Field Trip: Tallgrass Nature Preserve

  We've been wanting to do this one for.ev.er!  We had printed our Junior Ranger packets out for Tallgrass Nature Preserve 2 years ago and filled them out.  Each time we've tried, we've been deflected from our goal.  But our time came!  Hubby and I had some business to do down near Strong City and today was our chance!

  On not too bad of a day for the middle of November, we dropped Hubby off at the job site and went in search of some multi-sensory learning :) The Tallgrass Nature Preserve is located just north of Strong City and like many of the smaller National Parks, has free admission.  The kids had their Junior Ranger packets in hand and double checked answers and filled in some blanks they hadn't needed to finish. 

The Visitor's Center was not very large, but it did a good job of telling the story of the prairie and the critters that live there.  After walking around and watching the short video on the area, we headed out to one of the other exhibits.

This ranch, which is part of the preserve, has been around since 1882.  It is absolutely fabulous.  You are able to explore two of the three levels of the barn...

This picture of Shorty kills me.  He had been walking around for a while with what looked like a piece of straw in his mouth - gross, but he was being a farmer right?  Well, one of the other kids asked him where he got the toothpick.  Toothpick?  Ok, now it was mom's turn to ask where he got the toothpick. "Down on the sidewalk by the horse".  YUCK!!!! This picture is us in the middle of trying to get him to PUT IT DOWN!!! :) Bleh!
 

We made a new buddy :) Then it was off to explore the house.  The house is not very furnished, but I am sure that is due to low staff.  The whole complex had adequate signage and really the architecture was so elaborate, who needs "stuff" ? ;)

Mookie working on her Ranger booklet

The "secret passage"

The kids' favorite was the tunnels that took you from one root cellar to another.

The grand front entrance

We accomplished our Ranger goal and got sworn in as Rangers of the Tallgrass prairie :) Then it was off to the Lower Fox Creek School just up the road and also part of the Preserve.

The building was furnished and had some accessories for the kids to play school with.  We played there for quite a long time.  Then we waited at the city park before it was time to pick up Hubby. It had the coolest swing!

The building in the background is an old auditorium.  It was so sad to see it abandoned.  Grand total for today's trip: lunch and gas.  There's a ton more to do in that area too with Council Grove just up the highway and Cottonwood Falls across the river.  We'll be back ;)

Field Trip: Are you prepared?

Bubby a few years ago

   The Royals won the World Series this week.  It's been 30 years since that goal has been attained.  Our family has thoroughly enjoyed attending a few Royals' games over the years.  Hubby suggested that we see if Union Station was open on the day of the parade and then hang out until the parade ended there for the rally.  Sounded like a good idea, and Union Station (which houses Science City, a children's museum) was discounted on account of being closed when the parade started, so we made it a date with Ducky and Grandma.
  We headed out bright and early this morning so we could arrive at Union Station at 9.  The exhibits opened at 8 but we figured we had a nice balance by leaving the house at 7:30.  Well, traffic was really awful when we hit downtown Kansas City and Hubby and Ducky dumped us out about 4 blocks from our destination and went to find a parking space at about 10:30. People were already parking on any green space that was available and even in the medians, so we knew finding that place would be hard!

People were bailing out of their cars on the highway to go in advance and hold places for family

Hoofin' it

We had no plan other than the Station to meet - this turned out to be a problem!  The kids, Grandma and I got to the area in front of the Station and I texted Hubby a general text that we had gotten there and were by the music.  We had a bathroom emergency so went in search of a bathroom.  The porta-potty lines were horrendous so we went into the station (I'd rather wait in a huge line for an inside bathroom anyway).  All thoughts of actually going to the exhibits were out of mind now.  The crowd was growing by the second.  I went to send a text to Hubby and my other message was still sending - cell service was overwhelmed!  So I shot him another note and we waited in line.  By the time we exited the building, Hubby had told me they were at the station, so we still had no clue where each other was.  Out into the sea of humanity we went.

Looking for the guys

We found a place and stayed with it.  Calling was out of the question, so I sent another text with our specific location.  When that one failed, we set out in a search for the boys.  Amazingly we found them!  Hubby had sent numerous texts as well that had failed.  I am seriously amazed we actually found each other.
  We didn't last the whole time, but we made the most of our time and made some memories.  Here is what I learned from our experiences:
  1) Make a specific plan if you are going to be separated from your group.  Normally our general plan would have worked, but this day proved to be unprecedented on so many levels that a specific plan would have saved a bunch of time! We needed to pretend that we were living in 1985 (the last time the Royals won the Series) and not rely on those silly cell phones so heavily!
  2) In a crowd situation - take a backpack instead of a purse.  I had and boy was I so glad I did!  I stuffed our jackets in it and other supplies too!  Much easier to carry!
  3) Identifying clothing.  You're saying, "yeah, yeah" but today most everyone was wearing royal blue with something Royals on it.  After I thought about it for a while I was scared Shorty would take off on me without his jacket on and I wouldn't be able to see his blue Superman shirt for the sea of Royals shirts.  I wish I'd dressed the kids in florescents no matter how much they would have protested.
  4) Carry food and water.  I had the water, but neglected to switch the granola bars over from my purse to the backpack and we could have used them.
  5) Carry change.  When we attempted to buy some extra snacks, the snack machines was only accepting coins.  My extra quarters came in real handy!
  6) Don't get stressed!  We went into this day to expect the unexpected and I'm so glad we did!  It greatly decreased the stress level for all of us.  There were a lot of things that we could have reacted strongly to when they weren't going right, but it helped that we were going with the flow.  The kids benefited too because when we get stressed they pick up on that too.  

Letting the 500,000 other people have their fun

Today was definitely a day we will never forget :) I am so grateful for the time we were able to spend together and the lessons we learned along the way :)