Independence......

We celebrated the 4th of July this year in....Independence Kansas. What better place to celebrate.... Dave's grandmother lives there and some of his extended family. We have been trying to get out there and it just worked out that we would be there for the 4th. It was a great trip...Kendall got to meet her great grandmother for the first time...the last time we were there I was pregnant with her.
We had some fun things planned for the kids...I packed them a bag of goodies for the car...coloring books, crayons, candy, word puzzles, a car bingo game, MP3 players, they each got a new movie for the DVD player in the car. They actually kept themselves pretty entertained for the 13 (1 way) car trip. Once we got there we checked in to the hotel and got some rest...the next day we went to see the Big Brutus. It was awesome...Landon was fascinated! It was used for coal mining and is now on display...it's 16 stories high...it is huge! Kendall and I were too scared to climb in it but Landon and Dave did! After that adventure...we meet up with Dave's family at a local pizza pub and visited...we did some shopping around the town and went to Dave's grandmother's house. The next day we let the kids play in the yard at Dave's grandmother's house all morning...they played and visited with their cousins from Austrailia...we took the kids to the water park and visited Braum's ice cream....it's wonderful!!!! We had a blast! It was a short trip...we could have used another day but at least we were able to make the trip!!!!! There's nothing like driving on an open road...windows down...radio turned up...and looking around at the beautiful country side with your family! Thank God for our independence and the men and women that keep our country safe!