Spring Break 2019 – Terry Family Shenanigans

Spring Break was a week earlier than usual this year, and with as much time off in February as we had by the time it came to Spring Break I felt like we had already been having a Spring Break.

Ryan and I talked about doing something further away like maybe Chicago or Gulf Shores. Neither of us got around to planning it though and we had asked our friends the McDonald’s to do something with us. By the time we did get around to planning it we decided to do a long weekend in St Louis with the McDonald’s and spend the rest of the week at home.

Monday was my catch up day. I told the kids that I was going to be checking as much off my to do list as I could then we would have more Spring Break like activities the rest of the week. Monday was actually the first sunny day with temperatures in the 40’s instead of teens so it felt wonderful to be outside. I ‘made’ the kids go to the park for 30 minutes at least. Three hours later I had to drag them home with sun burned faces. After a quick refueling they were back outside playing baseball and riding bikes, playing tag, roller skating, digging in the dirt, and having a great time being outside. It definitely gave us all Spring fever. It was just a teaser though because the rest of the week was cold windy and rainy.

Tuesday was cold and rainy so we decided to go swimming at the Olathe Community Center with the rest of the people in Olathe. Despite the large crowd the kids still had fun. Emilee in particular can’t wait until it is swimming weather again.

Allison picked our activity on Wednesday. A few weeks earlier she had gone to the Johnson County Museum with her girl scout troop. She loved the kids area and has been begging to go back again. We invited our cousins to go with us. The boys stayed behind to play some video games and the girls came with us. They played at the museum until we were all hungry and then we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. We topped the day off with a sleepover.

Johnson County Museum
‘modern art’ toys
Spinning chairs at the museum.

Thursday we played around the house and packed up to get ready to go on our weekend getaway. Friday morning we followed the McDonald’s to St Louis and spent the weekend there. We stopped for lunch and then went to The Arch. We had all seen it before but we had never been in it, or seen the museum with it. It was cool to see the view from the arch. The tiny round 5 person pod that takes you 600+ feet into the air was a little claustrophobic but bearable. After the arch we checked into our hotel and then went to Dave-N-Busters for dinner and to play in the arcade for the evening. Matthew figured out the timing on one of the ticket winning machines so he scored a bunch of tickets for everyone. It almost took longer for then to ‘shop’ with their tickets than it did to play the games. It was a fun night.

Then next morning after breakfast at the hotel (one of the kids favorite things about staying in a hotel) we went to the City Museum. It is an incredible place. It is an old ten story building that they have converted into a giant play area. We went a few years ago and it was a little nerve racking trying to keep track of the kids. They can crawl in a hole and come out in a completely different room. It is almost impossible to keep track of them. They are older now so I was a little less worried. We set a meeting spot and split up to explore. There is caves, and a catacomb area with a ten story slide. There are basically just mazes and places to crawl around all over. There is an outside portion the has tunnels and paths leading all around that is literally attached to the side of the building so you are hanging in the air. Everything is made with recycled material too. It is hard to explain but it is a pretty amazing place. We spent most of the day there exploring. When we were worn out, we ate lunch and then stopped at a well known ice cream place that I can not for the life of me remember the name of now. It was yummy though. We were meeting our long time friends the Schellman’s that night so we had about an hour to kill before we were supposed to meet them. We all decided to stop at the park and play because the weather was pretty nice. After dinner and visiting with the Schellman’s for a few hours we met back up with the McDonald’s at the hotel and the kids all swam for a few hours. The second best part about staying in a hotel. Sunday morning we went to church with the Schellman’s and then drove home. It was a fun weekend. It was nice to get out of town for a few days and enjoy some fun time with family and friends.