Labor Day Weekend Trip

We headed up to K-State on Saturday to go see the first football game of the season (yay for football)!  And since we hadn't taken a family vacation this summer, we decided to spend the night and do some other fun things on Sunday.

K-State played the University of S. Dakota on Saturday evening. The game was interesting:  a kickoff return for a touchdown on the very first play, quarterback going out on the 2nd offensive play of the game(out for a good while with a knee injury), lots of new names to learn since so many players graduated last year, watching Jordy Nelson, Darren Sproles, and Michael Bishop receive their "Ring of Honor" plaques (seeing them in person was pretty cool), a controversial halftime performance by the band (we had no idea about this controversy until the following evening - all ridiculous in my opinion), a shut-out win, and fireworks afterwards!

Recognition of Bill Snyder's Hall of Fame Induction

We thought we were getting a picture of a touchdown -
turns out it was a picture of a fumble in the endzone!

Stripe-out - our section wore purple

Those girls were so excited to see themselves on TV!

This time Cambry got a picture of a touchdown!

After a late but mostly restful night, the kids were up and at 'em early on Sunday morning.  After breakfast and swimming, our agenda on Sunday included:  Lunch in Aggieville at the So Long Saloon. (I highly recommend this place - but plan on waiting)!

The Flint Hills Discovery Center - 

Learning to tie knots like areal cowboy

Learning how to "brand" cattle

Playing in the fountains outside of the Discovery Center:

A surprise fountain got them wet!

Discovery Center in the background

finally a smile from Cambry - they were hard
to come by this weekend as she didn't feel
well for most of it!

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve - this is south of Manhattan on Hwy. 177 - a BEAUTIFUL drive!  It was SO HOT that we only toured the three-story barn and house.  I would love to go back on a cool day and explore the trails and hike out to the schoolhouse.  There are lots of acres within the borders of this National Park!  We learned at the Discovery Center that our farm is basically on the western edge of the Flint Hills, and I think we take our surroundings for granted.  We really do live in a beautiful place!

Look at that roof - this was the carriage house, I believe

Cambry enjoys the view from the barn

The front door of the house was so tall!

The one-room schoolhouse from afar

All-in-all it was a good weekend.  Some of us were getting colds and not feeling well, some of us I did not sleep well, and some of us complained about our sleeping arrangements in the room (Caiden is learning that he is the odd-one-out when it comes to sleeping on a bed - and he let us know lots of times how he felt about sleeping on the floor).  Traveling as a family can be tricky, but I think everyone enjoyed at least part of the weekend - and that's what we were going for!