Kansas City: City of Fountains, Monarchs, and Royals

Negro League Baseball Museum. Museum President, Bob Kendricks took our picture here.

The kids loved the exhibit with the 'life-size' players the best.

I had the 'Pork-Pulled (open face)'; wife had the 'Chicken-Half'; and kids shared the 'Turkey'. Awesome!

Union Station, Kansas City - including Planetarium, Science City, Railroad Experience, Art Exhibit (The Art of the Chopper), and lots of nice FREE stuff (of which we took full advantage).

Fire Fighter exhibit - lots of 'retired' fire fighting equipment

Irish-American Museum

Old Freight Bridge

Ceiling of interior of Union Station

Old trains.

World War I Monument and Museum

JC Nichols Fountain (at Mill Creek Park)

Kansas City Performing Arts Center (you had to be there to really capture the view).

Power and Light District near the Sprint Center (Kemper Arena)

Enjoying the room and Rebecca (our American Girl doll)

Building Legos (thank you, Steve and Barb!)

Kauffman Stadium (Royals vs. Red Sox)

Red Sox fan decided he could help a young Red Sox kid (we didn't tell him that it was just his coach-pitch team this year.)

Tired. No nap today. (Before the game ... I think)

Obviously beautiful fountains.

Especially when in full action.

The camera works well. The big guy and I took a walk to left field. The girls were still in our seats in the shade by first base.

He's all confused. KC hat. Sox shirt. Neither Gonzalez nor Ortiz played. Bummer.

She DID wake up - and enjoy some of the game - with her popcorn :)

Nice seats near first base in the shade.

Francouer signed his extension the day we were at the game.

And 'The Laser Show' did play, too.

Nice trip to KC. On to Iowa!

Fort Collins and Denver ... recap in pictures

Denver and KC

South Dakota was obviously a lot of fun - as you could tell from the pictures, I'm sure. We REALLY enjoyed the different natural landscapes that we drove through in the Badlands, up to Mount Rushmore, and down through Custer State Park and Wind Cave Park. The cave was a bit treachorous for me (since I forgot to duck a couple times), but the entire family loved going 20 stories under ground! And seeing the buffalo and donkeys up close in Custer State Park certainly brightened the faces of my two kids.

We spent Sunday in Fort Collins and are so thankful to have family there that were so hospitable. It was also a blessing to be able to go to Denver on Monday to enjoy more time with more family and go with EVERYONE to a Rockies game. (Of course, my daughter will tell you that SHE told Giambi to hit the walk-off home run ... and THEN HE DID!) Loved the time there. Bought some tires at The Tire Store (Highly recommend Greg Lopez's store for quality/friendliness!), and drove through some foot hills.

Unfortunately, there was a bit of a change to the trip on Tuesday. Early in the morning, my Grandma had a stroke. No, she wasn't traveling with us. She was with my aunts in Estes Park. Thankfully, the medical teams got her to Swedish Hospital in Englewood very quickly and gave her a drug that helped get her basically back to baseline (or 'normal') pretty quickly. Blessed. Blessed that she was with someone. Blessed that she could get to Swedish so quickly. Blessed that we were in town to be with her as well. Thank God! ... and God bless YOU Grandma! Hope to have you home in Wisconsin soon.

We actually stayed with some friends in Englewood on Tuesday night and got up to drive to KC on Wednesday. Kansas is boring. But we got to KC, and our hotel has a bunch of water to enjoy. So we're doing that on Thursday. We'll try to hit a few KC highlights - Negro League Baseball Museum, Arthur Bryant's, Arabia Steamboat Museum, JC Nichols Fountain, Mill Creek Park, and Union Station, to mention a few.

... and pictures WILL hopefully follow. We were MUCH too busy having fun in Denver to take many ... so you'll have to live with what I put on later for Kansas City and beyond :)

Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, and Wind Cave