The Birthday Weekend

Blake and his brother-in-law, Shawn, have birthdays that are one day apart. So, this year, they celebrated together at the Mizzou-Kansas State football game. Danielle works at Kansas State now, but everyone still cheered for Mizzou. But, to get there, we had to drive from St. Louis to Manhattan, KS. It took much longer than mapquest said, but mostly because we gave James some play breaks.First, we stopped in Columbia to let him play at Cosmo Park. It was so much fun there! I can't believe how many times I used the trail on this park when I lived here and didn't realize that the playground was so great. But, I didn't have a child then . . . so why would I know that? And wasn't this tree beautiful?
James climbed these stairs all by himself more than once. I was nervously watching at the bottom, and Blake was standing right by him. James loved these long slides. I wish it hadn't been a weekday and that I'd known we'd be there so I could have met up with a friend or two.
We haven't taken a car trip with James since last Christmas. There is a reason for that -- he screamed all the way from St. Louis to Kansas City and back. So, we were extremely relieved when he fell asleep on this trip. It wasn't a long nap, but he did sleep, and he was never fussy on the trip. Yeah!!!
We enjoyed getting to see where Danielle works. It was such a nice campus! We also got to meet several of the people she works with. They understood that we were cheering for Mizzou.
No birthday candles, so Blake and Shawn blew out votives. Still festive, and the cake was good. And all of the other food. I wasn't exactly on my wellness plan during the trip . . .

We had fun visiting with everyone: Danielle, Shawn, Cameron, Landon, Larry, Debbie, and I got to meet their friend Gustavo, from Brazil. He was in the states for a few weeks and joined us for the weekend. He rode with us back to Kansas City and tried to teach James a little Portuguese. On the way home, we stopped by Les Bourgeois Bistro to look around (it was closed). This was the site of our first date, and is a prime contender for wedding location. If the weather is good, the wedding would be outside here on this path overlooking the river. The biggest down side is that they really don't have a good place for the wedding party to get ready. And I like space! But, everything else is just about perfect for us. What do you think?