Spring Break in Kansas City!

Another spring break spent in an unexpected local: we just don't go for the tropical, debauched, mostly naked spring break destinations that my undergrads dream about. No beaches, no umbrella drinks. Instead we've been doing a tour of great American cities--New York and Chicago a few years ago, and this year, Kansas City. I was so pleased--this city is pretty cool! It has a real retro sort of 1930's feel to it, mostly in the architecture. We were able to spend a lot of time with members of Chris' family who live there, including Granny and Sawyer's new second cousin Hartley (born july 2007). Take a look!

Wednesday and Thursday we stayed with Chris' aunt Sue, uncle Doug and family. They have a fun, spacious house out in the burbs where we relaxed and caught up on season five of "24" on their giant TV downstairs. On Thursday we went into KC by ourselves to the most fabulous Nelson museum. The building was bbbeeeaauuttiful, and the collection appropriately diverse, from suits of armor to egyptian relics to monet to liebowitz. I'm attaching a pic of a Ghanian artist's work that I liked a lot--it's made out of folded up bits of aluminum cans. The giant shuttlecocks in front of this museum are pretty famous too.

The last two days of our visit we stayed with Chris' cousin Andy, his wife Chris and their daughter Hartley (best name ever!). Friday night we had a meat degustation turned competition: beef vs. buffalo. I think it was a tie. On Saturday they took us into KC where we visited the river market, home of great little restaurants, farmer's market, this curious paddle wheel museum and lots of summertime festivities. I raided a little middle eastern grocer and came out with....DATE MOLASSES! Today I ate it with peanut butter. Ghetto, I know; I'm hoping to find more sophisticated uses soon. Ideas? We also went to Arthur Bryant's, the original KC BBQ joint, where we ate piles (wads? swaths?) of meat on wonderbread. Chris Gray was in heaven. I felt like a total caveman.

Bath time!

hiking the flatirons

Family hike in the flatirons in Boulder--Sawyer's first long one. He rode with dad most of the time and seemed to enjoy the view from the top. Stella, of course had the time of her life. She was so wiped out that she slept until 1pm the next day.

walk in the park

stella and I took a walk--we found this gopher...

house!

Here are a few pics of the house--we moved in Dec. 22.

some older pics, watch him grow

I made this blog not long after Sawyer was born, and then promptly got too busy to do much with it. So now that our baby is to the advanced stage of hand-chewing and cooing, I thought I should back up and fill in a few holes with some best-of pics from newborn to present.

Visit with Gramms

Gramma and Grampa Gray came for a visit while Anne was in town.

Aunt Anne's Visit

Aunt Anne came to visit for a week and help take care of Sawyer--they became great friends!

Gramma's hat