Sloth...

One of the seven deadly sins...

Or, in a cat's world, it's called "just catching some rays!"

Four Hennigs Take a Holiday...

This past weekend, Grandpa Jim and Grandpa Jay came into town for a "Guys Father's Day Weekend". When four generations of Hennigs get together, you know it's gonna be epic!

Saturday morning, they went with Matt and Alex to Omaha. They started their trip with a visit to the Strategic Air & Space Museum between Omaha and Lincoln. The guys got to see the planes and other exhibits and enjoy Alex's antics.

Here are two fellas with the "right stuff"!


Buddies...

Planes galore...

Alex has had enough...

After all that fun, the fearless four wanted to sample that other Omaha staple: steaks! So, a trip to Piccolo Pete's was in order. It's a steakhouse that has been around since the 30's, and has a fun, retro vibe to it. According to the waitress (and backed up by the photos of him with Bill Gates), it's also one of Warren Buffet's favorite places to eat in town.




So, we know the guys had a good time on Saturday, but what exactly was Alexis doing in an empty house? Here is your answer.

Sunday came and we were able to spend a little time with the grandpas before they left for Chicago. We're so glad they all got to spend a special weekend together - four generations is really something to celebrate!

Dads Rule!

This is very, very late on the tail end of Father's Day 2009...Here's to dads everywhere. Their influence and importance can't be overstated. We're lucky in our family to have a collection of great dads!

Hennig Dads...


Reelitz Dads...

(And while it's fun to see your husband as a father, it's also enjoyable to see that rascally brother of yours with his little guy as well!)

Kelly Dad with two-thirds of his Chicago Crew...


And because we can't leave Jimmy out, we'll even include a "doggy dad"...

(photo graciously "borrowed" from JamesandMorgan.blogspot.com)

Gardening

Alex got a hat, apron, garden trowel and watering can of his very own! He's helping Mom out in the yard...






Check out his "handiwork" -





We love to just sit out on the deck and relax...here is Mom's favorite beverage of the summer...Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy. Wheat ale with lemonade!

Keep on Mowin'

Every time we go to Lowe's now, Alex asks to see the "tractors" or the riding lawn mowers. So, I let him sit on them and pretend to drive them. Alex must know that Dad would love to have one of these for the yard as well...




Chaos defined:

Meet the new babysitter...

Just kidding, but Alex loves to play the ShapeBuilder game on my iPhone. Best $0.99 spent in quite some time, it keeps him busy when I am shopping or trying to do something else. It's very cool!


Saturday, I did the wus version of Dam-to-Dam, known as the 5K run. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. I managed to take one pic with my phone as I was leaving. It was the 30th anniversary, so they had a lot of people, just under 10,000 total who participated in both the 20K and 5K. The 20K is cool because it starts up at the Saylorville Dam and goes into the city. You can see the skyline as you run towards downtown. I hope to try it next year, but I will need to actually get out and run more than once or twice a week.


Also, we can finally quit trudging through the garden from the deck to the yard...this is now the quickest and most direct way out there. Plus, a little mulch can spruce up anything!

Recap of Last Week...

We had a busy Memorial Day week! Lots of guests and fun!
Last Monday evening, Aunt Becky and Uncle Caleb came to visit on their way out to California. We had a great time with them and Alex especially enjoyed seeing Motor and Pumpkin, their two cats! Thanks to Allegiant Air, we hope to be able to come out to San Diego and visit once they are settled and ready!



Alex and Dad prepared for our other guests by mowing the yard...


Then Saturday, Grandma G, Grandpa Jay and Aunt Shelly arrived for the weekend. Alex got to put on a show as "bucketman" with some of the toys Grandma got him.


On Sunday, Dad and Grandpa built Alex a brand-new sandbox! Alex spent the next two days playing in it as much as possible!






Monday morning, I got up and played some more...


We had to say goodbye to Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Shelly. Later on, we went over to see Grandpa Lars and Grandma Dianne. I also got to see Uncle Josh and Aunt Jenelle, and my little buddy, cousin Barrett. We just laughed and laughed at each other!

Kansas City Review

We spent this past weekend in Kansas City, which is a fantastic town! We really enjoyed it, as it's a nice size city and offers a bit more fun and variety than Des Moines does. Anyway...

Friday night, after a four hour drive through severe thunderstorms and construction on I-35, we made it to our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Phillips, which is a cool, art deco style hotel downtown that was renovated a few years back. Matt had a business-related function that evening, so Alex and I just stayed in and enjoyed room service and Kung-Fu Panda. Alex was excited about having his cheeseburger on his very own tray. Here he is kicking up his feet and enjoying his spread:



Saturday, we had breakfast with Matt's group and everyone went their separate ways. We decided to head on over to the Crown Plaza and see Kaleidoscope, which is a fun, (FREE!) interactive kids place sponsored by Hallmark and Crayola. Kids can basically run amok and create stuff with paper, ribbon, markers (washable), paints (also washable), and then take home their creations. Alex really enjoyed it and got to play for a bit.



After that, we headed on over to the Liberty Memorial, which is in a really beautiful location, with a panoramic view of the city. Alex was starting to doze off in his stroller, so it was the perfect time for Dad to get to do something HE wanted to do - which was to tour the adjacent national World War I museum. We both really enjoyed it, Matt being a military buff, and I a history geek. We brushed up on our understanding of the dynamics of early nineteenth-century European politics and the influence of the military industrial complex for the afternoon. Should have been a poly-sci major, no?





Oh, and we saw this at one of the exhibits. We thought Grandpa Jay might be interested in a pair of pants like these:



After that, we went back to the hotel for a few hours before going out to dinner. Dinner was a big decision, as we had a few goals, #1 - try some of the famous KC BBQ, #2 - do it in a kid-friendly environment, and #3 - we wanted to go to a nicer, sit-down restaurant.

Thanks to the best invention ever made (iPhone) I used Yelp to find some local reviews. We ended up at Jack Stack, one of the better-known KC BBQ places. We got a perfect table outdoors on the patio, with heater lamps. Even better, we were right across from Union Station and we had a perfect view of the freight trains as they went by. When you have a 2 1/2 year old who loves Thomas the Tank Engine, it's like you hit the jackpot. So, nice dining, perfect kid-friendly location with built-in entertainment, and fab BBQ. We did really well. We went across the bridge and checked out Union Station, which is a beautifully restored building and saw some more model trains. By then, Alex was dragging, and we made one more stop at Paleteria Tropicana, a Mexican ice cream shop for dessert.


Sunday morning, we got up and checked out of the hotel, then headed on over to the Kansas City Zoo. We had a fantastic time and really enjoyed it. It's a great walking zoo, and they have lots of activities going on. Alex loved it and did take a little nap while we were finishing up.

Some photos from the zoo -

Talk about an intimidating stare...


Naughty little monkey that kept the kids entertained -









Video of Alex riding the carousel at the zoo:


Watching the inappropriate little monkey at the zoo:



Riding the safari jeep:


We decided to hit one more place in KC for lunch before leaving, and we went to Gates BBQ. Again, the food was fantastic. By then, it was close to 3 pm, and we needed to hit the road home. We really enjoyed our trip and we have lots of other photos and videos up if you want to see them.

Photos on Shutterfly

Videos on You Tube