Aaron had to work this morning, but I wanted to do SOMETHING today. It was a bit warmer and a good day to go somewhere. I love Kansas for its wide open spaces and general tranquility, but it does seem to lack tourist attractions. Unless you want to visit the Agriculture Hall of Fame, the World’s Largest Ball of Twine, or the Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States.

I settled on the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, a bit of a drive, but we’ve never been there before and it has both bison and elk. Aaron and I have seen both in the wild several times at various National Parks, but our kids haven’t. In fact, the only National Park they’ve been to so far is our trip to Great Sand Dunes back in August. We probably should fix that soon.

The start of our trip. Reed told me that he wants a camera like mine. I explained that it’s something that could easily be broken or damaged by little hands. But, he can start learning and handed him the camera manual.

This quickly happened. Gus took the best nap he’s taken since he moved to a big boy bed. Score!

Unfortunately, we missed out on the tours, as it was so late in the day. We could see both a herd of bison and a heard of Elk in the distance.

We decided to drive around, hoping that we’d see something. And we spotted these guys.

We drove around a bit more, and unfortunately, the only additional wildlife we saw was some geese.

On our long drive home, we stopped for some Barbecue. It was on my bucket list of things that we needed to do with Andrei. Have I told you that Gus is in this adorable phase where he comes up to me often and says “I want a hug, please”? He’s started doing it with Lena, too.

He just presses his little body into hers. And, I love her reaction.