A Galaxy Not So Far Away

When we heard about the Star Wars exhibit at Wichita's Exploration Place, we knew we needed to plan a road trip!  The exhibit was great!  They had costumes from all the major characters and models of all the ships.  My boys LOVED it!

First stop.  Five Guys.  SO good!

Then swimming at the hotel pool!

Monday we headed to the museum and straight for the Star Wars display. Chewbacca and Tarful greeted us at the door.

The X-Wing!

"Princess Waya, 2D-2D and P.O."

Stormtrooper.

Yoda and Mace Windu's costume.

Who's your daddy?

Luke's Land Speeder.

Young Anakin Skywalker and Padawan Noah.

Just soaking it all in...

The Millennium Falcon!

The kids enjoyed the rest of the children's museum.  Their favorite was the medieval playground.

Looking out at the water.

Practicing flying and learning about aviation history...

Elli doing some cotton farming in the combine.

Water and sand table!

More castle time!

Learning the trade of a blacksmith.

Cool license plate airplane.

Proof that I went on the trip.  This was a neat pedestrian bride downtown.

Half the family slept well.

The next day we went to this fun little water park, Rock River Rapids, in Derby, KS.

They had a great kiddie area and a lazy river that the kids enjoyed.

We got ready to leave the park and Noah wanted to go back to the hotel, the problem was, we had already checked out.  I think swimming at the hotel was his favorite part!  Next time, we'll just drive down the street and spend the night at a hotel and let him swim!  ;) Ha!

These Boots

Were not made for summertime. Why she picked these out of all the shoes in her closet is beyond me. Her daddy obliged and I laughed so hard when I saw her stylish ensemble.

We All Scream for Ice Cream

Well except for Noah. :) He might scream if we "made" him eat some. 

We took the Blue Bell Creamery tour in Broken Arrow.  Noah, as per usual, was apprehensive about it, but loved it.  He wanted to go through the factory again.  He was fascinated.  Elli on the other hand just wanted to get to the end and eat her ice cream.

She couldn't even pause for a picture.  :)

Firecracker Firecracker

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Fourth of July week was so confusing.  :)  It was like we had a weekend in the middle of the week, then daddy went back to work for one day, then we had another weekend!  Our town did fireworks on the night of the 3rd for whatever reason.   We decided to go out to dinner since it felt like a Friday night!

I made Elli's shirt based on a shirt I saw on Pinterest!  No sew.  That's my kind of crafting.

King me! King me!

We decided to watch fireworks in our church parking lot since that would put us about a mile away from the action (and noise).  It turned in to an impromptu party with several other families having the same idea.  My children were still nervous.  This is before the show even started.  

 Crack. Me. Up.

They had their fill of fireworks on the 3rd and we just had a relaxing day at home on the 4th.  Noah loved watching 'A Capitol Fourth' on PBS since you couldn't hear the fireworks over the National Symphony Orchestra.  Love that quirky boy. 

Buzz

Noah got his first buzz haircut this summer! I had a little anxiety watching giant clumps of hair fall on the floor, but we love it! Such a boy!

Just Keep Swimming

Noah completed two weeks of swim lessons last month.  He improved SO much since our last swim lesson debacle two years ago.  He loves to go under water now! Thank you, Miller Swim School!

Ellianna and I had fun watching and working on our tans.  Ha!

Jump!

They got these cute pictures at the end of the session:

Calmly floating on his back.  I honestly never thought we'd get to this point!

Airborne!

And two more from swimming at home just 'cause they're fun...

Daddy's Day

Brandon and his clone:

We got Brandon a "Star Wars Kit".  I found these fun printables on Pinterest and we got him the complete saga DVD set.  Noah LOVED putting this present together.

Cheesy and Cheesiest:

Noah, Elli and My dad.