scares everyone to death, myself included. I think I peed a little.  The girls were caught off gaurd and were afraid to go inside until Aaron stuck his hand in it's mouth to prove that it wasn't real. 

 It's probably the coolest restaurant I have ever been in, and I'm not even a kid. They loved everything and we could have spent hours there.  The food was delicious, too.

 It's hard to tell from my pictures, but the inside was better than a disneyland ride as far as decorations go.  Who wouldn't want to eat under a giant glowing jellyfish? Cool stuff.

The next morning, we went to breakfast at the resort restaurant.  The tables were set up like little tents and the kids loved that it felt like we were camping.

We had 30 minutes to kill before the "wolf walk" and the clock tower show in the lobby at the lodge. (the animals on the walls come to "life" and sing and do an obnoxious little show. This place knows how to keep kids entertained. The characters also have cookies and read bedtime stories at night.)

 We hit up the arcade while we waited.

Look, a basketball game!  Aaron's vacation was officially complete.  He loves these games.

I call this photo: "How to raise a redneck."

We spent the rest of the day at the indoor water park, again.  The kids' favorites were the waterfall in the lazy river, the giant snake in the basketball pool, and the big red slide.  What a great place.  We easily could have spent an entire week there and not gotten bored.
Because of all the contractions/pain I'd experienced on Monday night, we decided to just play our vacation one day at a time.  I felt pretty great when it was time for our check out from Great Wolf Lodge, so we decided to stay a second night in Kansas City, and booked a night at a nearby Days Inn.

We went to dinner at Fritz's Train Cafe. 
Corbin LOVED this place.  They gave all of the kids conductor hats and there are train tracks suspended from the ceiling all over the restaurant.   

You order your food from your table over the phone. Yes, kids, that giant thing with a cord is a telephone.

Then, the real fun begins. Your food is brought to you via train on those overhead tracks!  There is a little pitstop with a railroad crossing light and sign above each table, and when yours lights up, you know your order is on it's way.  The train drops the cargo basket of food onto a tray below and it mechanically lowers itself down to your table.  This is one restaurant that gets better the more crowded it is, because you can watch everyone's orders being delivered.

Reese kept thinking of more things to order (ranch, ketchup, more fries, a milkshake...) I think she just wanted more excuses for the train to come, but the food was super cheap and we were still hungry (what is it about swimming that makes you feel like you are starving?) so we humored her requests. Corbin shouted, "here it comes!" every time he heard the train whistle and head out on another delivery.  Fun restaurant, fun memories.

Since we ran out of time, energy, and room in our bellies the night before when we went to TRex, we left without exploring the children's play area, or getting dessert.  It isn't a habit for us to order dessert when we dine out, but TRex had a particularly awesome dessert that we'd heard about and wanted to try.  The kids kept asking to go back to the "Dinosaur place" all day (seriously, they asked at breakfast, lunch, and dinnertime) so after dinner at Fritz's, Aaron surprised all of us and took us back to TRex for dessert and some playtime.  
Reese and Quincy are really into their rock/gem collections right now, and after sluicing at Casa de Fruita in Ca, they knew right away that they wanted to sluice at TRex also. There is a huge section of the restaurant designed just for the kids to play and learn.  They chose a fossil bag and sluiced for snail and leaf fossil prints and got a couple of minerals/gemstones as well.

They have a series of caves set up that you can walk through and learn about geodes, stalagtites and stalagmites, minerals, gems, and fossils.  They have displays in the caves for each of the treasures that can be found in the sluice bags and the kids can hunt for each one and learn about them.  Fun and educational!  I bought a geode to use later for an object lesson for an upcoming FHE where we will follow up on some of our family school year theme lessons.
The kids used brushes to dig up dinosaur bones in a sand pit while we waited for our table to be ready.

Ahhh dessert.  We ordered the Chocolate Extinction, a plate of fudgy brownie layered chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream with chocolate, caramel and butterfinger topping, all with a dry ice "volcano" erupting in the middle of it. The presentation did not disappoint. We sat under a roaring dinosaur and a fiery volcano that shot red, blue, orange, yellow, purple, and green "flames" up toward the ceiling while we ate.  Yum.

Look at my littles all snuggled together in bed.  I love them so much.  Corbin climbed into his pack n play at the foot of the bed and everyone slept perfectly. 

Ok, that's all I have energy to blog about tonight, but stay tuned for the rest of our KC adventures!