AJR Concert

 Sam took the kids to see AJR in Kansas City. 

We were lucky to get a table right away at Joe’s Kansas City BBQ. Downtown Kansas City was very, very busy (probably in large part due to the concert).

Amelie was very impressed with the opener, Dean Lewis. Sam thought his earnestness and looks were a lot like Riley’s imaginary boyfriend in “In and Out.”

Amelie and James were very excited in our seats before the show.

AJR said that when they first played Kansas City, it was to a venue that only held 900 people. They said that over 10,000 people had showed up that night at the T-Mobile Center.

Amelie was very happy when AJR started playing.

James held the camera and took our selfie before the concert.

Here's the link from the AJR concert back in 2022. 

Haircut

Leah got her very first professional haircut ever, at the ripe old age of 7. We went to the hairdresser that does Grandma Doris's hair each week. I think she was afraid to trim too much off of it :)

 

Ms. Sinda has curly hair, too! 

Leah looks a little unsure of the process. Have you ever stood up while the hairdresser sat in the chair?

I think James was feeling left out because Amelie & I got our hair cut, too (and Grandma Doris!) so he got an not-very-noticeable trim along with Leah.

Easter 2024

I realized I never posted these! We usually spend Easter with Sam's folks & this was the first Easter in their new house in town!

One kid's haul: 

There was an attempt at at grandparent-cousin photo!

The hunt!

Amelie didn't want to get matching dresses this year so I just let Leah go to JC Penney & pick something out - she gets so many hand-me-downs this is a pretty rare occurrence! The draw with the one she ended up picking was the hat, for sure, and also that it's orange-adjacent.

Here's the link to 2023: https://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2023/04/easter.html

Oh, and we dyed eggs too: 

Leah ate her allotted 3 & the rest of us had some, but I forgot about them & the dog ended up getting several when I cleaned out the fridge. He was a fan! 

Eclipse (& STL mini trip)

After the awesomeness that was the total solar eclipse in 2017, I  already knew that we'd want to travel to the next total eclipse in Missouri on April 8, 2024. School was cancelled for the day & I took off work. Sam had to go observe court & Columbia wasn't right in the path this time, so I vowed to take the kids by myself. Up until the last minute practically it looked like it was going to rain or at least be cloudy, but then the forecast started to improve. My first thought was to drive down to Jackson, MO, which was right on the line of totality, and then the hotel situation became dire - every single thing was booked anywhere close, and those that weren't were $500 & up a night - or $100 to camp in a field with no facilities. So I got a hotel in Fenton, MO, which is 56 miles North of Ste. Genevieve, where there's a national park & festivities with a good spot for viewing. 

The day before, we drove to St. Louis after church & took in the Science Center & got a hotel with a pool - this might have been the highlight of the trip for the kids, I think. We also got to eat out several times, which they also like! Ha! We met some cool people from Wisconsin also down for the eclipse - the hotel was PACKED. There was an indoor pool & a hot tub & an outdoor pool (even though it was April! And cold! The kids braved the outdoor pool but I just hopped in and right back out & then got in the hot tub. The morning of, James & Leah & I got up & had breakfast & let Amelie sleep in a bit. They were clamoring to get back in the pool, but it didn't open until 9am. I relented & said they could swim for one hour. So we were down there by the door waiting until it opened at 9 & the kids from Wisconsin came back. They were having such a good time, I let them swim 15 minutes more & then everyone was remarkably unhelpful getting the room packed back up, so we didn't pull out of the hotel parking lot until 10:45am. (Totality in Ste. Gen was going to start at 2pm.)  I'd planned on taking 61 down & avoiding the interstate, but was foiled by the GPS & it was the worst, most atrocious traffic I'd ever seen in my life. Bumper to bumper, lots of standstills. Mistakes were made! It took us 3 hours and 15 minutes to get 37 miles south of Fenton, at which point I gave up & just pulled off on the side of the road - along with many other folks in the same boat! I sure hope the cool people from Wisconsin didn't miss it! It felt like the entire Midwest turned out for the eclipse. The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect, with a completely clear sky. 

The kids were able to put on their glasses & watch the path of the eclipse out of the van windows & they thought it was super cool. We passed a hospital with a crowd - including doctors in white coats - out in the parking lot with their eclipse glasses on. We passed a road crew working, too, and hoped they were able to get some glasses & take a break every now and then to look up to see it. (& also wondered why MODOT in their infinite wisdom didn't cancel the road crews for the day!) During the last stretch, when traffic finally cleared up & we were on highway 61, I think the driver of the car in front of us was trying to watch the eclipse while driving because they kept swerving all over the place. At 1:55pm the kids were going nuts & I gave up & pulled over so we could all watch together. We saw the sliver of sun getting smaller & smaller & the sky got dark & the weather noticeably cooled off. We just got a second of totality & saw the diamond ring (obviously not my picture, but this is exactly what it looked like): 

I brought the colander so we could  track the progress, too, but the kids were not as impressed with it as I was (also not my picture! ha! but it really did this): 

In fact, the only photos I got at all were at the science center the day before. One of the main displays was all about games & here the kids are playing the first computer game: 

There was a part where you could see X-rays (& all of the X-rays showed horribly broken bones!) 

There was one game where you put on a sensor & played with your mind. It showed your brainwaves up on a screen above & the ball moved toward the person with the most activity, so the calmest/most Zen person won & Leah was the absolute master at it.

Here is Amelie doing a puzzle: 

And they all went in the hurricane simulator. The girls were impressed that the wind was so fierce at one point it blew James's hair straight. 

I always like the bridge that goes over the highway where you can use the speed gun on the cars driving past. This is $23 worth of snacks. 

I also really liked this microscope! We looked at the samples they had & also the fibers of my shirt. 

We ended up just pulling a U-turn & driving back after the totality passed & we had watched a few more minutes. We stopped at Panera in Arnold to eat lunch & watched some more in the parking lot there. Traffic was heavy but normal for a holiday weekend on the way home (I think only because we didn't hang around afterward! Our friends who made it a little farther & stayed a little longer were stuck in terrible standstill traffic on the way home, too - not getting back to Boonville til 11:30pm.) We got back to Columbia at 5:50pm. I was totally beat & Sam apologized about the horrid traffic, but I thought it was totally worth it & super awesome to see the eclipse. 

The next one I'm likely to catch is in 2045!

Reading to Herself

Usually, Leah likes to be read to at night before bed, but sometimes recently she’s asked to just read to herself. This book is Falling Up, poems by Shel Silverstein. 

She likes the gross funny ones the best.

Branson, and Van

The kids had a 4-day weekend & we booked a mini-trip to Branson, taking advantage of the off-season hotel rates. It was cold! 

We stayed at the Grand Country Resort & took advantage of the indoor waterpark. When I asked Leah what her favorite part was, she said the bunk beds: 

They were a little flummoxed with the TV with no streaming. 

Amelie took her book to the pool: 

Leah was big enough to go down most of the slides! (With a grownup!) 

There's Sam in the wave pool: 

There was a giant bucket of water that would overturn - a bell would ring giving the kids a warning so they could run over there and stand under the bucket.

Do you see James? 

Leah in the wave pool (when it was being a regular pool): 

There was also a not-too-hot tub that kids could get in and more things that I am forgetting. I didn't take many photos at all! We also played mini-golf in a fun blacklight course - Leah got 2 holes-in-one! 

And we did go-karts and ate pizza and the kids had ice cream at nearly every meal (including breakfast). 

We very nearly didn't go - and we missed the whole first day - because there was weather on the drive down south of Jefferson City & we got in a car accident & had to be rescued by the state highway patrol. Here is Leah waiting on the side of the road - absolutely every flake of  this snow was melted later in the afternoon. 

It was all very exciting. There was a question about whether all 5 of us would fit in the tow truck. 

Here's $8,000 worth of damage to the van - we drifted into the barrier when trying to stop to avoid the pileup up in front of us (you see the semi off the road in the photo above). 

So we bought a new van - a hybrid / electric Pacifica that we had to drive down to Sedalia to get. 

Here's Sam figuring out how to charge it: