1st Family Vacation

We took our first "official" family vacation last week. It was fun to travel somewhere as a family and do things on our own time/pace. It was also Nolan's first trip out of the state of Iowa. We went to Liberty, MI and Kansas City. Here is a run down of our vacation...we had a blast! Get ready for a long post and a LOT of pictures!

*   Monday (June 24th)
 Nolan loves trains and we bought a Groupon to go on the Boone Scenic Valley Tour Railroad. We thought this would be a good start to our vacation since we weren't leaving for Liberty until Tuesday. Well it stormed really bad that morning and was pouring down rain while we drove to Boone. (We weren't even sure if they were going to operate the train. ) Luckily for us, the rain stopped just as we got there and the sun came out. Needless to say, we enjoyed the train ride...although it didn't need to be quite 2 HOURS long and I wouldn't really call it scenic. We pretty much were in the woods the whole time, except for the time going above the water on the bridge....that was a bit intense.

Waiting for the train

Enjoying the ride!

Our scenic tour

* Tuesday (June 25th)
We left for Liberty around 12:30pm.We wanted to drive while Nolan would take a nap and it worked out perfectly. He woke up just as we were about 10 minutes away from our hotel. We checked in, got settled in our room, and then went swimming. The hotel we stayed at had a little "waterpark" and was not quite intense like Great Wolf Lodge. We wanted something that was more for toddlers and a bit smaller. This was perfect! Part of the pool was 1ft deep with a boat slide, buckets of water that pour into the pool, and little water spouts. There was also a big slide that went outside the hotel and back into the big part of the pool.

Ready to go!

Sleeping on the way

Boat slide for the little kids

Buckets of water that pour into the pool

Checking out the pool

Having fun at the pool

Done swimming and off to Texas Roadhouse for dinner!

* Wednesday (June 26th)
We went to the Deanna Rose Farmstead that my cousin Joanne suggested to us. It was awesome and also free! There were tons of different farm animals, playgrounds, old shops/stores, fishing areas, teepees, and little tractors to ride on. The place with huge and very clean. I would suggest anyone with little kids should go here for a trip. We also went to Fritz's Train Restaurant for lunch with Billy and then to Legoland afterwards. We had so much fun!

Checking out the cows

Sitting on a saddle after watching a cow get milked

"Hi cow!"

Feeding a baby goat a bottle of milk

Tractor ride

Snack break on these huge wooden swings...they were everywhere!

Nolan got a John Deer tractor

Riding a duck at the playground

The train went around and brought the food to your table

Train Conductor Nolan

Watching the food come down.

Billy joined us for lunch! Nolan putting the hat on Billy...

Nolan putting the hat on himself..

And smiling!

Legoland ride where you shoot lazers at Lego people....he loved it! I think we rode it 8 times!

Seeing how legos are made...they start out as little plastic balls.

Building a choo-choo...they had all sorts of lego play areas.

Emerald City

Wizard of Oz- Munchkin Land

Giant Legos.Jimmy built a bridge for Nolan to go under.

And also a GIANT chair

*Thursday (June 27th)
We went to the Sea Life Aquarium in the morning. There were lots of different fish and sharks. Nolan got a little hammerhead shark stuffed animal as a souviner. We then went to the Crayola store and Nolan enjoyed coloring on an art eisel. In the afternoon, we went to Union Station (which is beautiful) and saw Monsters University on a giant screen. The movie was very cute!

Giant Stingrays you could touch

Making circles at the Crayola Store

Ready for Monsters University

Ready for college!

Sleeping so soundly! (His pack-n-play was literally right next to our king bed and he always went to sleep without whining or crying. We even had the tv and light on while we played cards! Such a great sleeper!

Friday (June 28th)
We went to Worlds of Fun that day and took Nolan to Snoopy's World inside. (At first we were unsure if he would be tall enough to ride the rides since one had to be 36" to go on most of them in Snoopy's World. Although he measured 36" at his 2 year old appointment in March, we think he is just shy of that.) We had an employee measure him at the front gate and he got a wrist band saying he was 36"-score! We also snuck in some food in his stroller because apparently you can't bring in your own food and they search your bags. We had a blast that day, followed by dinner at T-Rex cafe.

He wanted to ride on the bench...

Then finally decided to ride a horse!

Sitting with Snoopy

One of the rides that gave you a tour of Snoopy's World

Going on a racecar ride that whips you fast around the corner

Shooting balls with air guns

Truck ride

Camp bus ride...as you can see there was barely anyone at the park so we never had to wait for lines! It was perfect!

Meeting Snoopy

Meeting Charlie Brown....they also do a show that we watched

Nolan's favorite ride- a mini roller-coaster. I think we went on it at least 12 times.

This is how our Worlds of Fun trip ended...he fell asleep on the carousel riding a horse

Eating at T-Rex Cafe

Of course we had to buy a T-Rex...they also had Build-A-Dino you could do.

We had a great time and would recommend this trip to anyone with little kids!