Tag Archives: Traveling

Capturing October: Treat (and the Louisburg Cider Mill)

October 27, 2013 Molly 2 Comments

Some friends told us about the Louisburg Cider Mill last year and I have been wanting to go ever since.

There’s so much fun there for kids.

Lena took 2 trips down. The first she slide off the side and the second time, she slide in to this little girl! Oops! The kids tended to go off the side of this slide. Gus, on the other hand, figured out how to manipulate his weight by leaning to stay on it! I was pretty impressed.

His first hay ride. Do you think he liked it?

Leading us through a corn maze! I think all corn mazes should be renamed maize mazes.

Wild leaps off a pile of straw.

We had the wonderful company of my aunt and uncle. They live very close and we always have a great time with them.

Lena LOVES her Aunt Jenean.

Giant jumping pillow!

And today’s picture for treat. We planned to get some yummy cider treats, but the place was packed! Instead we got Sonic. Reed got to finish Uncle Bob’s Root Beer Float.

Everyday Life, Photography, Project 365

Capturing October: Cozy

October 27, 2013 Molly 1 Comment

We finally kicked Gus out of our bedroom. He is not a good sleeper. He wakes up often. Not totally awake, but just enough that he moves around or talks and wakes us up. I couldn’t do it any more.

He’s now in our guest room. It will be easy enough to set up the pack and play in our room when we have company, and we will get better sleep the rest of the time! On top of that, our guest room is more out of the way in our house, so he’s less likely to wake up from other people moving around in our house. Yay!

We went to Oregon Trail Nature Park today. Aaron and I have been here a couple of times, but we’ve never taken the kids before.

There’s a long hike up, up, up.

And then you get this “lovely” view.

Welcome to Kansas, y’all. We have beautiful sites. Overlooks for our energy plants.

There’s a bench, where you can sit on your brother’s lap.

Then, we went to a little lake to wait for it to get dark enough to capture the stars. Aaron found this area, which is supposed to be one of the best places to see the stars. We planned to camp here for my birthday a few weeks ago but the weather never cooperated.

This sky was beautiful.

Waiting patiently.

It was perfect.

I love the Milky Way. I think it looks like the sky is being ripped apart, but in the most beautiful way.

And then we took our covered wagon home.

Everyday Life, Photography, Project 365

Capturing October: Lazy Day

October 6, 2013 Molly 1 Comment

Normally Sunday is my lazy day. Normally! But, Aaron asked if I’d like to go to the Tallgrass National Preserve. We’d been there once before, but it seemed like a fun place to go with kids and the weather was perfect. So it turned into a not-so lazy day.

Of course, it didn’t occur to either one of us that it was run by the National Park Service and would be closed because of the government shutdown.

Ooops. But, I’m going to count this as my lazy day photo. We didn’t have a lazy day, but this park did.

We had already spent a couple of hours at a playground nearby, so it was not a big deal.

Instead, we took the long way home and enjoyed some beautiful Kansas scenery.

Everyday Life

Labor Day Weekend Fun

September 5, 2013 Molly 6 Comments

We made a quick trip to Colorado for Labor Day weekend, to enjoy the outdoors and for some camping. We did a ton, but here are some of the highlights.

First hike of the trip, with perfect morning mountain weather.

We checked out this big castle. Bishop Castle.

Can you find Reed and Lena?

The castle has some amazing details. This is the third floor, as you can see the huge arch windows in the photos above.

Later on Saturday, we checked out Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Just a tip, wear closed toe shoes and don’t go mid-day. This sand is hot. Don’t repeat our mistakes!

On our way to our campsite, we saw this beautiful double rainbow.

After dinner walks. With a girl who dances to the beat of her own drum and a boy who likes being up high.

The big kids and I stayed up after dark and had some fun with long exposure photos.

Unfortunately, it was a cloudly night, so we didn’t get to enjoy the stars too much.

Here’s my one road trip tip: Building forts in the car. It worked brilliantly, and bought us some quiet time.

Amazing views.

Nest stop: Treasure Falls.

Only Lena and Aaron made it all the way to the upper deck. The boys were a bit too tired to keep hiking up at that point.

Family photo, sitting at the top of a gorge. Making me nervous.

It was pouring rain when we got back to our campsite that night, so we had to cancel our plans for hot dogs and smores over the fire. But apparently, my kids are okay with hotdogs for breakfast.

Can’t wait for our next trip.

Everyday Life

Gus’s First Camping Trip

August 11, 2013 Molly 4 Comments

Gus went on his first mini-camping trip. Reed and Lena were at their grandparents, so they missed out, but we had fun!

Dude just wanted to hang out in the car while we set everything up. For the record, he has a rear facing car seat– he was just checking out the back seats, because he never gets a chance to do that.