Heading home, with a stop at Lego Land

We woke up on the 27th excited to head back home after being on the road over the Holidays for more than a week.
We took our time enjoying our hotel before leaving. We loved this hotel! We slept in until about 8, then got ready to swim. The pool was warm, so we didn't want to get out.

Having a blast in the pool. (Even Noah wanted to keep swimming!) 

Alas, we had to be drug out of the pool kicking & screaming (well, almost). But, that meant to got to have some breakfast! All of the food was delicious. They even had a mini-waffle maker!

We didn't get a very early start - we left Conway about 10:30am. Mom & Dad said we'd probably drive until we got tired, stop at a hotel for the night then get all the way home tomorrow.

Shortly before we got to Kansas City, Mom & Dad asked if we wanted to stop at LegoLand Discovery Center. Hannah wanted to stop but Noah just wanted to get home so we could play with his own legos. After some debate, we decided that it might be our only chance - we don't know when (or if) we'll be back in Kansas City for fun, so we'll stop and check out LegoLand Discovery Center.

Before we got into LegoLand, we enjoyed the fun holiday display in the downtown area.

The big Christmas Tree in Crown Center in Kansas City

Lunar Lander

Apparently the soldiers have a guard shack in downtown Kansas City

Checking out the train.

That's a big nutcracker.

We were very excited to enjoy LegoLand!

Ready to check out LegoLand!

The first thing they did was take our picture.

Our family photo as the bricks fell on us at LegoLand.

Then we got to go into the "Lego making factory" (it was truly just a pretend factory) & see a Master Builder at work. He had some really cool stuff.

The Master Builder's office

Choosing the plastic granules to create a yellow Lego

Checking out the "Lego Making Factory"

After the factory, there was a really cool ride. Noah was afraid to take it, so Mom & Hannah rode the ride. They said it was fun - shooting spiders & saving the princess.

After the ride, we went into a special display of Lego Star Wars stuff.

A couple of droids wanted their pictures taken with us

The displays were all so cool!

The next room was a room with a whole bunch of buildings set up to look like Kansas City. There was the downtown area, some churches, the Chief's stadium and even the Kansas City speedway (where we got to race each other).

Three race cars actually raced around this track. We competed to see who could go the fastest.

The Royal's lego stadium was also a pinball game.

They also built Oz.

Hannah couldn't resist finding the cake.

Since it was Christmas, they had the trees decorated very nicely. Daddy loved the ornaments.

Then they had a big play area where we could build a gingerbread house, get a snack, play in a big maze, build a machine to compete with others in races and other contests, explore the Lego Friends house, ride another ride and take  class with a Master Builder.

The faster we pedaled, the higher our glider went

Since we were on a short timeline, we didn't get a chance to explore the Lego Racing area or take a class (or two) from the Master Builder. It would have been fun, though!

It was a very nice break to stretch our legs before we got going.

We stopped to eat just outside Kansas City and Daddy and Mommy told us that they'd try as hard as they could to get us home. We said we could sleep in the car if they could drive us home that night. It was hard to get comfortable in the car, but after a movie, we got comfy and fell asleep shortly before we got to Des Moines.

They said it was a long drive, but they stayed up until 3 o'clock keeping each other awake as they drove.

When we got home, they shoveled the driveway (at 3am) and brought us into the house. We were so tired, they let us sleep in our clothes.

We were so happy to be home! Merry Christmas to us.
Noah & Hannah

The day after Christmas

The day after Christmas, we had to move out of our hotel room. Someone else had already booked our room before Mom & dad had booked our room, so after breakfast and swimming, we packed up and left our hotel.
We had to run a few errands around town then headed to Grandma & Grandpa's for dinner. We weren't able to stay all day because we had to check into our new hotel in the afternoon and had plans to visit Angela (Dad's sister) that night at her place.
We had a nice time hanging out at Grandma & Grandpa's once more before heading back to town.

Our new hotel was awesome!
The tree in the lobby was very pretty.

Our room had a nice living room, big bathroom and a bedroom with a door, so we could go to bed while Mom & Dad made travel plans for the next day. The hotel had a lending library (so we could borrow books, if we were staying longer) and the pool was nice & warm.

It was really nice to see Angela, Michelle and Alex.
Of course, we had to take some pictures with Daddy's whole family together before we opened gifts and went to Subway for supper. It made Grandpa & Grandma really happy to have their family together.

Cousin hug!

Grandma & Grandpa with Angela's family

Daddy with his sister and parents

Grandma & Grandpa with all their Grandkids

Our family with Grandpa & Grandma

We also got one picture of 3 generations of Perkins men.

3 generations. Grandpa, Dad and Noah. 

After supper, we had to say good-bye. We were set to leave first thing the very next morning. It was nice to see family but we were ready to get home!!

We were almost too excited to sleep, but we knew we had to get some rest. It would be a long drive, but we were ready to be home!

Noah & Hannah

Christmas Day

We woke up to the lights on the hooks where our stockings were hung Christmas morning.

Hannah was very excited to look into her stocking!

Fun stuff in the stocking on Christmas morning!

Noah was excited to look into his stocking, but he was more excited about the little wrapped box next to his stocking.

Lego Minecraft, The Nethers. Just what Noah wanted from Santa!

Hannah asked Santa for an iPad and a teddy bear. Although Mom & Dad warned her that Santa probably won't get her an iPad (especially when she had gotten a Kindle for her birthday), she was still disappointed to get just a teddy bear until Daddy pointed out how soft & cuddly her new friend was.

The new teddy bear wasn't exactly what she wanted, but Hannah loves her and named her Noelle.

After breakfast and a swim (in a COLD pool and lukewarm hot tub), we headed out to Grandma & Grandpa's house for Christmas.

We got to open gifts (and got some fun things from Grandma & Grandpa), had Christmas dinner with Grandpa, Grandma and Noah &Hannah's cousin Michael.

After talking with Grandma for a while, Noah & Hannah decided to go out and check out the horses.

Hannah was very comfortable petting the horse and walked up next to daddy to pet Grandma's horse.

Petting Chet.

Then Noah & Hannah each got to ride the horse.

Riding Chet with Grandma's assistance

Grandma leading Chet with Noah on his back

Riding the horse was fun, though Hannah said it was really weird to ride the horse without a saddle since she'd only ridden little ponies and had always had a saddle.

The rest of the day was just hanging out with Grandma & Grandma. Grandma enjoyed getting to talk to Noah & Hannah since we don't see her often, and Grandpa enjoyed getting to chat with Daddy since they don't see each other often.

We had a long, fun Christmas day, but it was a Merry Christmas.

Noah &Hannah

Christmas Eve

We left our house Tuesday morning. The day before Christmas Eve. The goal is to be in Arkansas Christmas Eve so we can spend Christmas with Grandpa & Grandma.

It was a really long drive. We stopped a few times to break it up. We stopped at the bank to deposit our Christmas money in Burnsville, then again to use the bathroom in Iowa. We were on our way to Pizza Ranch to meet some of Daddy's family. Daddy's uncle Don, Aunt Virginia, Aunt Susan, cousin Ruth and her family and cousin Sarah and her family. We got there about 1:00 and had some yummy pizza! Mommy & Daddy enjoyed getting to see aunts, uncle & cousins (though, they were disappointed some of dad's cousins got sick and couldn't join us). We had fun seeing cousins KIDS! Noah and Carson chatted like old friends, and Hannah got to hang out with Lauren & Kennedy since they got to know each other when Dad's cousin lived in Minnesota.

After a long break to eat, we got back on the road. We were very happy to get to our hotel in Kansas City. We stayed at the Embassy Suites. It was awesome! Every room in the hotel looked over a courtyard in the middle of the hotel, and every elevator had glass on the outside so you could see the courtyard getting smaller and smaller as you went up. We were super bummed that the pool was closed, but by the time we ate supper and checked out our room, it was bedtime.

Noah outside our room door on the 6th floor, overlooking the courtyard in the middle of the hotel.

We went to bed in the bedroom while Mom & Dad watched TV in the living room.

We woke up on Christmas Eve morning to have a delicious breakfast at the hotel. They made eggs to order, had bacon, eggs, cereal, juice, fruit, yogurt - all sorts of delicious things! After breakfast, we got to swim in the pool and check out the hot tub.

Enjoying the pool at the Embassy Suites in Kansas City.

Hannah LOVED the pool, though Noah was ready to get on the road.

We took a few pictures at the hotel. They had a nice fountain, trees and plants all over. 

The Christmas decorations were beautiful at the Embassy Suites!

We threw some coins in the fountains and each made a wish.

There were a few big ornaments hidden in the gardens at the hotel.

With her cup of lemonade, ready to hit the road.

It was another long day on the road. We drove all day, and checked into our hotel at 4:30. The hotel had a nice tree up, and fresh cookies and milk waiting for us. Our room was nice, though Mom & Dad were very disappointed the 2-room suite didn't have 2 rooms.

We didn't have time to get comfortable because Daddy had made plans to have Christmas Eve dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's. So, we drove about a half hour to Grandma & Grandpa's place. We were there when we were just over a year, but we don't remember it.

We got to see Grandma, Grandpa and our cousin Michael, who we haven't seen in 2 years! 

Grandma & Grandpa were so happy to see us. We had supper, then Grandma took us to her office and let us order some books with her! It was fun until Mom & Dad said we had to get going. We wanted to get settled into our hotel and to sleep before Santa came.  We don't want to miss him!!

When we got back, we picked out some cookies and milk for Santa (since the hotel had fresh cookies & milk) and headed to our room. We watched the Santa tracker on Daddy's computer while we got ready for bed and hung our stockings (mom brought 3M hooks to hang out stockings in the room).

watching the Santa Tracker online just before bed.
He was in South America when we went to bed, so he was close!!

Ready to go to sleep. Hoping Santa would find us 900 miles from home.

Our stockings were hung by the TV with care. Of course, we made sure to include milk & cookies!

We were excited, but it had been long day, so we fell asleep fast.

We fell asleep before Santa made it to Arkansas, because Santa came! We were so tired, we didn't even hear him while he stuffed our stockings, left gifts for us and even put up some Christmas lights to make our room more festive!

Look! Santa stuffed our stockings, left us gifts and hung up lights while we slept.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Madison

Christmas with mom's side of the family was a crazy, whirlwind trip.

We were supposed to leave right away on Saturday (the day after our birthday), but Mom & Dad weren't quite ready to go. They still had packing to do and presents to wrap. We finally left after lunch and got to Grandma & Grandpa's at suppertime.

After supper, we got to celebrate our birthday with our cousins.
We got some fun presents from grandma &grandpa, the Dehnes & Angie.

And, we had cupcakes to share for our birthday. 

Even though we got a late start on the day, it was a fun day!

Saturday morning, we got up and Noah delivered Cub Scout Popcorn to grandma. He also went to visit Great Grandma Marita to wish her a Merry Christmas and deliver popcorn to her. Noah joined Cub Scouts a few days before popcorn orders were due, so he didn't presell popcorn with the rest of the pack. But when they had extra popcorn that they didn't sell, he managed to sell 3 of those bags.

After dinner, we set to opening presents. We got so many great Christmas gifts from Grandma & Grandpa, Angie & the Dehnes. 

Unfortunately, the Dehnes had to leave Sunday night. We were done with school for the year, but Ben & Lauren had to go to school Monday & Tuesday.

We left Grandma & Grandpa's house Monday so we could go home and repack to visit Grandma & Grandpa Perkins in Arkansas, clean up the house & get ready to go celebrate Christmas again.

One of the things we had to do to clean up was throw away our gingerbread houses. We created them in school during our Holiday Party. It was sad to throw, but we wanted to make sure we didn't come back to ants in our house!

Merry Christmas!!

Noah & Hannah