Kansas Vacation 2013: Overview

Last month we went on a fun family vacation to Kansas. It was Mon Amour's Grandad's 85th Birthday Weekend, and much of the family was getting together to celebrate all weekend long.  My posts about this vacation will probably be all over the place, but please excuse the flighty nature of these posts. Hopefully the cute pictures will compensate for the randomness. 

The weekend was well planned. Grandad had sent out an agenda so everyone knew what was expected. When traveling with little ones, clear expectations about when and where you need to be places is amazingly helpful! Kudos to Grandad for the agenda! 

The agenda included many tasty restaurant meals. Hibou enjoyed the crackers.
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Mon Amour's Dad and Grandad, waiting for lunch.
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Papillon, excited to learn that almost every restaurant has Mac N Cheese on the menu.
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Between scheduled events, there was lots of time to hang out with family at Grandad's house.
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One of the best parts of the weekend was how much Grandad (or Great Grandad in this case) and Papillon bonded over feeding the birds. They did it every day, generally twice a day. Papillon learned that the seeds were for the birds, and the corn was for the deer. She was very serious about her "duties"
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Beautiful weather, fun family and exciting board games!
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Cook out!
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Hibou spent the entire weekend slightly sleep deprived, so she took many opportunities to snuggle. Aunt S. had just the right touch.
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Papillon and her "cousins" (Mon Amour's cousins' kids) was another of my favorite parts of the weekend, they became such good friends. They are all a little bit older and so Papillon basically worshiped them, and they did a great job including her in their playing.
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Hibou, chillin' with her Grandad.
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And sleepin' wherever she could!
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Lots of sleepin' on Momma. Thank heavens for the Ergo!
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Saturday's agenda included a little yard work. Which, when you own 80 acres in the middle of nowhere Kansas, involves a huge bonfire! 
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The girls were highly entertained.
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Someone has to supervise! 
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And while they weren't supervising, there was a fun fountain full of water and rocks to play with.
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This was shortly before she face-planted out of the Adirondack chair and ended up with a scrape that marked her forehead for the rest of the weekend.  Poor Hibou. Wobbly babies and Adirondack chairs on a hill are not a good combination.
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Papillon (and Hibou, too) enjoyed playing with Packer, Aunt J's very exuberant dog! This picture was taken right before a pack rat ran out of the bonfire (I guess it got too hot) and Packer (appropriately named) pounced on it. The pack rat met an untimely end and Papillon was confused by what had happened. Ahh, the circle of life.
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More bonfire!
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(this is out of order, obviously) Papillon actually got the distinct privileged of being the one to actually light the fire. With the help of Grandad and Great Grandad, of course. She was quite pleased with herself for the rest of the day for what she had started.
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More Papillon and her cousins!
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All this fun was delightful but exhausting. Papillon fought naps hard, but once she was out, she was out!
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