Kansas Trip

After the recital finally finished, we left for Kansas.  We drove for about 4 hours that night (Sunday, June 7th) and stopped somewhere just outside of Dallas.  The next day was more driving.  We stopped at Braum's in OK for lunch.  The kids must have been okay for the drive because I don't really remember much of it. We got to our Ramada Hotel that we go to every year and just waited around for an hour for Erik's parents to come.  The kids had so much fun on this trip!  The only disappointing thing this time around was that the rules for the water slide in the hotel had changed since last year, so Elisa wasn't allowed to go on it this time, not even as a lap rider.  Here are some pictures from the trip:

At the hotel near Dallas.  The kids LOVE hotels!

Yum yum!

Erik loves it when I take these pictures

So cute! Both of them.

Finally there!

My beautiful kids, waiting patiently for Grandma and Grandpa

Elevator fun!

My Ian-bean, 4 months old here.  Getting bigger!

The awesome hotel pool & slide.  Too bad Elisa couldn't go on the slide

Playing and waiting

My pretty girl, trying to run away from me and grumpy that I wouldn't let her.

Getting bigger and stronger!

Out for dinner at Cracker Barrel

Breakfast time! Ramada serves full & free breakfasts.

And doing what we mostly came up to Kansas for--visiting with (great) Grandpa Raper.  He hadn't been doing so well (I think he might have had a stroke), but I think he is okay now.  It was nice for the kids to see him.  Here are some pictures I took.  My good camera died and I forgot to bring the charger, so there are a lot of grainy iPod ones:

A visit to the train Park (Gage Park).  I didn't go; I stayed in the hotel room and watched the Food Network while Ian napped.  And I also think this was before our visit to see Grandpa Raper, because these were taken with the good camera, oh well.  It looks like the kids had lots of fun!

We went to Rees Fruit Farm, like we do every year.  We sampled some fruit leather, donuts, icecream, and cold apple cider.  Yum! The kids enjoyed looking at the bees and all of the knick-knacks around the store.

And a few more:

Seriously Cute!

Gabe coloring at Boss's BBQ

Hanging out with Grandpa at Red Lobster

Fun with Grandma!

Elisa makes her own fun!

The kids had so much fun.  They loved all the activities, but especially swimming.  Byt their favorite part of all was being with Grandma and Grandpa (and aunt Makayla). All in all it was a great trip! except the part when my Grandpa Thurber died.  So coming up next:  My grandpa Thurber's Funeral.

Elisa's Dance Class

 As soon as we {finally} sold our house in AZ, I went ahead and put Elisa in a dance class!  I've been wanting to put her in dance for awhile.  I found the closest and cheapest (relatively, anyway) dance studio I could find.  It is StarLight Studio and it turned out to be a great place! We made lots of friends and Elisa really enjoyed dancing.  She did a great job, and would have done even better had she not been put on the very end of the row, furthest away from the teacher.  She was sometimes a stinker getting ready for dance class, but that is typical of Elisa.  But she learned so much and loved playing with all of the little girls that class.  We still have playdates with them!
The recital was a big pain.  It was changed to a Sunday, which was annoying because I had to fight with Erik to let her even go. It was also expensive! $60 recital fee; and $100 for two costumes, one which was not worth more than $10).  Mostly, I didn't think that the girls had a solid grasp of the dance routines.  It was like watching a dog herd cats sometimes.  The girls were (are) just so young that they just didn't get it.  I really thought there should have been just one dance.  The girls would have done better and it would have been cheaper. Oh and we could have left the recital earlier.
The Recital itself was a hot mess.  It was over booked.  By that I mean it violated the fire codes.  It was absolutely ridiculous.  Waaaaay too many people for that place.  And it took forever to start because of that--there was a lot of shuffling people around.  And the worse thing? I forgot a piece of Elisa's costume!!  How stupid of me.  In my defense, we were also packing for our trip to Kansas so that we could leave for Kansas right after the recital.  Elisa didn't notice (which was a blessing, that would have been the WORST if she had noticed that she wasn't wearing a yellow tutu and the other girls were!  I guess it wasn't that big of a deal at the end anyway. She danced as well as she's ever danced.  We were very glad to get outta that recital hall though.  Elisa also really liked her dance instructor, Miss. Kim.  Too bad she moved away, so she won't get to teach Elisa dance again.
I have just signed her up for another round of dance, sans recital this time. I think she'll have a great time again!

My cutie all dressed and ready to go to dance!

In the waiting area, there are TV screens so that the moms can watch their kids dance.  You can't see much because its a crappy iPod pic of a TV screen, but you get the idea

Trying on the yellow tutu, which I forgot at the recital. 

GRRRR!  Cute little lioness!!

The girls waiting to go on stage for the practice

Warm-ups for the recital

The dressing "room", post recital

Bravo, Elisa! I'm glad someone bought you flowers, because mommy and daddy sure didn't! (though I almost bought you a ballerina dolly on Amazon--I should have, looking back)

GRRR! More adorable lionesses

After so many stickers, the girls get a big prize! Elisa was so happy with hers.

Group picture

Here are the links to the recital videos.  I think they are funny.  The lion tamer on is hilarious with the bun caught in the hula hoop (aka ring of fire)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGAkpXKQtcY    Cupcake Dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1O5ZEPS1oE  Lion Dance