KC's Big Picnic

I was so excited to go to KC's Big Picnic at the Nelson-Atkins.  I love stuff like this!  Art+outside+family=happy Megan.  It was a hot Sunday afternoon, but we had a great time.  

We took Steve in the Glass Labyrinth for the first time.  And like the last time, Olive ran into the glass wall.

We found another piano!

Steve taking a picture of me taking that picture...

 The Four Seasons sculptures were really cool up close.

Old Timey Saturday Afternoon

There's nothing Steve loves more than going to "old timey" things.  Insert sarcasm here.  We rode our bikes there...which was an adventure in 90 degrees.  And then we missed the house tour by 5 minutes.  Insert frowny face here.  We will be back Alexendar Major's house!

Sprinkler

Corporate Challenge

 Steve's Corporate Challenge team won their division this year!  Steve participated in swimming, volleyball, duathlon (3rd place in his age/division), soccer, flag football, bike race, long jump, 400m, mile (3rd place in his age/division), half-marathon, 5k, and tug-of-war.

soccer

Dan's face really sums up the pain of the tug

Lake of the Ozarks

We rented a house with the Finleys for a little lake vacation. We joked that it was the worst vacation ever because:

1. It rained nearly every hour we were there.
2. The daily highs were in the 60s.  IN JULY. 
3. Two different kid theme restaurants we drove to were closed (even though their voicemails both said they were open).
4. Steve lost my camera at sea. 
5. Emily and I flipped over the kayak, at night, across the cove from our dock.  Did I mention that I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and jeans?

But none of those things really mattered because:

1. The kids don't care if it is raining.  They are happy to swim no matter what.
2. The water was surprisingly warm.
3. We had fun cooking dinner at the house.
4. I was thankful I didn't bring my good camera.  It was the cheaper one that I rarely used that ended up in the lake.
5. Awesome memories.  I laugh every time I think about that kayak.

This was a very entertaining game where Steve pretended to be asleep and the kids pulled the kayak back to the dock.  Then he rowed back out and the pulled him again.  It never got old.

The girls were IN LOVE with the house.  They had so much fun picking out their room and organizing their clothes in the closet.  I took some pictures of them in the room.  Those pictures are in the camera at the bottom of the lake.

Olive is such a water girl now.  She swam all over in her floatie swimsuit.  I can't wait to see her in swimming lessons this year!

On the last day, we stopped at a restaurant on our way out that had a private beach.  The sun finally came out and it was normal summer weather!

"A rainy day at the lake is always better than a sunny day at home."  I think that's a saying.  Or it should be.

Summer nights

Just found this on my phone from back in June.  We went over to the Finleys' and the kids watched The Lorax projected on the house.  Then they caught fireflies in the backyard.  Perfect summer night. 

Flags of Freedom

They didn't want to wear their dresses on the 4th of July because they weren't good for biking.  So we dressed up days later and took some pictures at Flags of Freedom.

And two years ago...

And we found this decorated piano there as part of Pianos on Parade.  Now we're on the look-out for more!

4th of July Weekend

 We tried out a new fireworks show in Lee's Summit on July 2.   It was at a sports complex with different parking lots for soccer/football/baseball fields.  Each parking lot had a bouncy house, face painting, concession stand, etc.  The fireworks show itself was set to music on the radio.  And after it they had police at every corner directing traffic and they made roads one-way to get everyone out quickly.  We were very impressed.

I can't remember a 4th of July where I was cold enough to wrap up in a blanket.  We watched the show with Hannah on my lap and Olive on Steve's lap and a blanket over all of us.

The morning of the 4th we did our annual neighborhood parade.  They girls treat the 4th like Christmas.  They were looking forward to it all week.  This was the first year Olive rode a bicycle and she did a great!  She was so proud.  She said it was the best day of her life.

She wouldn't let me get ahead of her to take a picture.

Hannah designed her shirt.  It's a firework.

New this year: snow cones!

Then we headed to Chillicothe.  We stopped by to see Granny and Papa, but they are always busy with the fireworks stand.  My family was all in town to celebrate Independence Day as well as my dad's retirement (independence from work).  My aunt and uncle came over to see the gun show fireworks show.

Meneely tradition: dancing to the strobe lights

And we rounded out the weekend by picking peaches.  I have many memories of taking rides in the bucket with my grandpa driving.

Independence Days of Yore: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014