One of my cousins celebrated a wedding last weekend. This brought about a wonderful opportunity to get the family to Kansas and see the family and my friends in one fail swoop, which is rare. We were able to take advantage of the opportunity and got down to Kansas City for a 5-day-weekend trip.
We had a couple of fears, least of which was the planning and packing and all that rigamoroo. We were very concerned about Christopher and Matthew on the airplane, especially Matthew given that he has tubes in his ears. I have to admit, aside from fatigue-based crying and occasional short "fits" and the fact that both boys were up since 3:00 am the day of our departure, the airplane ride to Kansas City and back to Philadelphia were both very successful. Maybe the only snaffu, if you will, was when we were stuck on the tarmack at the Detriot airport, but they were able to fix that without much of an issue. (On a side-note, Matthew was able to catch about an hour or so of sleep (including the first leg of our flight to Kansas City and the drive from KCI to our hotel in Overland Park), and Christopher slept a total of 20-minutes between the KCI and the hotel....he was a complete wreck by the end of the day!)
Once at the hotel, we tried to rest, but were unable so we took a short trip to Lawrence to visit our friend Karen and her family (Nick and Zooey). That was pretty fun, even though both boys were beyond tired. We hung out for a couple of hours, grabbed a quick bite in Lawrence, then headed back to the hotel. The boys got an early night in, and we all able to catch up on some sleep.
The remainder of our trip was basically swimming in the hotel swimming pool with other "events" sort of shoved in between swim times. Karen and Zooey came to our hotel on Thursday morning and swam with us for a little while, joined later by my mom, step-dad, and niece, Isabella. We all cleaned up and went to Winstead's for some old-time burgers and shakes. Then we all separated, and the Kane's went to Baldwin City for my cousin's wedding rehearsal, then Lawrence for the rehearsal dinner. All-in-all, I would say it was a very successful day. Christopher and Matthew were beginning to adjust to, dare I say, "normalcy".
Friday, after lunch with my mother, step-dad, and Isabella, and....you guessed it....swimming, we headed back to Baldwin City for Jamie's wedding. It was a very nice ceremony...and short...the best kind of ceremony. We then headed up to Lawrence for the reception. It was absolutely amazing to see almost everyone in my family....cousins...aunts...uncles...I was excited beyond words to get to see everyone. It almost seemed as if we talked all the time, not just once, maybe twice a year.
Saturday was packing day, but I was able to squeeze in a short visit in the morning with a good friend of mine in Lenexa, get in some swimming (shocker, but this time with Matthew, who would normally be napping during swimming opportunities), quick naps, then off to Lawrence for a cookout with my college "crew" minus 1. Susan had already planned a trip to see another good friend of ours, Mary Ann, in a graduation. We would like to believe they both were there in spirit with us eating and reminiscing. The food and the company was amazing...especially getting to watch our kids play with one another so well. After this was over, we headed back to the hotel to finish packing, and get to sleep for our early flight the following day (thankfully not as early as our initial flight).
We all had a great time in Kansas and are already thinking of when and how we'll plan to get back to see everyone with a bit more time to spend then 5-days. It was tough getting to see all the people we wanted to see, many of whom were left out of this trip due to the time and crazy schedule. Sorry for that. This just means we'll have to try to make it back and make more of a trip about it next time!
