The Seidel Family: Vacation

Since before the kids were born, we have taken some kind of vacation in the summer. Before we were married, it started in Port Aransas and we went there for many years with friends. We also went to DC at different times, Lubbock, and Colorado in 2010. Then, we all started having kids and we've changed up our vacation spots the past few years. In 2011, we went nowhere. In 2012, we took Atticus to Port Aransas. In 2013, we took Atticus and Grace to Port Aransas. In 2014, we left the kids in Sanger and went with Ana, Charley & Molly to Destin, Florida. In 2015, we met up with friends at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park. And, this year, we decided to take our first big road trip and went to see Mary & Taylor and baby Paul in Olathe, Kansas! It was a great trip; here's a few things to remember:

We left at 6:15 am on August 4th. We stopped in McKinney to nurse Everly, walk around and eat at Snug (where Mix and Match Mama and her friends eat too!). Then, we made it to Tulsa to the Mayo Hotel (a historic renovated hotel whose suite was bigger than Vic's first solo apartment) for the night around 3pm.
Since we were in downtown Tulsa, we walked to Elote's for mexican food. This was our FIRST restaurant as a family of 5!
We left about 10:45 and arrived around 3 to Mary & Taylor's in Olathe! We finally met Baby Paul and it was so fun, during the entire trip, to compare him and Everly who are so similar! Friday night, we ate at Joe's KC BBQ.
On Saturday, they took us to the Kansas City Zoo and it was a great zoo! This was a definite highlight of our trip because the kids, especially Atticus, love animals. Atticus was so funny because he was so concerned about EVERYONE seeing whatever animal he was looking at and Mary got the brunt of "Mary, come look!" every time. But, she said she enjoyed it just as much! Grace was cute because she watches The Lion Guard and kept looking for the animals from the show (hippo, lion, cheetah, etc.) and calling them by their names on the show. Everly slept in my wrap and then in Vic's arms the entire time. We didn't have room for our big stroller, but picked up a cheap umbrella stroller on the way to the zoo. WELL. It was zip-tied together and we had nothing to cut the ties with. So, carrying her was our option! But, she was great!
On Sunday, we went to the TRex Cafe, similar to the Rainforest Cafe. It was fun, but slightly less fun than the Rainforest Cafe. I think dinosaurs are still fun for Atticus, but not as much lately. And, the animals and rainforest have better effects (rain, thunder, lightning, more movement and animals noises). We also walked around and shopped a little because it was part of a great outlet mall. Back before kids, Vic and I would have shopped this mall start to finish! We headed back home for Taylor's delicious smoked brisket!
On Monday, we did what every vacation needs...hung out and were lazy. It was so nice to relax and visit and let the kids just play. Plus, the Olympics were on. AND we got to watch Bachelor in Paradise IN PERSON with Mary and Taylor instead of just snapchatting the episode with them. So fun!
We left Tuesday morning at 8; stopped a couple of times for restroom but otherwise, never got out of the car until we got to Mom & Dad's in Sanger at 3:30 pm. Can I just say here that the kids were AMAZING? On the way to Tulsa and KC, I used all kinds of things from our activity bag so we didn't just watch the DVD player the entire time. On the way home, I was more tired, so DVD's it mostly was. But, I was very impressed and proud of them. I had to sit in the 2nd row to accommodate all of their constant needs, but it was totally worth it to have a nice trip with happy kids.
On Wednesday, Vic took the older kids to meet GG at the Denton Waterpark and float the lazy river and play in the splashpad. I caught up on sleep with Everly at the house. That afternoon, GG came over to watch kids with Mom while Vic and I went to Lewisville to see Charley & Ana's new beautiful house!!! And we went to eat dinner at Dido's Urban Grill in Flower Mound to celebrate her birthday!!
We left about 10:45 on Thursday morning to head back to College Station. As much as we loved our trip, it was nice to unpack the car completely and put everything back in it's place and sleep in our own beds.
And the main reason that this was all nice? It was because we still had 4 more full days with Vic at home on our vacation!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE having Vic home with us and even more so during the week. On Friday, we went to lunch and took the kids to the Brazos Valley Natural History Museum while I went to the Peddler Show in the other part of the building. Saturday we were super lazy; Sunday I had a long church meeting; and Monday was spent doing things around the house, in the attic, etc. Vic assured me this was exactly how he wanted to spend his last day of vacation!
It was a great Family Vacation! Thank you Mary and Taylor for having our wild crew! We look forward to many more Verett/Seidel vacations in the future! Here are some pictures!

Ready to go....family of FIVE selfie!

At the last minute, Grace decided her baby needed to come....our car was packed!

And less than an hour in, we had to stop for the bathroom.

We stopped mid-morning in McKinney to walk and eat at Snug.

We had stickers, books, dry erase boards, princesses, cupcakes playdough, puzzles, legos, blind bags, books on tape, star wars and more to do from our "activity bag".

This sweet baby slept and slept and slept. As long as the car was moving, she was just happy!

Our hotel was super cool!

At last we made it! And headed to dinner that night! So glad to see our people!!!!!

The next day we went to the Kansas City Zoo with our zoo of people!

The hand on her little back guided her a few times to where he just couldn't wait to show her something! I should also say, that while the kids were good, we were pretty tired at the end. Grace started hitting one of her moods of telling me she was "out of gas" and just wanted to be carried. I felt for her, but did not love the whining. Finally, at one point, I picked her up and told her to put her head down on my should and that she was not allowed to look at the animals if she was going to whine and complain. Well, she did just that and was so sad. About 10 minutes later, she tells me "mommy; I'm ready to walk like a big girl now." I put her down and she immediately says "Yes sir!" and then continued to just look at me sometimes the rest of the day and say "yes sir!" or "yes ma'am" or give me kisses. Once she decided she wanted to be in a good mood, we were ready to go again!Also, below I will quiz you. Which photos were taken by a true photographer, Mary? I betcha can guess!

And this photo still makes me laugh; Mary has paused to nurse Paul for a few minutes and of course, the kids needed to see Baby Paul. They do not understand privacy very well when it comes to nursing, so they just pulled back her wrap and took a peek before I could tell them to stop. But, then, of course, I had to take a quick pic! Mary is a good sport! And let's be honest here...she knows kids!

Then, we spent the afternoon when we got back, hanging out in their backyard taking selfies and enjoying the beautiful weather!

The next day, we slept in, and then went to the TRex Cafe for lunch. Clearly, Paul was excited for this outing! Look at that sweet baby face!

But, as happy as he was, whenever we took this picture, neither he nor Everly were too happy.

This sweet girl just hung out while I showered that night.

Back Porch Time.

And after some Bachelor in Paradise, Everly had LOTS of cooing things to tell us!

I think my picture taking halted. The next ones I have are when we got back to Sanger. Here we are on Tuesday. Everyone was so sleepy!

29th Birthday Dinner for Ana!

We made it back home and did a lot of nothing but family time and catchup the next few days. What a fabulous vacation! Lots of people we love, a fun new place, and time as a family of five. Here's some final pics from the stay-cation part of our vacation!