CO Road Trip Day 2 - drive to Hays, KS

On the road again! I made a mix CD from iTunes of driving tunes, and we often play "On the Road Again!"  

We had a short 30 minute drive before our first stop -- Steinberg Playground in Columbia, Missouri. We arrived early before it was too hot or crowded, and the boys loved exploring this HUGE, awesome playground!

Tires to climb (anyone who has been to my backyard knows that we love climbing on tires!)...

Multi-layer spaceship...

Giant slide...

and all sorts of interesting things to climb on...

Colson especially loved this rolling thing. He was laughing hard, as you can tell.

Back to the van for 2 hours before we hit Kansas! Calvin especially liked keeping track in the atlas of where we were. The little boys got bored easily, but on Day 2, we still had plenty of things to occupy their attention...

...like necklaces with froot loops, apple jacks, and gummy lifesavers!

There wasn't a Kansas welcome center since we were in the city (Kansas City, MO then Kansas City, KS).  One of the rest stops had a nice Kansas sign for us, though. This is the 42nd state I've visited. I had been to 2 states deep all the way around Kansas but never stepped foot there until this trip.

The boys loved the novelty of spending their money on vending machine treats.

Next stop was another awesome park in the Kansas City area -- Antioch Park in Merriam, KS.  There were multiple playgrounds and also a neat pond area.

Ever the climber...

I've never seen a play area like this at a public park (reminds me more of a children's museum). There were different stores and businesses (school, store, jail, etc.) for kids to use their imaginations.

We ate lunch by the pond (Amy loves being near the water).

Some stepping stones across...

Carter found a cool tree to climb after he finished eating.

We had a nice conversation for a wishful fisherman.

Someone had propped this large stick against the tree to aid in getting up there.

4 more hours of driving, and we made it to our second AirBnB -- this time right off the interstate but on a gravel road in Hays, Kansas.

The boys always love exploring all the rooms when we get there. This was a unique place because it's on the farm of Bethesda Place, a local Christian non-profit founded in 1979 when a couple began taking young men with developmental disabilities to live in their country home and work the tree nursery farm.  The story of the farm is told in pictures and words on the walls.

Grilled cheese for dinner!

After dinner, we changed into our swimming clothes and headed to the pool on the farm. We had it all to ourselves!

Colson was brave enough to try the slide!

Cooper preferred staying on the side to practice his kicking and to squirt people with the water gun.

Calvin was glad to be able to touch, and he did a great job holding Colson.

This was Carter's first time on a water slide, and he loved it!

We also explored a bit around the farm and found a friendly cat to pet.

Hammocks! This was a different type than the ones they're used to.

We caught the sunset on our way back to the house.

Carter wanted to stay up late to look at the stars on the balcony, but there was a lightning storm.

The little boys started out together, but when Colson fell out of the bed (which became a recurring theme!), they split up and Colson got to spread out in the middle of the bed.

Calvin started upstairs with the little boys but eventually made his way to the couch.

We had some trouble with the toilet not flushing very well, but Amy came to the rescue with her plunging power!

Pancakes in the morning before loading up and heading out again.

Calvin took his pancakes out to the front porch.

Day 1 - drive to Centralia, Missouri

Day 2 - drive to Hays, Kansas

Day 3 - drive to Boulder, Colorado

Day 4 - Boulder

Day 5 - Boulder

Day 6 - Boulder/Nederland

Day 7 - drive to Mancos, Colorado

Day 8 - Mancos/Cortez

Day 9 - Four Corners/Cortez

Day 10 - drive to Tucumcari, New Mexico

Day 11 - drive to Piedmont, Oklahoma

Day 12 - drive to Waynesville, Missouri

Day 13 - drive home!

(links won't be active until I post each page)

CO Road Trip Day 1 - drive to Centralia, MO

 On Day 1, we hit the ground running! Amy had driven down to our house the night before and spent the night with us so that we could leave around 7:00 (Lucas and I make it a practice not to drive at night, even though that would be helpful in getting the kids to sleep on the road!)

I knew Amy was a good choice to bring with us, not only because she's a dear friend and great with kids and stays positive through the chaos and was available (as a teacher who is single), but because she delights in the simplest pleasures.  When she marveled at cornfields in Illinois, I knew she'd be blown away by the mountains. She had never been west of Chicago, so this was a new adventure for her, and she soaked it all in.

The boys enjoyed their road trip binders (at least until the novelty wore off) and also liked following our trail on the road atlas.

We had a brief bathroom stop in Santa Claus, Indiana, and then...St. Louis!

St. Louis is one of my favorite cities to visit as a family -- it's got the Arch and the City Museum (coolest place ever!) and an awesome children's museum, and the Zoo and Science Center are free!  Since we had a 7 hour drive that day (2 hours to go after St. Louis), we couldn't stay long, but I planned a stop at the Citygarden Sculpture Park.  What I didn't anticipate was that, because of a Cardinals game, we wouldn't be able to find easy parking.  Since I thought our van would be close, I didn't prepare lunch in an easy-to-reach spot, so I had to dig and grab some random food items, feed the meter, and head to the park.

We plopped down for lunch (just on the grass because there were no benches nearby and we were tired) near a geocache.

Also since we weren't parked close, we didn't have their sandals or a change of clothes handy, so I had told them not to get too wet. Ha! How can they avoid sprinklers on a hot day?

Eventually, I just let them get as wet as they wanted. This was a cool rock and waterfall area that got them soaking wet but wasn't too deep for them.

We also enjoyed walking around and climbing on all the neat sculptures in the park.

This was as close as we got to the Arch, but I love how it's visible in different parts of the city.

Adjacent to the sculpture park was a neat urban playground. We only had about 10 minutes here because our meter time was running out! (and we weren't sure exactly where we parked!)

We made it back with minutes to spare, and Colson conked out after all that playing. We still had 2 hours left to drive to our AirBnB.

Home, sweet, home in Centralia, Missouri. I realized later that this was a bit more out of the way than desired (30 minutes off the interstate), but I chose it because of the bedroom options, great reviews, and park/splash pad within walking distance.

We ate a yummy quesadilla dinner. This was the night that Colson referred to Amy's Fiji water bottle as "hanitizer" (hand sanitizer). "Miss Amy, don't drink the hanitizer!"

After dinner, we walked to the playground...

...and then to the splash pad.

The boys also loved that there were toys at the house.

Soon, they headed to bed...

...and woke up ready to face another day of adventure!

Day 2 - drive to Hays, Kansas

Day 3 - drive to Boulder, Colorado

Day 4 - Boulder

Day 5 - Boulder

Day 6 - Boulder/Nederland

Day 7 - drive to Mancos, Colorado

Day 8 - Mancos/Cortez

Day 9 - Four Corners/Cortez

Day 10 - drive to Tucumcari, New Mexico

Day 11 - drive to Piedmont, Oklahoma

Day 12 - drive to Waynesville, Missouri

Day 13 - drive home!

Variety vs. Routine in Scripture Memory (Summer of Psalms Update)

So, here we are one month into the three-month Summer of Psalms family challenge, so I wanted to check in with how we're doing.  I didn't get as far as I had wanted (we've mastered about 4 verses so far), but I realized that we're still on track to finish our 14-verse psalm in three months.  

Here's what I've done to encourage us along the way:

• printed out the whole psalm with a memory grid at the bottom to show first letters of each word. I put these in the road trip binders of the oldest two. I have it posted on our white board, but it's more for my own reference, since it's written small.
• listened to the psalm song a bunch! Verse 14 is the one we know the best because it's the chorus of the song by The Corner Room.
• hit verses 1-3 this week by reciting or singing them every day. I wrote them in big print on our white board.
• discussed the meaning of the verses. I had to think a bit myself about them.

My original plan was to listen to the song every day, which brings me to my dilemma of variety vs. routine.  I find myself waffling back and forth between the two, both in Scripture memory and in homeschooling.  The discipline and routine of listening to the song every day wasn't working for my 4-year-old.  He now complains when I turn on the song again. 

Here's the beauty of a disciplined routine (such as reciting a verse every night at dinner or listening to a verse song when you first get into the car):

• it becomes an established habit. I'm less likely to forget about reviewing our verses if it's ingrained as a daily habit, tied to another activity (also known as "habit stacking").
• the recitations and reviews add up over time (instead of trying to cram in a less frequent, larger block of time)
• kids just become used to it.  They're less likely to argue if they know that "this is just what we do"

And here's the beauty of variety (such as reviewing in a silly voice or by going around the table supplying one word at a time):

• novelty triggers something different in the brain
• it's less "boring"
• we become connected to our verses in different ways, creating different pathways to remember them

As with anything, balance is key.  Although songs are my primary way of memorizing Scripture, it's good to switch things up occasionally, especially when memorizing as a family.  I have to remind myself that just because something works for me doesn't mean it will work for all of us in the same way.  So, in July, we'll keep singing, but we'll also maybe make a game of it and recite dramatically and add some hand motions.  And we still need to decide together our family reward when we finish!  I'm thinking ice cream is always a good motivator for this bunch!