Fun yet Educational

Over the past weekend we went to Wichita, KS with my parents. It was sort of a combination vacation trip with the purpose of visiting my grandma. We left late Saturday morning and our first stop was Tulsa. Potty breaks, stretching our legs at a place we like called Garden Ridge, and then lunch at Zio's. YUM! From there we continued toward Kansas stopping once again in the town called Ponca City, Oklahoma. There we visited the Pioneer Woman Monument. My dad had gone there when he was a kid and wanted to take us all. It was neat, but VERY hot!!  Once we left there we were Wichita bound. Arriving in Wichita we went and checked into our hotel and dropped Chris off. He had worked all night (literally) at the church the night before, so he was exhausted and needed some rest. Me, my kids, and my parents all loaded back in the car again and headed to down town to see The Keeper of the Plains. This was really cool and the pictures don't really do it much justice, but we all enjoyed it.  

The next morning after breakfast it was time to head to the Zoo. Everyone had a good time there. We had to leave about half way through to go visit my grandmother and eat lunch, but then we came back to finish the animal tour. I think everyone's favorite part of the zoo was the Silver Back Gorilla, except Poppy. He liked the Fruit Bats in the Rain Forest Exhibit. I have to admit, they were really cool. This day we ate at our Wichita Favorite called Spangles for lunch. And for dinner we ate at Chipotle. Our first time, but we all enjoyed it as well.

The next day before coming home we went back to visit my grandma again and then decided to go to the Kid's Exploration Place.

 It was a hand's on museum that had lots of puzzles to figure out, a place to learn about water current and building dams, wind, a miniature train track exhibit of early day Kansas and a imagination area that looked like a castle for the kids to run around in and dress up in Medieval costumes. From there we were supposed to be coming home, but we were all having so much fun that we decided to extend our trip one more night in Tulsa on the way home. So on Tuesday morning before coming back to Alma we managed to squeeze in a tour of the Blue Bell Creamery in Broken Arrow, the Bass Pro Shop, lunch at Famous Dave's BBQ, and a game of Laser Quest. The creamery was very educational and lots of fun. Not to mention we all got a serving of one of their signature flavor ice creams.  All in all we had a great time. I am so thankful to my parents for taking us along with them. This was a trip that will not soon be forgotten!!